I. Introduction Parenthood, a drama television series, attends to the adversity of an extended and imperfect family. The Bravermans are a blended California family who face a series of both fortunate and unfortunate events but together find a way to get by (Katims, 2010). Television consumers have been introduced to many fictional families overtime and continue to fall in love with family related television shows. Historically, the media has transformed and continues to adapt to the changes in present day family types. “Writers often take seeds from real life experiences and plant then in their scripts,” consumers both consciously or subconsciously attend to cues on television and want to apply what they see to their lives.
Many social issues are portrayed in television shows because they are common in every society so it makes it easy to relate to the audience. One show in particular that has many social issues that are demonstrated perfectly to the audience is a Netflix original show called “Shameless.” This is a show that focuses on a single family in which the father, Frank, is a deadbeat drunk who is never reliable. The mother, Monica, abandoned the family a year or so after she had the last child, she is mentally bipolar. She shows up occasionally throughout the series, but for the most part is in some unknown place to the audience.
On September 20, 1984, the Cosby Show made airways and forever changed the general population views on gender roles and race on television. Shows in the 1980s and 1970s were still perpetuated outdated gender stereotypes and televise them, for the American audience to perceive as “normal”. The Cosby Show went against the typical gender and racial stereotypes of African Americans on television. The show reshapes the four basic elements of gender stereotypes such as personality traits, domestic behaviors, occupations, and physical appearance” (“Gender Roles and Stereotypes”). The episode “Back to school”, The school season has begun and each of the children is having a different perspective on the school they attended.
Specifically, The Office follows hegemonic media trends and gender archetypes like much of mainstream media does. The women in the show are portrayed in a multitude of stereotypical characterizations such as being inferior, weak, sexually promiscuous, crazy, bitchy, unintelligent, or as meager objects for male indulgence. What this paper aims to achieve is an understanding of how The Office reinforces archetypal hegemonic gender portrayals of its female characters. By conducting a detailed character analysis of this mainstream media text, it can be determined how gender ideologies associated with women are represented in the series. The presentation of such ideologies will allow for an explanation of how those ideologies are, in fact, supporting the archetypes of women that media feeds to its
Grey’s Anatomy has been a widely popular television series on ABC for many years and continues to get attention. Grey’s Anatomy is a television series that focuses on the lives of doctors, their relationships, and their experience in overcoming challenging surgical procedures. Many people tune in to watch the drama unfold, watch relationships grow, obstacles arise, and find a way to relate in one way or another. Throughout the twelve seasons, the audience has watched racially diverse characters come and go. Some might connect the show’s popularity to its racial diversity, while others might connect it to the entertaining medical drama.
Next, many gender and sexual stereotypes are perpetuated in media, through the ways of movies. In fact, the movie Legally Blonde fits under the category of stereotypes exceptionally well, since it shows many stereotypes of women in the society. For instance, there is one scene in the movie, where Warner, the handsome boy is playing football with his friends, and Elle, the dumb blonde sits on the sidelines to study and distract the guys playing as she wears nothing but a sparkly bikini top under a furry shawl on her upper half. This example evidently portrays the serotype of being a blonde dumb. Throughout the movie “Legally Blonde” Elle is shown as a material sorority girl, who is a duplicate copy of barbie in real life.
The motion picture Fifty Shades of Grey is an erotic movie of a man fulfilling his sexual fantasies on a sexually naive woman. The movie begins with a man meeting a woman, Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele that leads them to meeting for coffee, and advancing to friends with benefits. The couple consistently meets up with one another for sexual encounters. Their frequent visits lead to more than just merely hooking up; it becomes a dominant and submissive relationship. Christian is the dominant player and exercises his sexual fantasies on Anastasia who is the submissive participant.
Challenging Stereotypes: How “Modern” Is Modern Family? The show won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in each of its first five years and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series four times. If you have never heard about “Modern Family," you have never seen comedy. Modern Family is an American television show that portrays the ‘Modernism’ in families nowadays in America.
Henri Tajfel (1979) anticipated that the “groups which people belonged to were an important source of pride and self-esteem. Groups give us a sense of social identity: a sense of belonging to the social world.” (McLeod, Social Identity Theory, 2008) Remember the Titans (2000) is an American sports drama film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Boaz Yakin. It is a true story which started with the integration of black and white students at T.C. Williams High School in Virginia. However further problems emerge as with tensions high, the well known and loved head coach at the school, Bill Yoast, is replaced by a new black coach, Herman Boone.
The act of stereotyping is assuming that all members of a group have similar knowledge, behaviors, or beliefs simply because they belong to a group. Using stereotypes is one of the most common reasons why countless people are misjudged. It can occur with the person’s knowledge or it can happen subconsciously. Sometimes, in writing, authors will form stereotypes for their characters to fit into. By using a stereotype, it sets a base for the character to build off of and show change.
Mad Men Mad Men, a television drama from Matthew Weiner, takes place in the world of advertising during a time where smoking is natural and where segregation defines African-Americans as ‘the help’. While these social issues are used to locate the show within this specific time, the 1960s was a strange and foreign time when the environment in which social interaction was defined by an entirely different set of rules. This television show takes place at Sterling Cooper agency and the main characters are Betty, Draper, Peggy, and Dom. The series presents two women, in particular, who find themselves intertwined with this fast-moving world dominated by male figures.
Madison Solomon Mrs. Riordan Honors Lit & Comp 17 January 2023 “Ugh! As if! : Stereotypes and Confidence in Clueless Most are familiar with the famous quote “Ugh as if!”
Sexism, racism, and culturalism have been a huge problem for many years. So why is it any different in television shows? This essay will debate why each one happens behind the scenes and tie it to a television show, that exhibits each point. The first paragraph will state which show was chosen to exhibit the three main points and discuss why. Paragraphs two, three, and four will discuss the problems with sexism.
The media has long been recognized as important source of gender related information, television and cinema specifically influences its audience in a considerable way. (Denmark and Paludi 2008). With regards to the concept of gender cinema can offer a space where ambiguities of identities are played out; understanding the play of the categories of femininity and masculinity is very important in evaluating our own understandings of gender and how we react to different representations of it (Tasker 2002).If a film can show different individuals and we can recognize how social forces shape and constrain the individual according to classifications of gender it narrates an experience where we experience the film as gendered viewers. Film reflects and generates out own experience of gender over and above out own recognition and observation of it. (Pomerance 2001).
Despite the creator’s of Modern Family effort to portray a progressive view of American families, the show still accentuates outdated female stereotypes and gender roles; reinforcing gender characteristics, patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity. In contrast to its title, Modern Family promotes traditional gender roles and stereotypes of women, which result in the portrayal of an inaccurate image of the female, and weakens the stance of women in today’s U.S. society. Gender stereotypes are prevalent throughout the Modern Family; the women are all portrayed as wives and mothers, promoting a continued male dominant family ideology. Claire and Gloria are throughout the show acting on our society’s “assumptions about women’s ‘appropriate’ roles” (Dow 19).
