A few years ago I saw a British program about a boxer. He was named Keith and he was a terrifyingly intense man who was enormously proud of his huge hands. He had almost killed an opponent in a recent fight.
Asked about the perception that boxing is a barbaric sport, he stared hard at the interviewer for a few seconds and shrugged. "Men have to fight," he said. It's their nature. Better they do it here."
He also pointed out that organized fights between men had been going on for centuries. It turns out that even before men were beating the bejeebers out of each other in the ring, women were also pulverizing or even killing each other for organized public spectacles.
Gladiatrix (History, 9 p.m.) tells us about the finding of female bones in London a few years ago and persuasive evidence that the woman was a female gladiator in Roman London, about 70 AD.
"Great Dover Street Woman," as she's called by the archeologists, was clearly buried with great ceremony and was an important person. The grave was found near the amphitheatre in London and we hear from a professor (who advised director Ridley Scott for his movie Gladiator) about the possibility of female gladiators. Gladiatrix is a kind of scholarly schlock program -- it includes commentary from many academics but it's also titillating because there are numerous dramatizations of comely women swinging swords in fetching outfits that involve a lot of leather straps.
"Female gladiators were a fresh distraction for a restless mob," the narrator tells us. Quite so, especially if they looked like the sporty Vogue models we see in the music-video style dramatizations.
What we get is a hodgepodge of information about Roman life, myth and entertainment. At one point, it's suggested that the use of women gladiators in the amphitheatre may have been inspired by the real woman warrior Boadicea and the havoc she inflicted on Roman Britain. At another, we're told that the female gladiators may have been inspired by the myth of the Amazon. Whatever.
There's a fascinating story here but this clearly aims to be simply a distraction for today's restless mob. My Left Breast (CBC, 9 p.m.) has been seen before on Newsworld but not on the main network. This multi-award-winning doc should be seen by everybody. It's about Gerry Rogers and her battle against breast cancer.
She filmed every stage of that battle and her salty humour and candid commentary are what what make the program very special. There's also great tenderness here.
At one point, Rogers says to the camera, "I hope I don't fall into a fit of despair. I don't want to start feeling really ugly." From behind the camera we hear her partner say, "But you're gorgeous, babe." Shave It Baby, Shave It (tonight, Rough Cuts, Newsworld, 10 p.m.) is entirely different but very, very charming.
Filmmaker Dawn Kuisma devotes the doc to the fascination that women have with the ritual of men shaving their beards. She brings together a bunch of women who often giggle their way through an explanation of seeing their menfolk stare into the mirror and shave. Several women have figured out the fascination -- it is often the only occasion in which most men are allowed to be self-absorbed and devoted entirely to their own bodies.
Men talk about it too -- one guy cheerfully admits to being delighted to discover that his old-fashioned razor, soap and brush held a certain attraction for some women.
The doc is an oddity and although on a trivial topic, it's revealing. It suggests that something about which most men are unaware or diffident, is rich in meaning. Like a good shave, it's deftly done. Witness: City of Dreams (Wednesday, CBC, 8 p.m.) is about shattered dreams. It's actually a scary picture of life in Juarez, a Mexican border town where about 200 women have been murdered in the past few years.
Juarez isn't only a murder centre, of course, it's also where dozens of large corporations have set up shop to take advantage of NAFTA and employ Mexican workers for a few dollars a day. Many of those workers are women who are taking jobs in a society where men are the traditional breadwinners.
That may be the crux of a terrifying situation, according to a Canadian criminologist. Dr. Candice Skrapec has been brought into Juarez to help solve the mystery of the murders. She thinks there is an organized, lethal backlash against the women finding independence in a society that believes deeply in machismo.
What's most disturbing here is the carefully controlled reaction of the local police. Afraid to upset the large corporations and local politicians, they've come up with tinpot theories and excuses for the continuing murders. Free trade and the success of the exploitive factories mean more than the murdered women. The Endless Grind (Wednesday, Comedy, 9:30 p.m.) is a fine idea -- an anthology of comedy stories -- that's undermined by a rocky start. Greg Lawrence, creator of the tediously arch Butch Patterson: Private Dick and the scathing animated series Kevin Spencer, is the creative force behind these little comic stories -- The Endless Grind of Family, The Endless Grind of Marriage, and so on.
Tonight's episode is The Endless Grind of Motherhood and the conceit involves a couple taking their old dog Spot to the vet and being told that the dog is pregnant. It isn't funny or even droll, just hopelessly off-key. Nice try, and we'll keep an eye on later episodes.