Comparing Dollhouse And Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, And Firefly

Gender roles are consistently found in our society, within media, and in marketing procedures. In Laurie Halse Anderson’s fiction, Twisted, gender roles are constantly found and exchanged between characters. Along with Twisted, Anderson’s fiction, Speak, thoroughly exhibits gender roles. In Twisted, Tyler goes through gender roles when he has to act like the typical tough male. In Speak, Nicole breaks gender roles by being an athletic character. In these two novels they both heavily show the roles of the two genders, and show what they go through. Gender roles are definitely enforced by social expectations and the expectations people hold above themselves. Gender roles are definitely enforced by social expectations and the expectations people hold above themselves.

when we think women are the protagonist or the hero, the story ends up revolving around the man.

Certainly, gender roles are fixed expectations of how people should feel, speak, or interact in society according to their sex. Women are expected to play subordinate roles to their male counterparts. Despite the societal assumption that women are not as strong as men mentally because they are not as strong physically was an advantage for women to achieve goals privately in the following dramas. In Trifles, Antigone, and Dollhouse the women who played submissive roles in public, exhibited powerful acts of bravery for themselves and others. These women are powerful characters despite societal expectations and proved they are stronger than the men believed because they used passive methods to reach tough objectives.

In the media we see today, and movies that are continually coming out all have a central idea in common. They all show and represent the idealistic perspective of male versus female in society. From cartoons to chick flicks to romances and comedies we notice identifiable differences and trends represented between the two genders. In the movie I watched, “Clueless,” there are many examples illustrating male superiority over female, ideas of what femininity should be, and female appeal towards the male figures in the film.

At the same time, though, the show allows its characters to explore their own ideas of what gender is, and how those ideas come into play with the ideas of the people in their environment.

Sara Magee’s article, “High School is Hell: The TV Legacy of Beverly Hills, 90210, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (2014), argues that both television shows positively changed and impacted teen-based programs during and after their air time. Magee supports this claim by providing descriptions of how teens were depicted in teen-based dramas prior to the 1990’s and how these two shows introduced controversial topics that made teens think about their actions. Magee’s purpose is to point out how these two shows broke the norms of traditional teen dramas that focused on the ideal teen lifestyle in order to show that Beverly Hills, 90210 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are the predecessors of controversial teen dramas of the 21st century. Based on the

Heteronormativity is when heterosexuality believed to be the only natural norm in our society for sexual orientation. “New Girl”, an American sitcom, aired in 2011 on Fox, follows Jess (Zooey Deschanel) as she lives in a loft in Los Angeles with three men she meets on Craigslist. The second episode of the second season is what will be focused on in this essay. During which Jess meets a stranger when he accidentally mistakes her for his blind date, Nick (Jake Johnson) believes he has met his future self, and Schmidt (Max Greenfield) tries to make a good impression on Winston’s (Lamorne Morris) mom and sister. The writers of “New Girl” follow basic gender roles within the story-lines of the television show. The show follows a heteronormative plot. Through examining “New Girl”, a viewer can see the issues arise when considering the portrayal of men and women in media, and heteronormativity in television shows.

Some characters feel the need to succumb to the stereotypical roles while others avoid the role they are to play in order to get what they want because they are weak, this shaped them both as a man/ woman and character in the play.

Viewers are hooked on to the idea and, try to become these characters by dressing and talking like the males in the

It reinforces gender norms like pink is for girls and blue is for boys. In addition, audiences often see boy geniuses in television shows and movies, but we rarely see women depicting such roles. By depicting DD as hyper-feminine, the show is teaching young girls that they must look and act a certain way because this is what is expected of them. Mandark’s lust over DD, shows young boys that they must like “girly-girls”. It also teaches young girls that they should want boys to chase after them.

The men in these stories are not as advanced as the female characters, they aren’t as focused on. The female characters have different traits then the male characters. The female characters come off as more emotional but regain their barring’s quickly. Whereas the male characters jump to conclusions and shut down emotionally before anything

Movies are an adventure. Whether it’s a fictional galaxy far far away or a true tale of the modern day hero, film has the ability to tell an intriguing story unlike any other medium. Unfortunately, most of these stories told have a similar problem circulating around the demotion of female characters to male characters. Female characters are more often than not othered by their male counterparts and their roles, personality, and purpose in films reflect it. This problem isn’t specific to one genre, nonetheless it’s a cancerous disease spreading the body of work that is film.

One example would be in “The Walking Dead” when the women are talking about their past lives they are doing the laundry. Also, one of the main male characters is the only one who hunts for food, the leader is a male, and the farmer who knows how to grow the food is male. One strong female character is seen reading to the children and taking care of them.

Before examining these characters it is important to define gender with the understanding that masculinity is a gendered hegemony. In her definition of gender, Judith Halberstam notes that gender is socially systematized, performed, and reproduced in cultures, institutions, and individual identities (Burgett, Bruce, and Hendler, 116). Mimi Schippers expands this definition in her article on gendered violence, implying that masculinity is central to gender relations. In short, Schippers defines masculinity as “simultaneously a place in gender relations, the practices through which men and women engage… in gender, and the effects of these practices on bodily experience, personality, and culture” (Schippers, 86). Here, masculinity is classified as a social position, the set and practice of masculine qualities (substantially by

Gender is defined as the state of being male or female. Gender consists of the assortment of mental traits that differ between the sexes; thus, gender scripts are the behavior expectations given to males and females. The characters in the movies either feed into or go against gender scripts. Case in point, Edward is a wealthy businessman, and for that reason, his character feeds into the gender script of men being breadwinners and guiders in patriarchal societies. For instance, Edward is displayed as a savior, a hero of some sort, due to the fact that he takes Vivian off the streets, hires her, and transforms her into a well-rounded, respectable woman. Edward is also