Gender Stereotypes In Full House

If people believed what is shown on television re-runs of classic shows from the 1950s, that would mean the conventional American family has two children, a stay at home mother, who cleans while wearing pearls, and a father who works hard and yet constantly has time for his kids. The big issue with the idea offered in those old television shows is that the classic family portrayed is actually nothing more than a miss myth. Stephanie Coontz claims that

There are many ways that the idea of the “traditional” family has changed over the past several centuries. For instance prior to the 19th century family was often considered anyone who lived within a household whether related by blood or not. This included employees and extended family. Per Coontz (2010) “The biological family was less sacrosanct, and less sentimentalized, than it would become in the nineteenth century.”(p. 35) In society at the time it was socially unacceptable to be separate or not included as part of a family household. Over time, the term family came to encompass the immediate family, a husband, wife and their children. During the late 1800’s through the mid 1900’s there were emerging ideas of family that were not widely accepted as traditional or normal, these included single parent homes with only a Mom or Dad, Stepfamilies and same sex couple and parent households. Today, American ideas of what constitutes a family have drastically expanded to include these formerly “non-traditional” families

In the beginning of television series with childless couples, the wife was the one that stayed at home, cleaned, cooked, and did the laundry. The husband was the one that made the money by going to work. Television series always portrayed women as the weaker characters. “Women in the early 1950s family were weak, secondary characters, and as such were usually dominated by their husbands and their own conceptions of marriage” (Hastings, 1974). Certain episodes of

Traditionally, men are viewed as strong, dominant and logical, while women are regarded as the weak sex, thus being dependent on the males to make decisions and to protect them as well as their children. These roles go far back in time when males in fact had to protect their families from other tribes, wild animals etc. Even today the same values are applied both in real life and in media. In general a woman is depicted as wife, mother or a sex object. (Sex, Gender, Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation”, Year unknown).

Years ago, the father worked and provided whereas the mother usually with the service of a housekeeper cooked, maintained and cared for the children. Consequently, the norms of the era made roles clearly identifiable amongst men and women. Because of these arrangements, men and women knew what character roles to depict. I can relate to this; my father was the head of the home, he was the financial provider, in contrast, my mother cared for myself a younger and older brother with the assistance of a housekeeper. My mom would cook when not otherwise occupied with other responsibilities, and the housekeeper would cook and clean. I often felt I was living an installment of The Brady Bunch. Fast forward to the 1990’s, times are different.

The traditional American family comes from the 1950s, when TV shows like Leave It to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet were released. They were the model to follow and create the family that the myth promotes. Parents happily married, nice house in suburbia, and a harmonious home are common traits of the model American Family. The myth of the American family creates a template for other families to follow; however, it only reflects to Caucasian families and creates a disappointment on today’s society.

The Brady Bunch were the ideal families in the 1960's and 1970's, and in the 80's, it was Family Ties. When the 1990's approached us, television shows took on a whole new outlook on American Families. There were shows such as Full House, which was about a single father raising three daughters with the help of his brother-in-law and his best friend. Roseanne was also another show that showed the "dysfunctional" side of families. American Families keep changing, and they will continue to change in our future.

Full house is a T.V. show that would play on Nickelodeon or ABC family. Full House was aired on September 22, 1987 and ended on May 23, 1995. It was about a family, there father Danny, that is a widowed. Best friend/ brother-in-law to help raise his 3 daughters. There was a total of 8 season and 192 episodes. It was created by Jeff Franklin. Jeff is an American producer, screenwriter, and a director.

One example of a “traditional” family depicted on television is Lois and Peter Griffin from Family Guy. Lois is a stay at home wife while Peter works at the Quahog Brewery. Although the show focuses on the family’s dysfunctionality it does portray how the traditional family works. A lot of the time Lois is shown taking care of Stewie (the baby) and doing housework such as cooking. Peter is almost never shown taking care of the baby or doing any housework. Some of the benefits they receive from this family structure is getting to spend more time with their child while also not paying a day care and the housework being done. The experiences the Griffins go through on a daily basis do support my initial opinion on the ideal family structure.

Full house is a TV show that came out in 1987 based around a family. The show is about a widowed dad and his two roommates, one who is his best friend and the other is his brother in law, they help him raise his three daughters. The show comes with many laughs and punchlines. Years later the producers came out with a sequel of the show with many differences and similarities. The new show is called fuller house and the tables have turned. Fuller House was made for the fans who love the original show, the point is to revisit the past. This new sitcom is similar to the original in three ways which are the characters, plot, and a lesson is to be learned.

For many years reality TV shows function as the primary mass media and they play a significant part in changing our underlying gender stereotypes. The reality TV show "The Amazing Race" challenged the stereotypical demeanor of masculinity and femininity. Women could be masculine represented by their competitiveness in the race whereas men appear collaborative, which is stereotypically attached with femininity, in order to win the race. This study investigates gender stereotypes portrayed in "The Amazing Race" Israel season 4. This study attempts to explore how a reality show addresses gender stereotypes. I will start by thinking again regarding the significance of language and gender by indicating the obstacles in writing a study about language

My chosen scene is from a popular T.V. show called How I Met Your Mother. This show goes with gender stereotypes and goes against gender stereotypes. The show is about a group of friends, Lily and Marshall being an engaged/married couple, Barney the single “player”, Robin a Canadian tomboy, and Ted the main character, who is a hopeless romantic trying to find true love in New York City. Ted, over the past couple episodes meets a girl and she becomes his girlfriend. In the meantime, he’s spending all of his time with her, Lily and Marshall have a romantic weekend planned leaving Barney and Robin to hang out together, they decide to have a “Bro” date. Robin and Barney do typical guy things, such as; smoking cigars, playing laser tag, and

The mid 70’s became the climax in allowance for different family situation. Unlike the 50’s and 60’s where women played minor roles as housewives, the 70’s presented a new kind of role for females: single moms. Sitcoms such as The Partridge Family, focused on the mother figure and displayed the roles she undertook as both a mother and a father. Comparing The Partridge Family to a modern sitcoms such as Ben & Kate, these shows share a male characters that “fills in” the father figure gap and the struggle both mothers face as single parents. On the other hand, they differ in the child’s rebellion due to their void in a paternal figure.

Over the past two decades, the impact of gender role stereotyping on our society has been examined in numerous studies. The purpose of these studies was to determine whether the sex bias portrayed in books, TV shows and social media is still as prevalent as in the past. Modern Family is one of the TV shows that clearly prove that, the roles played by males and females have changed in by the time. Modern Family show is about a family that tackles normal, everyday problems. The show features three combined families Jay and Gloria, Phil and Claire, Mitchell and Cameron and how different genders in each family act. Because of gender stereotype issues like gay marriage, house wives and large difference in age between married couples, this show focused on challenging these stereotypes and solving such conflict in our society.

How women are perceived by others, and how women perceive themselves, impacts their leadership roles in the work place. Stereotypes and gender biases are themes women have been dealing with for centuries. How women are perceived by social medial and television have been influencing how they are treated by men, and how they view themselves when it comes to taking a leadership role in their organization. According to Omega Institute (2012), “The rapidly shifting landscape of new media and technology, including reality television and celebrity culture, continue to reinforce gender stereotypes” (p. 1). This leads to men still growing up viewing women as home makers versus bread winner. With more women entering leadership roles in the work place they lack the respect from men due to how these men have grown up to know the typical role of a man and woman. Men tend to feel belittled due to the gender stereotypes seen on television, and this leads to women struggling to succeed as a leader with the lack of support from their male counterparts. Lack of confidence with women in the workplace is also influenced and effected by how women are perceived in social media and television. According to Steele (2005), “Exposure to stereotypic commercials persuade women to avoid leadership roles” (p. 276). As young women grow up seeing the typical gender stereotypes they lack ambitions to break the mold and