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Yet the questions remain: What, in this era, is "programming for women" anyway? And is it really lacking? While Lifetime is the only other cable channel explicitly for women, several others target women, and the broadcast networks are courting that market with shows like Once and Again and Judging Amy--not to mention their daytime schedules. What's lacking, Oxygen's partners contend, is shows that account for women's priorities. They say, for instance, that numbers-oriented business shows turn off women, who think of money in terms of relationships. "When a woman sees a car, she thinks about whether it will work for car pool or carrying groceries," Mandabach says. "Her concerns about others prompt her buying decisions."
Ironically, the Oxygen debut that may best evince a fresh approach to "women's TV" is not a talk or comedy program but X-Chromosome, a half-hour weekly anthology of 11 animated-short series by and for women. "Animation has traditionally been a male domain," says executive producer Machi Tantillo, but the network sent out an APB asking female artists for cartoons they couldn't sell elsewhere. There's little slapstick or frog baseball here, but rather dry wit and minutely observed stories from real life: more Ann Beattie than Butt-head. One strip is based on the sex-and-relationship columns of Amy Sohn; another, Closet Cases, tells funny and revealing stories that center on items of clothing from real women's wardrobes. "[Women] don't find big ha-ha jokes funny," says Laybourne. "We find everyday life situations turned on their ears funny."
Shows like X-Chromosome suggest that Oxygen may be seeking younger viewers, but Laybourne, 52, says that while they're aiming at 18- to 40-year-olds, they're really not after a demographic but a "psychographic." Huh? "Women who are leaning into their lives, who are independent and eager to take charge," Laybourne describes it. (Oh.) Oxygen executives talk about reaching entrepreneurs and "women achievers." Would it be churlish to suggest that this sounds like a euphemism for "affluent professional women"? "There are plenty of soccer moms who are really leaning into their lives," Laybourne replies.
But supposing she's right: isn't women's very progress a potential liability? Lifetime has sold itself as a cable safe house, where put-upon women can escape the stresses of family, work and men and settle into the comforting company of Annie Potts. A confident woman might not feel she needs a TV refuge at all. But, Laybourne says, high-powered or no, "women learn from stories of other women. They have from the beginning of time. I've never met a group of people who didn't want to belong."