Gender Stereotypes In Television Sitcoms

Words: 685
Pages: 3
Open Document
Situation comedies, or “sitcoms”, as they are more generally known, have become staples throughout America. Especially in the United States, beginning in the second half of the 20th century and evolving into the 21st century. The purpose of a television sitcom is mimicking real life characters in comical misunderstandings, showing day-to-day circumstances in a way that is entertaining to the viewer. Gender, gender roles, and gender stereotypes have been portrayed variously throughout television sitcoms. Some portraying women, mothers, housewives as “like a child to the man, husband, father” (Simmons and Rich 2013).

Referring back to Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princess, and the masculine and feminine characteristics categorized, I could easily see some of the characteristics in the male and female characters in the shows I was watching. However, if a male showed any sign of feminine characteristics such as; sensitivity, nurturing, or physically weak – it was viewed as negative. In the show Friends, Ross who shows feminine characteristics, he is often ridiculed by other characters for showing emotion. Two …show more content…
In I Love Lucy, we have the “1950s housewife and mother who envies her husband’s public life in the limelight, tries to transgress traditional gender boundaries in nearly every episode. (Of course, Lucy does not do this within the narrative as a conscious feminist protest, but rather, like a child, to be the center of attention and admired as talented and desirable)” (Simmons and Rich 2013). Another prime example of this stereotype falls into the Big Bang Theory, while the women are accomplished – they lack professionally and academically in likeness to the males on the show. Bernadette, a microbiologist, is shown to have worked a low-status job to put herself through school. Whereas, her husband is an aerospace
Show More

Related Documents: Gender Stereotypes In Television Sitcoms

Essay The Influence of Essentialst Attitudes Portrayed in the Modern Day Sitcom on the Views and Beliefs of Modern Society.

Influence of Essentialst Attitudes Portrayed in the Modern Day Sitcom on the Views and Beliefs of Modern Society. Throughout its long history, the sitcom has been commonly understood to define the cultural norms of modern society through such comedy techniques as satire and irony. Like modern society, certain characteristics of the sitcom have evolved over time, while others have remained consistent. The evolution of the sitcom coincides with the generational shift in attitudes of society towards…

Words 1003 - Pages 5

Women's Roles In Television

The Evolution of Women’s Roles in Television: What’s Changed and What Has Not Over the years women have played multiple roles in many television genres. In the early years of television women often starred in soap operas and then as housewives in a range of different sitcoms such as I Love Lucy, The Goldbergs, and several others. As time went on their roles changed. For example, in the 1960’s show Get Smart had a woman co-starring as a secret agent, and in the 1970’s The Mary Tyler Moore Show starred…

Words 1602 - Pages 7

Women On Tv Essay

Final Project Wiki Women on TV A. Television: some can live with it, but some can’t live without it! Television has “change the nature, operation, and relationship to their audiences of books, magazines, movies and radio” (Baran, 2012, p. 205). Women on TV, is that such a problem? Many may say no, but for a very long time it was and has been a “man’s world” (cue the James Brown song…) in television land. But times are changing and women are starting to earn their rightful role in front of and behind…

Words 1131 - Pages 5

Sit Come Gender Analysis

Conduct a gender analysis of any TV 'sit come' over a period of at least four weeks. How do the feminist theories help you to understand the gender issues under discussion and the media treatment of the issue? Sex sells and that is what producers thought when they created the television sitcom Two and a Half Men. The show consists of three male characters; Charlie the social definition of what a true man is and how a real man is expected to behave. He is seen as the ideal man as he keeps his feelings…

Words 1435 - Pages 6

Betty M. White's The Golden Girls

nominations. In 2010, she received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. She has also been granted three American Comedy Awards, which entails a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990, and two Viewers for Quality Television Awards. Coupling the previous, she was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995, along with owning a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. More than half of these accomplishments had occurred when she was well into and past her sixties (“Betty White” Newsmakers). Moreover…

Words 1909 - Pages 8

Mary Tyler Moore Show Essay

The Mary Tyler Moore Show Since the invention of television, American sitcoms have commonly depicted a traditional family of a mother, father, and children. However, The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an example of a television sitcom that has branched away from this trend through Mary Richards’ character as a successful, independent woman who exerts power through her high-power career and non-conformity to traditional gender roles. The Mary Tyler Moore Show is a direct reflection of women’s strengthening…

Words 2038 - Pages 9

Classical Argument Essay 3 Final

researchers’ feel that many of us unconscientiously stereotype and profile without even knowing and that our rearing traditions have also contributed to this way of thinking. Profiling can be implemented by different approaches such as racial profiling, facial profiling even as simple as individual or group profiling. Stereotyping and profiling can affect anyone, rich or poor, black or white, famous or ordinary, and does not consider any age or gender. Humiliation and degradation will come about within…

Words 3056 - Pages 13

Jewish Mothers In The 1950's

In “Imagining Jewish Mothers in the 1950’s” by Joyce Antler, Antler explores three popular stereotypes of Jewish mothers depicted during the 1950s. Molly Goldberg played by Gertrude Berg, from the famous The Goldberg Show, is characterized as the ideal Jewish mother that’s able to successfully assimilate into American culture and embrace America’s traditional values. Molly expertly leads her family through conflict with wise-wisdom, all the while by continuing to instill the importance of family…

Words 1495 - Pages 6

Essay on Diversity: The Cosby Show and Things

the normal setting for today’s study groups. Many schools offer special classes such as this one that help define and showcase everyone’s unique heritage and advantageous differences. Many of these classes don’t go deep enough, however, to dispel stereotypes or to…

Words 1592 - Pages 7

Media representations of families today Essay

representations of families today FSGN 1100 Document the imagery and content of one popular mainstream North American television situation comedy based on the representation of characters and the interactions of family members is the requirement for this assignment, in which I chose to do watch and document my findings on the show Growing Pains. Growing Pains is an American television sitcom about an affluent family, which aired on ABC from September 24, 1985, to April 25, 1992. The show ran for seven…

Words 3351 - Pages 14