Transparent Creator Jill Soloway on Ending the Madonna v. Whore Stereotype

In an interview with TIME about how sex on TV is becoming more realistic, diverse and feminist, Transparent showrunner Jill Soloway spoke about why we need more women writing TV shows. Part of the problem, she says, is that male writers tend to glorify women’s sexuality or punish them for it.

She says women on TV usually fall into two categories: the Madonna and the whore, the wife and the mistress, the virgin and the slut. “A patriarchal society divides women into either and reduces their power by not allowing women to connect with their own sexuality. In most stories, women are punished for being sexual,” she says. Think: the sexy girl that’s killed first in horror films, the friend who is ostracized for sleeping with someone else’s crush, the murdered prostitute.

“I don’t think that most men know this, but a lot of the stuff they create is propaganda for the way they want to move through the world,” Soloway says. “It’s the definition of male privilege, and it influences the way real girls act as they watch this stuff growing up.”

Read about what Soloway’s Transparent and other shows, like The Americans and Girls, are doing to change the way our culture views women’s sexuality here.