Stereotypes In Coronet Instructional Films

Coronet Instructional Films, also known as social guidance films, were created from the 1940s through the 1980s in order to teach American teenagers the proper way to behave. They modeled recommended habits and attitudes in a somewhat outdated and clichéd way, demonstrating to their impressionable audience what an ideal US citizen resembles. As a result, whether consciously or not, the illustration of a perfect US citizen that Coronet Films attempted to build in its works depicted the role of genders in the old society. This topic raises the line of inquiry: “How is the role of gender portrayed through character development in Coronet Instructional Films?” Through the process of character development of different character traits such as physical

There is an issue we need to address about how a gender can be labeled as active or passive in instructional films. “What to do on a date” (1950) was a vivid example of this. Nick, the main male character is illustrated as the active person, who has the responsibility to initiate everything. Nick was the one who asked Kay to go on a date, and make sure that she likes the plan he made for the date. Opposing to that, the role of Kay was simply waiting for Nick to do his job in the most passive manner. Adding to that, when Kay’s friend asked her if she is going on a date with Nick again, she replied: “I don’t know. Besides, he didn’t ask me.” (Peshak, 1950, 00:08:13). We can see that the idea of male dominance is extremely clear right here, when Kay assumes that asking someone out would always be a guy’s

Coronet also made sure to include the typical masculinity behavior as well as feminine behavior in their works to deliver the idea of gender roles better. Figure 2 and figure 3 depicts two contrasting scenes. While Nick is portrayed in the masculine image, doing jobs requiring power like hanging decorations with the hammer in figure 3; Kay and Phyllis were doing more of a feminine job that requires delicacy and gentleness: preparing beverages and food. One more notable detail is how Nick gave the girls compliments about the sandwiches they prepared, implying the idea that males have a higher position than females. The same thing also happened in “Better use of leisure time” (1950). While Michael’s father is workaholic, and also a breadwinner who earns money for the family, his mother is wearing an apron, busily doing chores like laundry. Even the hobbies of supporting characters in this short film, like Alice and Marge feminine hobbies (sewing and playing the piano), depicts this idea. The same pattern also appeared in “How to be well groomed”, when Sue decided to fix the loose button for Don, and Don helped Sue with shoe polishing. As has been noted, film makers in this time period give characters with different genders different sets of appropriate behavior. Females would do feminine actions (often with delicacy) while males would do masculine action (often with