stereotypes in Television
...as nurses, sales assistants, maids, or models. Women today on television, sometimes, are not portrayed as independent as they actually are in the “real” world. Women sometimes plays roles of being very dependent of men, which is not the case now as it was 50 years ago. For instance, on many television programs women appear in backgrounds to cater to the needs of males. Often times, women are typically shown as family caretakers. Women on television usually always have some type of involvement with a family of some kind. Lately I have begun to see more “open-minded” images of women on television, but ones that still carry stereotypical gender assumptions. For example, women may be shown as hard working, but they are still all beautiful, young, rich, and thin. It is also common for women to be shown or portrayed as sex objects. This is done mainly to attract an audience, whether it is men or women. In the show Bay watch, men and women both were exposed to the audience as sex objects and that is part of the reason that the show was such a success because both men and women wanted to watch to see the perfectly fit actors on the show. Television programs also influence children’s gender stereotypes. Sex-biased images are common in children’s television programs. Men are often portrayed as being more powerful and competent than women. Men are also shown in more stereotypical male occupations, such as construction workers, doctors, and athletes. Women are shown more often than men in family roles where as men usually are shown in higher-status jobs and they make all of the money in the family. Male characters are portrayed as knowledgeable, independent and aggressive. Female characters are shown passionate, obedient, touching, and uneasy. In addition, women are mainly portrayed on children’s television as sex objects a lot more indirectly than on most of the adult and prime time shows, but they are still in some senses expressed in this way. There are also more male than female characters in both weekday and weekend children’s television. Gender stereotypes on television may also influence children’s behavior. Children have been found to imitate more of the activities of a same-sex character than those of an opposite-sex character. This influence of gender stereotyping on television can be seen on the fact that children who spend the most time watching television are also those who demonstrate the most stereotypical sex-role values. Cartoon characters are also primarily male. The male cartoon character’s also present to the audience, a personality that is just like the male actors on prime time television, with the exception that sometim...