That 170 million... those are "minutes watched", not number of people who watched it. If everyone watched it all the way through to the end, it would be only about 1.8 million complete watched. But of course, these minutes watched include all of us who hated it and only watched partially.

This isn't a controversial episode. This is literally the first time I've ever heard some mention that there are no speaking parts for women.

News flash: Men used to, almost exclusively, do the most dangerous work. The episode feature cave miners and "red shirts" getting killed by the dozens.

Double news flash: Even today, the top 10 most deadly jobs in the world are held predominately by men (over 90%).

So it's not a problem that it's men that are most likely to die to feed their families? It's only a problem when it's "speaking parts"? What a double standard!

The episode was simply realistic for it's time, and remains so even for our time.

I reject your original premise and notion, and so should society.