Every once in awhile, shows such as Leave It to Beaver or Father Knows Best come up while surfing the tv guide. While these are two examples of remarkably popular television shows of the mid 1900’s, they also portray the gender normalities of the time period. Gender roles were simply and precisely defined. Men went to work and made the money, while the women stayed home to take care of the house and kids. However, as humanity enters the sixteenth year of the twenty first century, this precision begins to blur. Gender roles have come a long way in the past century. That being said, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, is almost like a time capsule, immersing the reader into the gender norms of the 1950s. Capote portrays these norms prominently throughout In Cold Blood, specifically in the second vignette.
The first Simpsons episode aired in 1989 and has been one of the most popular shows in the U.S. It is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show is about a dysfunctional family. Homer is the father and works for a nuclear power plant. His wife Marge is a very responsible mother. They have three kids, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Together this family of five face’s many adventures. So, what makes this show so popular?
As Bernard Goldberg presents the fact in his book Bias A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, castration can be talked as a joke on air, but cutting off breasts is not funny at all; female anchormen abuse the right of free speech to joke on men’s issue, but women’s issues always are serious topics, that can never be joked in the same way. Harry Smith, the former co-anchor of This Morning, in the interview, said “I’m under the assumption that most men are putzes.” But when he was asked what if to say women are puztes on air, he was laughing and answering “they would have tossed me out the freakin’ window.” (Goldberg, 132-3) Obviously, the mainstream media (msm) applies double standards on males and females. In the long human history,
Television has always played on stereotypes. It’s not until recently with the up and up of social justice in social media that has brought out these stereotypes to light. Things should not always be taken at face value. When I sit down and watch TV or a film, I used to just do it for the escapism aspect of it. The ritual of mindlessly watching Bad Girls Club or Keeping Up with the Kardashians is long gone. 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
Representation within media is a powerful thing and the viewpoint often differs with context, such as the gender of the storytellers and the time period in which a piece was written and/or published. William Moulton Marston, the mind behind iconic female superhero Wonder Woman (DC Comics), has once described a need for a new type of woman in comics. He found there was a need for one that defied the weaknesses we usually prescribe to females in general, stating that the female archetype lacks the force, strength, and power needed to make girls want to identify with female characters (American Scholar, 1943). Even then, his heroine could be described as modest and peace-loving, two characteristics he himself described as belonging to the aforementioned weaknesses.
Could female stereotypes be the results of cultural influence, religious teachings, or is it because of natural laws that females do not enjoy complete rights as their male counterparts do? While answers to this important question remain debatable, female stereotypes need redress. In Tyler Perry's House of Payne, season one, episode one and season two, episode two, the role of female characters and the role of male characters highlight stereotypical bias toward females in most television shows.
Intertextuality is the way in which texts refer to other media texts that producers assume audiences will recognize.
In the book, The Rise of Enlightened Sexism by Susan Douglas, gives insight and knowledge that digs deep into pop culture explaining how the media portrays the appearances of women that are in powerful positions in our culture. The appetencies tent undermines the actual progress of women. Douglas is interested in what these pop culture ideals shows about our culture. The way we react to women in our culture with powerful influence. What do these shows do to the female imagine in our culture? Why as a culture do we still glorify these kinds of shows?
This satirical portrayal of America as singularly masculinized did not deter female readers. Bagge’s editorial section of Hate #4 points to the publication’s inclusion of female readers, writing to male readers unhappy that the publication’s first contest excluded male participants “You fail to win my sympathy… since the Stinky contest is obviously a big joke and that the women entering it don’t really truly want to date [the character]… a lot of you desperate creeps seem sincere in your desire to shower love on [the character Lisa Leavenworth]” (Hate #4, 23). Bagge addresses the women readers as people who understand and participate in the satirical characterizations and misogyny. This inclusiveness in the face of masculinized advertising
Gender roles for women and men have experienced notable changes since the start of the television. The television dad used to be portrayed as flawless. Fathers were depicted as intelligent, dependable and
There is a lot of pressure on men in society to be manly; however, what exactly does it mean to be manly? Though many people have different opinions, a lot of them conclude that a man has to be strong and somewhat emotionless to be considered a man. This assumption can lead to Toxic Masculinity, which is “A false idea that men are expected to be as manly as possible” (The Hard, Adrenaline-Soaked Truth About 'Toxic Masculinity, 2017). Men are forced to face these assumptions not only from those around him, but also from people he might see in Media. Media reinforces Toxic Masculinity which in turn causes men to belittle women. The types of media that encourage Toxic Masculinity are Television, Music, and Social Media.
Being pressured into conventional roles today is less common than back in the 40’s and 50’s when society had nothing but conforming roles for men and women in society. examples of this come from how men and women were brought up, culture and media. If it were not for these three factors gender roles would be farfetched. But unfortunately, there is still this pressure of gender roles and one way or another everyone has to make the decision of whoever they want to be and live with those roles. In this essay culture, media and how both men and women being raised affect gender roles and socialization.
Gender roles and stereotypes are commonly known throughout society and continuously demonstrated as film as well. Through the work of director Judd Apatow, we can compare these stereotypes to the portrayal of gender in Knocked Up and identify how this film pokes fun at gender stereotypes. As we watch this film and follow the story line of Allison and Ben, we can see how Apatow reversed the gender roles of the two lead characters, Ben and Allison and how this effected the films meaning.
TOPIC: How does Media portray gender, and the effects it has on the 21st century individual?
Member of society have a mindset that agent of socialization is one of the origin that influenced the reinforcement of gender inequality since childhood. What is socialization? In lexical definition, socialization, as a lifelong interactive process, contains individual’s culture learning that is in compliance with social norms and roles to integrate into community (Socialization, n.d.). Childhood is the most influential period of socialization which agents of socialization impact the way children behave that related with social norms.