Week 6 Post Women in television

In doing research on gender roles in television I started to think even more on the shows that I’ve watched and how they have depicted women and femininity. I have to say many of the sitcoms I’ve enjoyed over the years have portrayed women strictly in a relational manner, as a wife, mother, girlfriend or friend. Often their careers are not the main focus to their character. Also, they may be depicted as a vixen or a villain, rather than positively associated with independence, intelligence or strength of character. An extreme example is in soap operas, but even in comedies we see the virgin or the whore syndrome come to play. I noticed another extreme example of gender bias because my roommate watches The Bachelor and The Bachelorette religiously. These shows adhere to every gender bias I can think of! Both shows perpetuate that romantic heterosexual love and marriage is the prize and ultimate goal in life. It seems being career driven for men is a positive attribute on The Bachelorette, whereas for women this may be your downfall. How about those rose ceremonies where the bachelorette is always in a gown, full makeup and hair done? I think those few strong, independent female lead characters I’ve seen have been some of my favorites over the years, like Olivia Benson on Law and Order SVU or the Olivia D’abo (older sister Karen) character on The Wonder years, also the women on ER or The Practice, or even the Golden Girls and the Powerpuff girls! I liked all of these women and found their depictions battled some of the gender stereotypes in television but there's a long way to go.