Academic Affiliation
Mass media is a powerful tool that influences people’s attitude and way of thinking. In forming a perception about male and women, media contributes to the stereotypes people develop about men and women as a result of the roles they portray in movies and TV shows. Looking closely at TV shows today and the years passed, these stereotypes on men and women are easily observable.
In the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, Dr. Christina Yang was a cardiothoracic surgical
fellow at Seattle Grace Hospital. She was a successful surgeon and had to give up having a family in order to continue with her career. Later on she became the director of cardiothoracic surgery at Klausman Institute for Medical Research and that was when she left the show. She was Asian American, a beautiful woman in an unpretentious and unconscious way. Her character was that of a driven woman, ambitious, and go-getter. She excelled in everything she did but was emotionally available, cold, insensitive. Apart from being sarcastic and brutally honest, Dr. Yang also had a biting temperament, but also exhibits empathy and compassion when least expected. The stereotype was that a successful women can’t have a family unless she gives up her career.
In the Big Bang Theory, men had successful careers in life while some of the women, although smart and capable, had to do waitressing jobs to get through med school. Bernadette is a microbiologist who worked as a waitress to finish med school. She is petite, blonde, and wears red-frame glasses. Although she has a sweet personality, she is also assertive and frank, which she expresses in a really high voice. She is mostly soft-spoken but gets mad easily.
Max in Two Broke Girls was brunette, curvaceous, and busty. She is a waitress-turned-cupcake-baker after she and friend Caroline put up a bakeshop. Although she is smart, she is struggling in life due to her inability to find a good job. She is mostly insulting and habitually rude.
In Two and a Half Men, Jon was the exact opposit of his late brother Charlie. He is a deuteragonist, an overall nice guy but is extremely awkward around women. He is tall and lean, but is easily pissed of the fact that his brother gets women easily and he doesn’t. Robin in How I Met Your Mother was pretty and sexy albeit a bit brash and tomboyish, liked drinking and smoking and toting a gun. Unlike the men in the series who were all professionally successful, Robin was struggling in her career. She first became a pop star, then a journalist and eventually a morning show host. Despite the failure in her career, she remains cool and gets along well with the male and female characters. These examples show gender stereotype in modern American TV shows.
The idea of gender stereotyping in media goes way back 20-30 years ago as shown in TV shows that time. In Friends, Phoebe was the eccentric friend with long blonde hair and svelte figure. She was unpredictable but loving, street smart but at times appeared to be unintelligent. In general she is nice but is sometimes direct without realizing that she has offended someone. Among their friends, espeically the males, she seemed to have a less colorful career. She worked as a masseuse and played a guitar in a coffee house called Central Perk. Joey, another memeber of the group, was also stereotyped as a happy-go-lucky kind of guy who was faster on girls than his mind. He was an actor but was never given a big break despite his Italian good looks. He was muscular because he was into sports, but was also promiscuous. However, he was loyal and protective to his friends.
Darrin Stephen in bewitched was the witch’s husband who found himself lost and struggling to come to terms with the fact that his mother-in-law hated him and would always do mischief at his expense. He was tall and good-looking man who’s working in a successful advertising company. He was a responsible family man and was sweet and soft-spoken when talking to his wife and children. However, he was sensitive and seemed to be cross to his mother-in-law because of the mischief that she always caused. Another man stereotype as lost and awkward was Robert Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond. He was extremely tall and worked as police officer with the NYPD. Because of his job and looks, women found him appealing. However, he was immature and scared of committing in a relationship, which is why he was still single. He had a cruel sense of humor which was usually directed to his brother Raymond who was their mother’s favorite son. His voice was usually loud and booming but he was exceptionally scared and sweet to his mother.
Dharma and Greg talked about their whirlwind romance. The stereotype in the series was the same with the stereotype role that women in most TV series play, wherein the women was either an underachiever or currently struggling in life. Greg was a lawyer while Dharma was a mere yoga instructor and dog trainer. However, she was too cheerful and taught Greg how to have a more positive outlook in life. She was also sensitive and was compassionate to others. Her smiling face reflects her understanding of the world and the easy way she forgives people. Her soft and calming voice puts people around her at ease easily.
