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More handpicked essays just for you.
Women in media gender stereotypes
Gender stereotypes in the media
Gender stereotypes in mass media
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Over the past fifteen years, or so, reality television has managed to dilute the mind of your average, basic cable consumer into a pulp of fabricated hopes, making for a summary of what society is currently feeding off today. These quote-unquote icons' lavish ways manage to blur the lines between non-fiction and full-on fabrication, merely doing so by tossing the word 'reality' ahead of 'show', for viewers to feel as if their taste in entertainment is more dynamic and 'life-like'. Consequently, the core majority of patrons simply can’t grasp the fact that every one of these petty arguments, foolish catfights and horribly executed dinner time brawls are curated out of one hundred percent bullshit. Two guys named Joe fighting each other at what was supposed to be a fancy dinner, but just so
Authors clarify their points of views by noting the connection between the behaviors of the characters in such television shows and the attitudes of people in real life. In her article, “Voting Democracy off the Island: Reality Television and the Republican Ethos,” Francine Prose gives an example of such comparison using contestants from reality television shows. She states that life concepts followed by the competitors such as “the conviction that altruism and compassion are signs of folly and weakness,… the belief that certain circumstances justify secrecy and deception,… are the exact same themes that underlie the rhetoric we have been hearing and continue to hear from Republican Congress and our current administration” (Prose 60). Prose’s choice of that type of television shows to deliver her message is very effective on multiple levels.
The Real Housewives Franchise (RHW) is a reality television show that provides insight into the lives of socialite, suburban housewives. The Real Housewives franchise has been around for nearly two decades, and has become a worldwide phenomenon. The series is known for its drama, gossip, and catty behavior between its cast members. The women of the show are often portrayed as shallow, uneducated, and judgmental. Although some of these traits may be true in some cases, many of the women on the show have overcome their challenges to become successful individuals.
What are the typical female stereotypes shown on most tv sitcoms? The answer is a housewife whose sole purpose is to take care of the kids as the husband works. Not to mention, that women are displayed as unintelligent and always needing a man to solve their issues. However, the infamous program Gilmore Girls, shatters the stereotypical woman in the form of a single mother named Lorelai Gilmore. She lives in a small town called Stars Hallow with her teenage daughter Rory, and experiences many hardships that she must face on her own.
I chose to write my essay about the Fox sitcom, That 70s Show, which aired 1998-2006. The show is about six teenagers growing up in Point Place, Wisconsin in the 1970s. I will be analyzing how gender is portrayed in this essay. The main characters of this show are Eric Forman, Steven Hyde, Michael Kelso, "Fez," Jackie Burkhart, and Donna Pinciotti. At the beginning of the series, "Kelso" and Jackie are dating, and everyone in the group knows Donna and Eric really like each other.
What you see on television is being fed to you in a formulaic manner. Sitcoms, dramas, and reality television alike all seem to have a sort of cookie-cutter way of producing their shows. I’ve learned that many shows draw up many stereotypes in their productions whether they mean to or not. Portrayals of racial stereotypes are prominent throughout
Jennifer L. Pozner paints a tale in “The Unreal World” of network executives that profit at the physical and emotional expense of reality TV stars, all for the sake of ratings. Through inaccurate representation of women using the pursuit of perfection along with the objectification of women makes reality TV a poisonous industry. She doesn’t just make these claims, but she also backs it up through her intricate use of multiple techniques and ethos in the Unreal World. The appeal I found to be most prevalent when analyzing “The Unreal World” has to be the emotional appeal. Pozner uses this article as an outlet to display to the world her deep dislike for reality TV and all it stands for.
Throughout the history of media, stereotypes have developed a big role in decision making for producers. In the article “Appalachian Culture and Reality TV” by Angela Cooke-Jackson and Elizabeth Hanson, there was a lot of discussion about how these unscripted shows such as the The Real Beverly Hill Billies, were depicted in a negative and unethical way. This show showed footage of uneducated, ignorant, ripped clothing individuals who live in the Appalachians. Producers of the show used humor to depict these individuals instead of real emotions. This angered many individuals who are considered to be in within the subculture.
The year is 2016 and American society is open-minded to so many issues, except televised stereotypes. Racial and gender stereotypes are continually reinforced by social media and television, it has played a major role in the way society views one another. Enabling stereotypes that have been associated with a person of specific race or gender in the media promotes prejudice. Meaning society expects that person to act a certain way based on what they have witnessed on television or social media. . A perfect example of how television shows incorporate stereotypes based on ethnicity is the tv show “Everybody Hates Chris “which is about a working class African-American family that lives in a poor urban neighborhood in New York.
Why as a culture do we still glorify these kinds of shows? Reality TV magnifies these stereotypes, that leads to approval of what a woman should be in a pop culture, lets women know how they are judged only on appearance. In some cases, the “fantasies of power” as she puts it, take the image of superheroes She says that these images do what is called “enlightened sexism”, creating the major actions we see in reality. The “enlightened sexism” tends to mislead the young women that are trying to look good, for the approval within our culture values trying to compete against each other.
Arguably the strongest characters on the show from a comedic perspective are the males. Very rarely are the females warranting laughs (if they're even in the episode at all, much less). Meg is perhaps the most comedy-centric female character, but her jokes are based on her family despising her and thinking she is ugly, stupid, terrible... And then there's the episode where she gets a makeover, and the whole town swoons over her, including her own family. :\ What the hell?
Furthermore, this attempts to establish reality tv as a symbol of social life despite all the missing variables between the show and typical reality for most people. They give false testimony of where the best places are and give a distorted ideal of how things should be done. Examples of these false statements could be Jersey
Modern Family is a popular primetime television show that airs Wednesday nights on ABC. This hit comedy presents the daily lifestyles of three separate but related families who reside in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California. The Dunphys are shown as the traditional white American family while the Pritchett-Tucker family are a homosexual couple with an adopted daughter named Lily. The Pritchetts are the last family who are an interracial couple with a large age gap. On the surface, this show seems to be one of the most diverse on television.
The controversy of reality shows actually being “real” or not is widely debated around the world. To this date, people’s lives are getting influenced by these shows every time they watch them. Probably because the shows are known as “reality” shows and this convinces the viewers that they are indeed, real! This is an important issue as the new generation watching reality television will believe that everything they see on their TV screens, is real life. A diverse range of arguments have been offered on this issue.
With the increasing amount of reality TV shows, serious problems have made their appearance unto the “real” world. These kinds of shows have been affecting the society in a way that could be an adverse effect especially for teenagers. Although reality TV shows are now a colossal part of the media and its culture, they work as negative factors in a society and watching them should be discouraged, for the common themes of the show are highly aggressive, provide inappropriate education, and its extent of creating racial stereotypes has become stronger. Despite its negative effects, reality television show can be positively influential for its participants as well as young