Cosby Show Stereotypes

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.

It takes the average person under a minute to compose an opinion about someone they recently encountered. This opinion will be the image inside your head until you genuinely get to understand that person., but judgement with still occur because humans do this for an eccentric reason. People have stereotypes that go along with judging through age class, for example, adults stereotype judging teenagers as persistently staring at their phones all day, rarely interacting with anyone face to face. This exhibits irony; children and teenagers perceive their parents to be infallible.

Television situational comedies have the ability to represent different values or concerns of their audience, these values often change every decade or so to reflect and highlight the changes that the audience is experiencing within society, at the time of production. Between the years of 1950 and 2010, the representation of gender roles and family structure has been addressed and featured in various sitcoms, such as “Father Knows Best” and “Modern Family”, through the use of narrative conventions, symbolic, audio and technical codes. These representations have transformed over time to reflect the changes in social, political, and historical contexts.

It is apparent that public spaces can be frightening for women, as they face fears of sexual harassment and attack by men. In fact, research on fear of crime and public space usually examine the experiences given by women. Though there are many accounts exploring and emphasizing women’s vulnerability and fears, there are few which take into consideration the apprehension that males have about public spaces. In particular, anxieties that Black men are plagued with. In North America, black men have historically been depicted as aggressive, hypersexual and violent – to be controlled, exploited and tamed (Hackman, “‘It’s like we’re seen as animals’: black men on their vulnerability and resilience”). Essentially, they have been stereotyped as animals.

The label of white trash even existing is seen to be appalling because of the former notion of white citizens being the alphas and that angered other White Americans(Eastman & Schrock pg 207). Stereotypes were and are a problem but Southern Rock & Roll musicians embraced theirs and appropriated with it because of capitalism. While no one deserves to be put into a category based on prejudice, White Americans made their stereotypes a positive while minorities struggled and still continue to struggle everyday due to stigmas placed on them.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is the story of a small town named Maycomb Located in Alabama, highlighting the adventures of the finch children and many other people in the small town. The people in this town are very judgemental and of each other and it often leads to people being labeled with stereotypes and people think they know everything about that person however that is not reality. It is not possible to know the reality of a person 's life by placing a stereotype without seeing it through their own eyes and experiencing the things they experience. This happens often throughout the story with many people in the town. People are labeled as many things such a “monster” a “nigger” and many other things that seem to put them in their

Minorities in sitcoms were less portrayed in contrast to an accurate representation of the time period. Ironically, minorities in sitcoms were not always represented by minority actors and actresses. Sometimes makeup was used on a white actor so he could portray an African man. It was not until the 1950’s when African Americans were shown on television. African Americans were often portrayed as crooked people with poor English and less education. In the sixties, segregation and racism dominated in most social settings. In the seventies, most minorities were trying to deter from old beliefs of prejudicial ideas. In modern times, minorities have equal rights and respect to their white counterparts. Four sitcoms, Amos ’n’ Andy, Julia, Sanford and Son, and The Cosby Show depict how the role of minorities changed throughout different time periods.

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. Chris Rock is the

Society is built upon a grand scale of assumptions and misunderstandings, all of which tend to lead us in a path for the worst. There is, however, a remedy for our seemingly infinite list of problems that lead us to war, hate, and unrest. Unfortunately, this remedy is not very likely to be found because we have not been looking in the right places, which happen to be right beneath our noses. You see, we as a society have spent our lives writing books, directing movies, and painting murals, and yet we have overlooked our own genius; Footloose, The Breakfast Club, and Dirty Dancing. These three movies all share a common thread, and it’s not their epic soundtracks and classic ending scenes. These three movies have the capability to perfect society.

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.” Said and written in one of Alice Walker’s novels, Possessing the Secret of Joy. The novel encompasses the impact of having culturally controlled gender roles and brings awareness to how women feel powerless in their society. Her quote shows how quickly ignorance in humanity stunts the growth of empowered people. Moreover, this quote can represent the relationship between power and women, which, consequently, is discussed in the documentary, Miss Representation. Alice Walker’s wise words appear in the first shot of this film. Miss Representation persuades its audience to agree that women portrayed on television and advertisements negatively affect women's ambition

Although I have not seen every episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, I have seen enough to understand your discussion. Furthermore, I can see the distinction between the gender roles. I completely agree with you regarding Raymond’s mother, Marie, and Raymond’s wife, Debra. Way too often, Marie criticizes Debra’s abilities. She not only complains about her cooking, but also on the way she cleans and takes care of the children. Raymond, on the other hand, reflects the stereotype of a mommy’s boy. Even title of the show demonstrates Marie’s actions to overprotect him.

The Long, Hot Summer composed in 1958, tells the story of Will Varner and his family; Clara Varner, Jody Varner and spouse Eula Varner. The family resides in Frenchman Bend, Mississippi, and a small town off the harbor. The Varner faces challenge of love, neglect, disappointment and resentment. Yet nothing prepares the family for the challenge ahead. Will Varner sees the challenge differently. He embraces it with opening arms.

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.

In the sitcom, Friends, we see a variety of stereotypes. Sitcoms usually aim for using strong stereotypes because they can easily create humor from them. There are three women: Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe. Each of them are characterized as just a few of the stereotypes commonly associated with women.

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.