Will Ridge Ever Pull Up Nick's Undercrackers?

Yesterday on The Bold and the Beautiful, Stephanie walked in on Brooke in her underwear. Again. Now, I’m not disputing that scenes like these can be campy fun once in a while, but the B&B writers seem to have a bit of an unhealthy obsession.

Both Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke) and Susan Flannery (Stephanie) are fantastic actors and have a lot more to offer than these sub-Benny Hill shenanigans. Time and again they are thrown into these nudge, nudge, wink, wink situations, and when Katherine Kelly Lang does get a chance to stretch her acting muscles (e.g. the rape storyline), it seems the ball gets dropped and there’s no follow-through. The fallout from Storm’s suicide was great drama, but that was eons ago. Within the last few months, Brooke has found herself in the following scenarios:

• Stephanie walking in and clasping her bra (Brooke thought it was Ridge)
• Taylor walking in and witnessing her barely clothed “sexy dance” (Brooke thought it was Ridge)

Brooke’s not the only character to be subjected to these “accidents”:

• Stephanie felt up Donna in bed (thinking it was Eric)
• Naked in her bubble bath, Donna cooed sweet nothings to her Honey bear (it was Stephanie who walked in and – actually, quite amusingly – dunked the bimbo’s head)

Funny as these moments can be, there has to be a line drawn. It’s lazy – these interludes are popping up all the time. It’s getting ridiculous. This, on top of the usual Brooke seduction scenes (using her body as a sushi table; testing her bikini with Ridge in the steam room) is all a bit much. Seriously, I’m no prude, but if they’re going to continue subjecting the female characters to this puerile nonsense then they need to switch it around and have the men act out the same nonsense. Picture it:

• Ridge helps Nick pull his underpants up
• Marcus walks in on Rick doing a “sexy dance”
• Eric feeling up Owen in bed
• Thorne walking in on Owen taking a shower

It just doesn’t happen, does it? That’s exactly what they’ve been doing – and continue to do – with the female characters on this show. The disparity is way too blatant. With women being the core audience, is it really a good idea? Or is it just more misogynistic claptrap?