Communication:
(Name of the Author) is now at Department of___________, _______University
Communication: Artifact – Television Show: “I Love Lucy – Job Switching”
Introduction
Women have been proving their credibility, intellectuality and competency in almost every field. They have already proven that they are the best in technical, academic, intellectual field, and no field is inaccessible to them due to their feminine gender. But unfortunately, in media, they are still shown inferior, may it be daily soaps, movies or advertisements, they are always shown as either as a sex object or a dependent lady, a stereotype housewife. Their intellectual capacity is not always demonstrated by media. “The Taming of the Shrew” was a typical Elizabethan approach towards women. Unfortunately media have continued with the same sixteen century approach in twenty first century as well. Women’s physical beauty is projected rather than her intellectual capacity. It is the projection of media that the woman can be a role model only if she is domesticated. A typical patriarch family is portrayed in Media where woman is either a sex symbol or a stupid and flippant creature who cannot survive without the helping hand of her husband or any other male figure and she is always made for being housewife and a mother. Such image of the women is depicted by glorifying the male characters. The male characters are always shown enlightened.
In this paper the issue of gender stereotype has been discussed thoroughly with an artifact. The paper starts with the discussion regarding the detail information about the artifact. After the discussion, the paper goes on discussing the gender roles defined by the society and propagated in media. Though this artifact was originated in 1950s, the gender based psyche has not yet changed even in 21st century media where women are objectified and portrayed not more than a mother and a housewife.
Who, What, When, Where and How
The artifact taken for discussion is an episode of 1950s popular comedy TV Show “I Love Lucy”. The episode is “I Love Lucy – Job Switching.”. It is a Hollywood sitcom, a show which generally uses a single place. It was a comedy show in which a scatterbrained wife (Lucy) is shown engaging in some or other stupid acts which brings her husband into trouble. Her husband Ricky Ricardo is depicted as a sensible and rational husband who at the end of the program escapes Lucy from the trouble. The first episode of this show was aired on television on October 15, 1951. It was a post war era show. Soon the show became very popular in America’s television. The show was written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Davis, Bob Caroll Jr., Bob Schiller, and Bob Weiskopf. It was a Desilu production. The sitcom was set in an apartment building located in New York City. The number of episode, this sitcom completed is 181. The last episode was aired on May 6, 1957.
The story is set on the background of post war American society in which Patriarchal approach was dominating. It is a satire but probably a false satire where women are presented in a typical female stereotype. In that period, women were supposed to be stupid and incompetent. The irony of this story is that though the protagonist Lucy Ricardo is shown as a typical housewife with false ambition, and though ultimately she remains housewife, the actress played the role of Lucy; Lucille Ball was a professionally a very successful woman. She was a businesswoman, a successful actress and comedian. Lucille Ball was a radio and film actress. She got an opportunity to play a role in her own TV show, which was based on her radio show, My Favorite Husband. The career between Lucille Ball and her real husband Desi Arnaz, a bandleader, the relationship between husband and wife was stressful. The couple was not sparing time for each other. She thought that the sitcom would be an opportunity for her and Desi to work together and spend time in the company of each other (Anderson, n.d.). So she wanted Desi as her reel husband for the sitcom (Anderson, n.d.). The couple tried to convince the executives of CBS but the executives were doubtful whether Desi would be accepted by American audience. They were doubtful due to Desi Arnaz’s Cuban heritage. Hence Desi Arnaz was replaced by actor Richard Denning as Lucy’s reel husband.
The show is based on two couples; Lucy and her husband Ricky and Ethel and Fred. Lucy is frivolous character and through comedy, the show wants to convey the message of traditional gender role where women are supposed to be homemakers and physically attractive. They are not required to be intelligent and rational minded.
Among 181 episodes, the episode taken for the discussion of this paper is Job Switching. This episode was telecast on September 15, 1952. Lucy and Ricky and Ethel and Fred decide to switch their traditional gender roles. Accordingly it is decided that Lucy and Ethel go out for a job and Ricky and Fred will do cooking and other domestic chores.
“You will have to go out and earn the living.
Okay. We will.
We will? Yeah.
We’ll change places
We’ll get jobs, and you take care of the house for a week.”
The comedy starts there and the show ends up with the message that men are fit for the role of bread winner and women are fit for household chores. Both the men and women in the end realize that they have to do their gender assigned role. This is the contradiction between Lucy’s character and Lucille Ball. Unlike Lucy, Lucille Ball was an independent and professionally successful woman of her time. It means that in those days even the women could earn. But media tend to show the stereotype gender role.
Definitions
Gender Schema Theory: Gender schemas are cognitive networks associated with concepts of masculine and feminine, Highly gender-schematic individuals tend to organize many of their thoughts, perceptions and evaluations according to gender stereotypes and symbols (McManus, 1999). The theory was first coin by Sandra Bem in 1981.
Gender Socialization: The girls and boys are treated differently according to their gender. For example, girls are always given dolls and cooking toys to play, boys are given masculine toys such as guns, cars, trucks etc (Kimmel, 2000).
Social Cognitive Theory: This theory assumes that children learn gender theory through mental process of organizing their social world. The theory further assumption that “the child is an active interpreter of the world (Bell, 2004)
Promise Keepers: Promise Keepers is an organization founded in 1990. It believes that Industrial revolution changed the role of fathers and husbands because it took them to the workplace (Van, 1997). The women in such circumstances have the major responsibilities left and those are raising their children, instilling morality (Van, 1997).
Gender Roles: Jackson and Dangerfield (2003) define the term gender role as the ways women and men are socially and culturally assigned feminine and masculine behaviors.
Job Switching: Job Switching is one way to transfer the knowledge (Rothwell, 2011). This is a different experience to know how the other person performs his/her job.
Discussion
It is a question for debate whether media influence society or society influences media. I Love Lucy – Job Switching is the reflection of the typical male psyche of 1950s. On the contrary, today media define the physical appearance of the ideal female. The answer can be anything but both these sides have a common factor and that is the gender representation. This popular sitcom was so popular that it shapes next two to three generations with the message that women and men are assigned certain roles according to the gender and they have to abide by these roles only. In the very beginning of the episode, Fred says,
“There are two kinds of people; the earners and the spenders, or as they are more popularly known as husbands and wives.”
The above dialogue directly throws the light on gender roles and a stereotype gender approach that man always earns money and woman spends them lavishly. The sitcom no doubt entertains the people with wit and humor but indirectly it has taught the society that women cannot earn money. The women were portrayed as being incompetent and inefficient in any work. In the Employment company for example, when Lucy and Ethel go for getting employment, the person of the agency read the list of jobs available in the market; such as bookkeeper, Cantometer operator, Dental technician, insurance adjuster, PBX operator and Candymakers. It was a long list of available jobs in the market but unfortunately Lucy and Ethel are not competent in any of these jobs. Eventually Lucy lies that they have an experience of Candymakers. It signifies that these ladies have never been out for doing any kind of job. They are typical housewives, who have seldom knowledge of the outside world. The financial dependence of the women in those days is portrayed in a humorous way.
It is always the responsibility of the men to be the bread winner. Women are portrayed as spending money on petty issues such as beauty parlor; i.e. on their physical beauty. The sitcom indirectly has done the role of guide to men and women towards gender socialization. Gender socialization is the process where men and women are informed about the rules, norms and their gender based duties. In this process, it is taught how to behave according to the gender. Job Switching episode has taught the next generations the role of men and women in the society. In this episode Lucy and Ethel exchange their conventional role of homemakers to earners and their husbands Ricky and Fred switch from their conventional gender based role of earners to the role of the homemakers. At the end of the day, both of these pairs (Lucy-Ethel and Rick-Fred) mess up a lot. Lucy and Ethel are fired from the job on the first day, and Rich and Fred also fail to cook with lot of mess everywhere in the kitchen. In the end they again return to their original gender roles.
The Gender Schema theory propounded by Sandra Bem is based on the assumption that the individual becomes gendered in the society and sex linked characteristics are transferred from one generation to the next generation. Gender Schema theory is very closed to the concept of gender socialization. Before the advent of electronic media such as radio and television the responsibility of making the person gendered would be done by the elder members of the society. After the advent of electronic media, the same responsibility is carried forward by the media through entertainment. The medium of gender socialization changed but the conventional message remained the same. Gender Schema theory has been studied by various scholars. According to one study on Gender Schema Theory, individuals pay attention to gender stereotype-consistent information and ignore gender stereotype-inconsistent information, for example children accurately recall the image of a girl baking cookies but inaccurately recall the image of the girl boxing (Chrisler & McCreary, 2010). If we consider the above study on Gender Schema Theory, the media cannot be the responsible factor in defining the gender role. It is because if the media shows the unconventional approach towards gender roles, it may not be accepted by the audience.
Promise Keepers is an organization with the view to define the role of the men. In the wave of feminism, the organization emerged as an answer to the feminist movement. The organization was criticized by feminist organizations such as National Organization for Women (NOW). According to them, Promise Keepers organization inequality by spreading male superiority. As described by (Van 1997) the organization has been propagating the traditional gender role as shown in “Job Switching” episode of I Love Lucy. But at the same time, in the end the episode also conveys the message that every work may be it an office job and homemaking, both are equally difficult and none of them can be underestimated.
And the last point for discussion is job switching. Job Switching is the concept which frequently used in corporate world. The employees are switched from their own job to someone else’s job for a certain period of time. The objective behind job switching is that every employee should put himself/herself in the shoes of others. Then only every employee should understand what problems are faced by the other employees. It helps to empathize towards other employees. The other benefit of Job Switching is that the employee becomes experienced in other jobs as well. In the emergency, he or she can do the job of the other employee. In “Job Switching” episode the same message is conveyed. When we put ourselves in the shoes of others, we can realize that the job done by the other people also require skill and it is not easy as we think before getting into that job. When the emergency arises, for example in the house if the wife is sick and cannot even get up from her bed, the husband should know how to do house work and take the responsibility of the children. The episode can be taken positively in this way.
One more thing I would like to discuss here is that the husbands should never underestimate their wives for their homemaking. It is because if they feel ill, they can take leave from their workplace. But at home, the housewives are not allowed to take the leaves. It’s a twenty four hours duty. So it should be honored by everyone.
Implications/ Conclusion
We have not considered the other episodes of I Love Lucy in this paper. But as long as this episode is concerned, the gender role is prominent. Lucy and her friend Ethel both are shown materialistic and spending lavishly from the pockets of their husbands. Lucy spends money for the expenses of her beauty parlor. The materialistic approach of the contemporary women is presented through the character of Lucy and Ethel. On the contrary their husbands are shown enlightened, committed and earn money for their wives. This stereotype representation of men and women is controversial especially in feminists’ circle.
I Love Lucy was a saga of yesteryears where the defined gender roles were prominent. Now days, the women also are contributing substantially in running the family. Ivy and Backlund (2004) are quite positive about the gender roles when they argue that the stereotype gender roles are not there in today’s society. The changes have taken place in last some decades according to them. Now the women are earning equally to their husbands. At the same time, husbands also are very much aware of the fact that their wives are supporting the families financially. If earning is a collective responsibility, housekeeping, children- raising should also be the collective responsibilities of husband and wife. The husbands in modern time know it and they too help in domestic chores.
References
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Chrisler, J., & McCreary, D. (2010). Handbook of gender research in psychology. New York: Springer.
Jackson II, R.L., & Dangerfield, C.L. (2003). Defining Black masculinity as cultural property: Toward an identity negotiation paradigm. In L.A.
Kimmel, M. (2000). The gendered society. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ivy, D.K., & Backlund, P. (2004). Gender speak: Personal effectiveness in gender communication (3rd ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Samovar & R.E. Porter (2003), Intercultural communication: A reader (10th ed.) (pp. 120–131). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson.
McManus, B. (1999). Theories about the Construction of Gender Identity. www2.cnr. Retrieved 27 February 2016, from https://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/socialization.html
Rothwell, W. (2011). Invaluable knowledge. New York: American Management Association.
Van, L. (1997). Servanthood or soft patriarchy? A Christian feminist looks at the Promise Keepers movement. The Journal Of Men's Studies, 5, 233-261.
