Masculinity In Sitcoms

The stereotyping of women is quite common in today 's society and throughout history. In the past, women have taken the full time job of being a mother and a housewife. The 1930s initially started the ideal image of a woman. A woman was often represented as a maid-like being who would serve to their husband and children. In Richard Alleyne’s article, “Advice for women in the 1930s: Nothing Destroys the Happiness of Married Life More than the Lazy, Slovenly Wife,” he discusses the frequent expectations of a housewife. Common assumptions included; “Don’t argue with your husband; do whatever he tells you and obey all his orders” (1) and “Nothing destroys the happiness of married life more than the lazy, slovenly wife” (1). These rules have often been published into past newspapers that were

This research looks at the association of masculinity with violence, racism, power and the objectification of women, which has been around since early civilization. This study also shows how these concepts are still evident today in the media. Masculinity in the media is portrayed as muscular, violent, angry, aggressive, dominant, and warrior like. The rhetoric in media, as it relates to masculinity, has influenced the amount of violence in the world.

The old feminine mystique, before the wars end was a woman would have “strength in her hands, pride in her carriage and nobility in the lift of her chin.” This change was caused because the old Rosie figure changed. Her attitude and fashion sense changed to accommodate the more ideal woman for a man of the time period. Not only did this figure change, but the figures of TV shows changed as well. In the shows like ‘Father Knows Best’ and ‘The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet’, ‘Our Miss Brooks‘, ‘I Love Lucy‘, and ‘The Honeymooners’ the women being portrayed are stay at home moms that support the family or women that are independent but need and want a man in their lives. All these women at first reflected the ideal woman, but after a while it became the majority because when people saw it influenced their decisions greatly. In the end of the time period however, and in the later shows like ‘I Love Lucy‘, and ‘The Honeymooners’, the women roles started to show more dominant traits. This idea helped to change the feminine mystique again, changing for the good.

In the 1960’s, women had been placed in stereotypical roles for years. But women were tired of these roles and were done with being complacent. They felt like something was missing in their lives, and they desired something more. The typical American

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 treatment of the male gender role is altogether different from that of the female gender role, and this issue has turned out to be important. Gender roles were extraordinarily changed in the 1950s, with the men returning from war and taking their occupations back. Females had, throughout World War II, taken men’s occupations while they had been away at war. After the war, numerous women needed to keep their occupations. Instead, a considerable amount of them got to be spouses and moms as the men returned from the war. For example, the male spouses were away at work for most the day while the wives would need to do a decent measure of the manual work around the house. The type of chores could have been cleaning, cooking, or other tasks the female spouses handled. These adjustments in the home might not have been viewed as positive but rather they were for women. Ladies truly advanced in the fifties with finding new openings for work and discovering their place in the world. Therefore, two articles explain further in detail about the

It was not that long ago where women in the 1950s were held by certain standards. The sad part is that much hasn’t changed today. Many women today work outside the home (a single household income is not enough support) and are still expected to maintain the “housewife” image. Child bearing, cleaning, and cooking are still considered a woman’s job.

When women first aired on television, they were seen as housewives and mothers. Few had jobs. Most of the women had husbands that worked hard everyday, and they had submissive roles. Women were not the decision makers, nor did they have too much intelligence. This was seen in shows such as All in the Family, The Beavers, The Donna Reed Show, The Brady Bunch, and many more. There were not any female news anchors, and when they were on television they did cooking shows, and perhaps the weather. As time moved on and the Women Movement began, women became working mothers; still they had lower roles, such as secretarial ones, and factory jobs. Presently women have been portrayed as more career oriented. They are doctors and lawyers, managers, and television anchors. There are also many shows where women are more independent. Many are not married, some are single mothers, and some are even divorced. This was a positive change, but yet it does hold some media bias. The problem is whether these changes occurred because of a societal shift, or was this because people who invested in the media saw this happening, wanted ratings, and felt that this must be done and in turn society began to shift their way of thinking about women; or was it a combination of both?

Television sitcoms of the 1950’s through the 1990’s demonstrated the values and structure of the American family by portraying stereotypes. Since television sets became mainstream and entered almost every American home, the content of American sitcoms has reflected the culture of the times. Thus, as the popular American sitcoms of the 1950’s suggest, families living in the 1950’s were very tightly grouped and did everything together with roles of males and females clearly defined. In the 1950,’s women did the housecleaning and child care and men worked, providing for the family. In the sixties, women acquired more freedom in their lives. The 1963 Equal Pay Act and the 1964 Civil Rights Act came into effect. It was the end of the baby boomer

Women’s role within the household has changed considerably over a period of time. In the later days in the United States women were to attend to the children and to the house and not do much more than that. Children are now being raised by stay at home dads instead of the stereotypical stay at home moms. According to Gardner, "Real-life families have changed considerably since 'Mr. Mom ' appeared, with more men sharing child-rearing and household chores." (Gardner 2010) This is occurring because women’s jobs are no longer labeled as being just for women. Men have gotten a lot of criticism for being stay at

Sitcoms reflect the changes going on in the world to show what society is like. Sometimes it’s a show about nothing and oftentimes sitcoms actually affect the world. Sitcoms created gender role stereotypes for society and they did not always show an accurate representation of life. Early on, sitcoms were family focused and they eventually begin to shed light on different problems in society. Throughout the sitcoms The Trouble With Father, Sex and the City, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Bewitched women transitioned from being in the traditional role to being an effective part of the workplace. Women were portrayed differently throughout these sitcoms; they portray women to be leaders, submissive, or the fool.

The 1950’s had a male dominant tone. Although wives were seen as the people who “ran the house” the husbands were going to work early in the morning and not coming home until night. A perfect example of what marriage supposedly looked like was the popular TV show “I Love Lucy” starting in 1951. Within months the show had millions of viewers becoming a

The aim was to study how women are portrayed in “Desperate Housewives” and how the modern women have similar identities as traditional housewives.

However, when a few steadfast women publicly demanded equality for the sexes, the feminist movement began. (Archer 2). The women became known as suffragists, and the believed women could have important roles outside the home (Giele 117). They pressured for women's entrance into the public sphere and for equal opportunities (Giele xi). However, their efforts were belittled by men who feared for their status. The men discredited the women’s femininity by calling them mannish (Giele 129) but still exploited their bodies in the media (Archer 15). In order to take control over women's representation, feminists started wearing “bloomers” instead of the restricting and confining skirts (Jules 7). By 1989, women started getting even more positive images in media with TV show sitcom heroines. Roseanne, an overweight, funny, working mother, captured her audience by yelling, “I am a women. Hear me roar!” (Archer 18). Society has advanced considerably since then, but woman and girls still search for positive influential role models in the media to disrupt the notion that men are superior to women.

Gender roles, the public image of being a particular gender that a person presents to others (gender roles, n.d.), have seen many changes through the years, especially in families. The changes can be seen in many aspects, including television shows, from the traditional family in the I Love Lucy sitcom of the 1950s to the plethora of shows about women and men who balance working and family life of the 2000s. A traditional family can be defined as “… the ‘natural reproductive unit’ of mom, pop, and the children all living under one roof… (Ball, 2002).” The 1940s, a period dominated by this type of family, were primarily a time of single-income families where the father was the ‘breadwinner’ and the mother the ‘homemaker (Hayghe, H.V., 1990).’