The Effects Of Television On Children 's Television

According to the European institute for gender equality, “Gender roles refer to social and behavioural norms which, within a specific culture, are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex.” In our culture, this tends to mean that women are supposed to be passive while men are supposed to be assertive. As pointed out by both Kristin Lieb and Jean Kilbourne in their TED Talks, the media plays a huge role in shaping our gender expectations and norms. Children watch many hours of television everyday. This has a large impact on how they view gender roles even from an early age. Unfortunately, many, if not most children's shows only reinforced negative stereotypes about gender until recently. While over the past

However, it can be observed and said that they have always lived up to the image of “housewife” material or as a constant collaborator of a male role, instead of being the main character. According to Elasmar, M., Hasegawa, K., & Brain, M, on their essay the portrayal of women in the US prime television, “TV has portrayed females in many ways, studies have shown that women have been underrepresented and stereotyped in TV programs.” Women have been living under that invisible stereotype that has cornered them and does not allow them to grow professionally or socially. TV has been the master-mind behind a stereotype that has left women without the chance of demanding equality or credibility on shows, a stereotype that will always be mentioned and enforce if TV shows do not start producing real-world programs based on true stories or true qualities of

Today, more children are somehow connected to the media. Having computers, television, and phones, there always is a way to access it. The media being this accessible can cause problems, because in almost every show that airs on television has some type of gender bias. From how they portray a character from it’s behavior, role or appearance. This has set bad examples for children watching since the children copy what they see on TV. The cartoons, Charlie Brown, Phineas and Ferb, and SpongeBob SquarePants all have a gender bias. Each cartoon is aired on televisions at different times, so it show’s how throughout time gender bias is still an issue.

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.

In her essay “The Smurfette Principle”, Katha Pollitt writes that commercial television and the views of preschoolers TV programs neatly divided between the genders. Pollitt describes boys are always more important, and take starring role in contemporary television shows, movies, cartoons then girls are in the supporting role. This theory split their consciousness, change both boys and girls.

Women are deemed as a “minority” yet make up 51% of the world population and in 2014 made up only 12% of protagonists in films. And that is just on-screen, the percentage decreases as you go farther and farther into behind-the-scenes positions such as directors, cinematographers, and writers. Add race and ethnicity and those characters' percentages decline even more (Lauzen, 2015.) Women in film and television are often portrayed with emphasis based on their body type and in advertisement are largely objectified. The large objectification and misrepresentation of women in the media has led to an offset psychological view of women from growing up to adulthood.

In Kantha Pollitt 1991 article “The Smurfette Principle” she makes the argument that, like Smurfette who is surrounded entirely by only male characters, the majority of media in the United States is centered on male characters and the women and girls in those images are almost entirely supporting characters. To drive this point home she states, “Take a look at the kids’ section of your local video store. You’ll find that features starring boys, and usually aimed at them, account for 9 out of 10 offerings.”(Pollitt, 1991) In other words, despite women (and girls) comprising about half of the U. S. population, about 90% of the media available for children is geared almost directly towards boys. Additionally, when discussing the content of much of what is available, she states, “Boys define the group, its story, and its code of

The way that television has portrayed these roles has also changed drastically, from TV shows in the 50’s like I Love Lucy and Father Knows Best, to shows in today’s time such as Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy. The way that genders are portrayed in television has drastically changed since the 1950’s.

In their pieces on the Smurfette principle, Pollitt and Ellis both discuss the idea that gender representations have intense effects on the children who absorb certain types of popular entertainment. Although we are hesitant to accept it, we are all influenced by the media in a very powerful way. Whether it be through TV shows, billboards, movies or the news. One thing that we commonly wonder about is if the adult female population is as influenced by the stereotyped gender roles present on TV or are we shaped at a young age and carry that perspective with us throughout our lives. This Smurfette principle has been around for almost two decades. It was introduced by Katha Pollitt and is unfortunately still present in our current 21st

Television, since its inception, has had a knack at being a mirror for the current state of society. Through this medium, one is easily able to spot the changes our culture has gone through since TV was first created. One example of this social shift, is that of the woman's role in television starting from the 50’s to the present. In 1950’s

SNL is one of the longest running shows in television history, beginning in 1975 and still broadcasting live almost every Saturday up until today, making it the perfect choice to analyze for gender. With 42 seasons, and hundreds of performers throughout the year the show has seen a great deal, and can demonstrate how gender appearance and portrayal on televisions has changed throughout the years. The basis of the show is the live comedy sketches that can cover politics, pop culture, and other humorous topics. The show is one of a kind and in a genre that is almost entirely it’s own and has been around for over half a century, making it an interesting and ideal sample to

If this continues, girls self-confidences will continue spiraling downward. Young girls ambitions will be diminished, and will force themselves into being housewives or working at jobs society deems “appropriate” for them. Women have made many influential changes in America the last century, why let it all stop? As Katha Pollitt said, “our preschoolers don't have time. My funny, clever, bold, adventurous daughter is forming her gender ideas right now” (Pollitt 3). It's possible that children could try and monitor their own television usage, or that parents could monitor it more for them. However, whether it be a minute or an hour, turning on the television to a children's program will display harsh stereotypes and gender roles. That is why I suggest a change in entertainment. It's almost 2016, television and books should be gender neutral and help kids aspire to be more, not

Growing up as a child with parents that were both fairly busy with work I often found myself sat in front of a television either waiting for the day to begin or to end. I remember watching shows and seeing how the boys always seemed to be more outspoken, hyper-masculine and the leader in a given situation while the girls were always the passive ones who were depicted as shy followers. Now that I am older I find myself watching even more television, allowing me to see how the media depicts men and women in society. For example, The Big Bang Theory, in its earlier seasons, it only had one female lead, Penny. Her character was very stereotypical in the sense that she was the scattebrained neighbor. The way that men and women are portrayed has

Traditional gender roles in the present digital and technological sensitive world still hold even today as depicted on the screen; women are shown as the homemakers and men as the providers. In reference to the sitcom Still Standing, it depicted that the greatest addition to the major gender roles expectation is that the men view wives as their partners in the walk of life and marriage, as well as the women, view their husbands as partners unlike the traditional view of roles. According to a pilot study analyzing of selected US sitcoms from 1952 to 2004, results of the study show, regardless of the progressive nature of some programming, the most-watched sitcoms reaffirm mainstream stereotypes of women( Rich, 2013 pg. 1-2). Clearly, it shows that the inequality of gender exists in the majority television shows. Still Standing, as one of the popular sitcom, inequality of men and women are depicted concerning certain topics: household chores, priorities, jobs, and jokes.

The purpose of the following study is to evaluate the extent to which children’s television programming contains gender-stereotypic messages. In the study, a class of experimenters spent 30 minutes watching a children’s cartoon from year 2000 to year 2015. A list of role behaviors were made into operational definitions and used to determine the behavior of characters. While watching the cartoon, experimenters were to compute the total number of female and male characters, and watch for gender-stereotypic messages by identifying the role behaviors using a coding sheet, and choose a specific behavior to make a prediction about. The class results were then analyzed using a paired-samples t-test. The results indicated there were overall more male characters represented in the cartoons, and that male characters exhibited more authoritative roles compared to female characters.