I need some help with my sociology discussion. The people there are very closed minded and I'm having trouble explaining some of these concepts to them. They think that tv is what is "normal" in this world. Can some of you help me to better answer this question below? Thank you very much for your help. How do popular television programs portray gender roles? Is there much variety contained in these presentations? What messages do these television programs transmit about appropriate male and female behavior?
I think it's very varied now. as opposed to olden days when ALL women on Tv were either schoolgirls prepping to marry or the perfect housewife. if you make the exception of Lucy....she occassionally held a job and was definitely not your conventional wife and mother. Nowadays I see the everywoman. There are working single women,working mothers,stay-at-home mothers..and all of them far from perfect. There are also alot of single parents on TV now. I still think the racial equality needs more improvement then gender does. it's improved but for every "black" show there are still 10 "white" shows and as of right now....only ONE show that features hispanics as the center of the show. it used to be 2...George Lopez and Greetings from Tucsan...but the WB in all their unwise glory saw it better fit to kick Greetings to the curb and replace it with yet another "white" show.So now George stands alone. I have little to complain about on the gender role front though...I dont see much that pisses me off. EXCEPT....I am tired of seeing shows with mediochre looking guys that are married or dating model-looking women.cant the women look as mediochre as the guy?? are there any less then pretty women on TV??
I can't believe I just posted this long well thought out post and the computer ate it. otter I thought that you of all people would agree with me. Have you been abducted by aliens? What about shows like everybody loves raymond, my wife and kids, king of queens, there are a ton more that I can't stand. I don't even turn my tv on these days because of the crappy sitcoms that depict women as know it all pushy bitches who tell their husbands what to do all of the time and the men are whiney wimpy jerks who treat their women like crap, and the stupid women constantly forgive them. God my other reply was so much better, stupid computer. then there are shows like the bachelor. need i say more? maybe i'll come back at lunch.
um..the Bachalorette?? um..Average Joe??? how about shows like Fear Factor and Survivor where men and women compete on equal levels? shows like Friends..Frasier...George Lopez..less then perfect.how about the more serious dramas like ER...Judging Amy....SVU....Gilmore Girls...Buffy the Vampire Slayer...these shows depict men and women equally...with their ups and downs...good and bad. you named off some crappy sitcoms from one network but ignored a slew of great shows on other networks. as for the Everybody loves Raymond...I dont know if you knew this...but this is how marriage is. The wives dictate and if the men dont move it...they are in big trouble.lol. I never noticed any of that...and I certainly dont demand uber-pcness. perhaps you should stop watching those shows and watch ER or something.
FOR CHRISTS SAKE!!!!!!!! I give up. I just retyped out a whole long reply again and the stupid thing said that I am not signed in. I sign in when I come in, go to MY POSTS, if I weren't signed in how could it take me there!!!!!! Then I read the posts, typed my reply and tried to submit it. But NOOOOOOOOOOO.... Now it is lost forever in the cyber vortex of lost posts. Technology Sucks!
I watch little television these days, but I do like lawyer and cop shows. In the LAW & ORDER programs there are female cops and there was a female police chief (an African American). There is a female prosecuting attorney. There is an Asian American forensic psychologist. In JUDGING AMY, the main character is a juvenile court judge. Her assistants are a black male (studying something) and a white female (who studied to become a lawyer). Her mother (played by Tyne Daly) is a social worker. She has a sister-in-law who works on my last gay nerve. She is an annoying pain in the ass in her own right. CHARMED has three powerful women in the form of do-good witches. The messages that I get are that women can follow the same rules as men to perform duties that are of service to the public at large. Women are sometimes portrayed as having another sense that men lack (some call it intuition). For the most part, television has gone away from using the horrible term maternal instinct. Hope that helps
My husband and I were just discussing that the other day. When have you ever seen an overweight average-looking woman with a hot husband? Commercials are the same way. Overweight average looking guys with hot skinny girlfriends/wives. Ugh. Woman have to look a certain way, while guys are allowed to look however they want...and they still get the hot girl.
I agree with all of that. One thing I was going to bring up is how there are shows with these slobby looking guys who all date Revlon-looking models (just like you said). We have The King of Queens, Like Family, The George Lopez Show...and I'm sure there's more, but I don't watch enough televsion to know for sure. I, too, think the racial factor is a bigger problem than gender. But there are definitely still gender inequalities of some sort on TV.
I dont know the issue of gender, But as for the racial junk, i do Mainstream america loves to profit off of everyone and everybody and to do that they incorporate every single minority or a single "Target" minority market to advertise to all races and types and ages. as an example i give you this picture: "Popular kid show, Extreme Ghostbusters, with estreme shallowness" You see, america doesnt nescasarrily need to have "Black" shows or whatever is different from white shows, but since USA is a capitalist country they want "Everyone" no matter what race. along time ago a single law was passed after the Civil Rights movements called "Affirmative action", affirmitive action is a law that requires all american businesses, schools, colleges and or whatever alike to allow individuals of all races, dissabilities and gender into their facilities or the facility will be tried and shut down. Now you would say YAY great right, WRONG!. sure it was a big step for the civil rights movemnt and it helped a high percentage of african american, latin, irish, native american, and asians or others get into colleges and jobs much easier than it used to be. but somewhere along the line it got crapped upon. Its like trying to fill a "quota nowadays". Too many people have been complaining of equal job opportunites and therefore have caused problems for bussinesses. take any normal american college, now in order for that college to still be up and running it needs to fill its quota of students, "You need this number of this minority in order to get the proper funding and to keep the people happy" Doesnt matter what you paid or how good you are in your study skills, if you are of a minority you will have a higher chance of getting into the college than any normal person. The same goes for television in order to keep the people happy they need to have a number of this many shows for this type of people. but anyways, we dont need any latino shows all it will do is create stereotypes.
It's pretty much disturbing these days. With the post-feminist society many of the roles are reversed with a very demeaning effect. Look at "Everybody loves Raymond", "According to Jim", "King of Queens". These shows portray men as dumb, fat, slobs without a brain in their head who screw everything up. You wonder how they have good jobs and have a family. The wives are usually very hot, smarter, clever, dominant, the straight man, and always serve a role in looking on in disgust as their husbands do stupid things. You wonder how they got these women in the first place. Now I'm not one to preach about how men should be a certain thing, but it's pretty ridiculous these days. Why not have them both be smart disciplined funny people? Television has never transmitted positive messages. Before it was men who were dominant and worked while the women were sub-servient but now the women are smart and dominant while the men are dumb fat slobs with no brains. It's ridiculous.
Yes this was my point exactly. People think that we have changed for the better, but regardless of which sex is dominant it still isn't equal and it certainly does not depict the world that I live in. But yes, television was introduced to entertain those who could not find ways to entertain themselves. Too bad people aren't as creative as they used to be, maybe if families turned the damn tv off and stopped trying to be like those people so much, then things would actually change for the better.
no most people do not have enough sense to know better. that is why so many people try to become what they see on tv. one would like to think that we are an intelligent enough group of people to know better, but most are not.
