The Amazing Race: Gender Stereotypes

It is very well known to all that media is a big part of society today. It influenced how we see ourselves and the world to some extent. There are different types of media that is offered today, for example: TV, movies, radio, and newspapers. Within the different forms of media, women and men are represented in a certain way, all with different characteristics. In this essay, I will argue that there is similar gender stereotypes presented in the shows Modern Family and Every Body Loves Raymond, and how they differ from the show Full House.

Full house is an American sitcom television series that’s about a widowed father named, Danny Tanner, his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis, and his best friend Joey Gladstone, who help Danny raise his three children, D.J, Stephanie, and Michelle. Full House came out around the late 1980s, unfortunately, due to the the increasing costs of producing the show the series was cancelled on May 23, 1995. As a young child, Full House may have seemed as your ordinary American sitcom that is about love, friendship, and family. But that is not the case in this show, as young adults and re-watching the show again, you may stumble upon the deeper meaning and messages behind the show that is significant to society today. Such as, Full house breaks gender stereotypes and it has strong, real, and important life lessons for children.

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

I have to agree with what Mikyla thinks is entertaining on the Survivor television show. Seeing other people make silly mistakes and, consequently, become upset with themselves or with others is funny to me. It sounds very bad to say this but, like you said, it is a fake show when it comes down to it. I do not necessarily feel better about my problems when I see other people struggling though.

Specific words trigger predisposed thoughts in the mind. When one hears the word “rapper” or “supermodel,” immediately an image about each formulates in his or her mind. Many create judgments in their mind of specific people groups through personal experiences. These images are called stereotypes. Stereotypes, though sometimes accurate, can be offensive.

Reality television is a popular genre of television programming amongst American society. According to CNN one-third of Americans engage in five or more hours of reality television. The most popular amongst the African American community are Real Housewives of Atlanta, Love and Hip Hop, Bad Girls Club, and Basketball Wives (Tyree, 2011). Researchers are curious to explore whether African American women's portrayal on reality television reinforce negative stereotypes. This study intends on centralizing shows like the Real Housewives of Atlanta, Bad Girls Club, the Love and Hip Hop series, and Basketball Wives to observe if these programs support negative stereotypes.

The judges mostly look at the girl’s personality. At the beginning of the pageant, each contestant gives the judges a bio about themselves; with this, judges base their questions off of the contestant’s answers. According to Taylor Jobin, “Pageants mock women's intelligence by asking impossible questions” (Taylor Jobin). This is not true for each question asked in this competition is based on the contestant bio. The bio may have information about the contestant’s recent vacation so the judge would ask in the interview “what was your favorite part about visiting Niagara Falls.” Another article by Rita Panahi says that they ask political questions only insulting people's intelligence and it fools nobody. A book about this specific competition

What once started as every day, regular people appearing on television shows have now morphed into celebrities and want to be celebrities competing for attention and doing almost anything to receive it on primetime television. The genre of television, which was once jumpstarted by the appeal of relatable people, who could be the viewers’ next door neighbors, being featured has since disappeared and been replaced by a monstrosity that does not accurately portray reality and often stereotypes people (Huff). One specific group that has been targeted by what reality television has morphed into is women. The new version of reality television is specifically adequate at encouraging gender culture, the set of behaviors or practices associated with masculinity and femininity (Huff). Reality television enforces gender roles and negatively impacts feminism in today’s society. Reality television sexualizes women, portrays them as dependent on and less superior to men, and exemplifies them as dramatic, catty, and often only as homemakers. The portrayal and stereotyping of women on reality television is demoralizing and can be described as “the contemporary backlash against feminism” (“Reality TV”). These false and demeaning stereotypes are prevailed in all types of reality television shows, making their impact extensive, considering Americans spend one-third of their spare time watching television and of that time sixty-seven percent is spent watching reality television (“Reality

For thousands of years, established gender roles have been a part of our society. Women are commonly known as sensitive, emotional, or passive. On the contrary, men are described as rational, competitive, independent, or aggressive. Believing women are more emotional than men is stereotyping. However, the stereotype is not entirely untrue. Development of gender roles is often conditioned more by environmental or cultural factors than by hereditary or biological factors. The development of gender roles between men and women involves the inference of peer community of each gender, the communication style of male and female and the intimacy or connection level of men and women.

These reality television shows use stereotypes in many cases to continue to have an audience, and because people continue to watch these shows, these stereotypes are not only in television but they disseminate into

Girls and boys don't play on the same sports teams in the National leagues. There is not one boys and girls team. I think that girls should be able to play on sports teams with guys in the major leagues.

Every little girl dream is to win a pageant for their mother or father, but what if they don’t win. Girls from ages 4-8 have very emotional when it comes to winning or when their parents put a lot of pressure on them to win. I think parents should let the kids decide whether they would like to join a pageant for the fun of it. Even though girls like to dress up, put on make-up, and have fun doing talents that are unique, their parents would like to embrace their personality to the world. I think little girls have feelings and they can get hurt in pageants because of their make-up, dresses, and sometimes talents.

Team sports are a fun activity that many kids participate in, both girls and boys. However, sometimes there is a sport a girl wants to play in but no all-girls team for it, so girls can be allowed to play on a boys' team. I support allowing girls to play on a boys' team when there is no girls' team. There are many benefits that can come from this too, such as breaking stereotypes, sexism, and allowing girls to build better friendships with guys.

This paper is a media analysis of the TV show Modern Family in relation to gender as a social institution. We constantly consume media without knowing it has repercussions. Media is a social institution that reinforces gender and racial social inequalities. For my data, I randomly picked (through a random episode generator) season 5 episode 8 and season 6 episode 18 as my two episodes to analyze. In this paper I will show how cultural stereotypes about identity and femininity intersect on Modern Family to reinforce gender and racial inequalities.

Sex and the City is an HBO series that ran from 1998-2004 and produced two films in 2008 and 2010. The show was initially heralded as progression for the feminist movement when it started nearly 16 years ago. No other show at the time was led by four women, and Sarah Jessica Parker’s character, Carrie Bradshaw, was considered television’s first female “anti-hero”, according to an article in The New Yorker (Nussbaum, 2013). Although the characters’ personalities and development were complex, the writers of the show still managed to apply harmful female stereotypes to each of them.