Television: Reinforcing Gender Roles
By The Wombats:
Madelynn Camp
Darius Dizer
Haley Gardner
Jonathan Kennedy
Sanchez Murray
Erik Sikkema
CJUS 2600.001
What is your role in your family? What will your role be in your future family? Families
used to consist primarily of a father, mother, usually children, and possibly a pet or two. Now
there are adopted children, same sex couples, single parents, and many other varieties of family
dynamics. The basis of the former family structure is the role of gender in society. The father
earns the money, the mother cares for the children, and no second thought is considered. The
basis of the latter family structures is a change in gender roles. There are multiple incomes,
people who do not have children, men who care for the children, women who stay independent
and single, and other factors that society has evolved to include, and accept, which makes gender
roles less concrete. As a child grows up, they should, at this point in society’s growth, be able to
allow for any manipulation or unexpected result when it comes to relationships and the family
that they will start for themselves. Why, then, are there still people of all ages who expect to fall
into their gender role, to become the bread winning father or the stay at home mother? Media.
Movies, video games, toys, television, social media sites, and electronics all influence society
enormously. One of the most viewed contributors to the continuance of gender roles is television.
Television shows have the ability to add humor or reasoning behind being less sensitive about
serious social issues like gender roles. Because humor can be used to take away the seriousness
of the actual situation in the television show, television ads are meant to sell, and cartoons are
only representations of people, people overlook the power that TV has in encouraging the
continuance of set gender roles.
From an early age television shows begin to reinforce gender roles in our society.
Women and young girls are expected to be the picture of innocence, happy, simple-minded, and
domestic. These traits are illustrated in the world of children’s TV by the Disney Short, Minnie’s
Bow-Toons: Leaky Pipes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VSaExP2anI). In this three
minute episode, Minnie, Daisy, and Clarabelle interact while trying to mend leaky pipes and
show children the acceptable way for women to behave and handle repairs. Before examining the
conflict of the episode and its effect on gender roles, it is equally important to reflect on the
environment that the message takes place in. Minnie’s “Bow-tique” is her private business that
centers around creating various bows for customers. The nature of the business in itself is highly
gender specific, not too many males in our society would be affiliated with a bow making shop,
not to mention the architecture of the building. The small shop is entirely pink, there are no sharp
corners or straight lines, and hearts are a frequent form of decoration. This translates into the idea
of gender and social construction in that in order for these female characters to be successful,
they must adhere to the strict female mold. Not only does the environment clearly label them as
female workers, each character is given a large bow on the top of her head to mark her as female.
Then we examine the personality characteristics of the characters involved. Minnie, the heroine
and favorite, is kind and hospitable. She always has a smile and a laugh and uses her feminine
charms to solve her problems; later fixing the pipes with bows. Daisy is a secondary character.
She is unable to properly tie a bow, has a slightly deeper voice than Minnie, and therefore she is
less than the ideal female lead. However, she is still helpless when it comes to handiwork but
does so in a comical way that we find acceptable. We also learn to accept her simple-mindedness
when she asks, “Why is rubber so rubbery?!” What would have normally been scoffed at in
another situation was bluntly overlooked in this highly feminine environment. Minnie pauses at
the comment, laughs at the silliness of it, and without offering an explanation returns to her role
as caretaker by assisting her friend in her domestic duty. Finally, there is Clarabelle. Clarabelle
is the most masculine of the traditional female Disney characters. She is a cow, has a deep voice,
works with tools, and is responsible for the disaster in this clip. When she tries to fix the pipes
originally, she actually puts them in a tangled mess outside of the walls. This conveys that when
women try to do a traditionally male job, fixing pipes, they are bound to fail and the only
solution women can successfully offer is highly feminine in nature. As the least feminine of the
group, Clarabelle is also the least well liked among viewers. There is yet another example of how
this clip reinforces the ideas of femininity in women. When Minnie and Daisy finally stop the
leaks, the camera zooms out to reveal a series of bows tied around the pipes in the shape of a
heart. Without meaning to, Minnie’s actions leave clear feminine touches behind. This show is
intended for young audiences and reinforces the ideal characteristics of women in society and
their limits.
In numerous television shows that are guided towards the age groups of six to ten, kids
are exposed to social constructs about gender role in the household. Cartoons display this in
many ways. In an episode of SpongeBob Squarepants, SpongeBob and Patrick discover an
abandoned baby clam and decide to raise the clam together as one happy family. Patrick has a
deeper voice and SpongeBob’s voice is high pitched, so Patrick decides to take on the father role
while SpongeBob plays the role of the mother. As time progresses, Patrick gets a job while
SpongeBob is a stay at home mom; cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the baby clam.. The
social construct here is that because Patrick resembles the man, he has to go out and get a job and
provide for the family. In one scene, Patrick goes to work for four days and comes home and
throws his items from work all over the floor while SpongeBob is begging for a break while
vacuuming, cooking dinner, ironing, and knocking the dust off of a rug simultaneously.
Eventually, SpongeBob confronts Patrick while he is slouched in the living room watching a
witty TV show that makes no sense. Patrick agrees that he will give SpongeBob a break. The
next time Patrick comes home late from a supposed office party and SpongeBob meets him at the
door dressed in a nightgown with hair curlers on his head. He asks Patrick where has he been
and reminds him that he was supposed to be home at seven o’clock on the dot to give him a
break from the baby. Patrick returns to his old home and goes back to what he calls “work,”
which is him watching TV all day and eating junk food he has stored in his brief case.
SpongeBob follows him to his home and discovers what Patrick calls work.
The message of the story is that the dads are stereotypically lazy when they come and do
nothing at work while the mother stays home everyday and takes care of household issues such
as cooking, cleaning, and nurturing. Patrick exhibits laziness, lack of connection to his family
and tiredness from work when he gets home, which emphasizes the male role as just the “bread
winner” in the household who can relax because he works so hard during the day. SpongeBob’s
actions exemplify the female role; cooking a large breakfast for Patrick while cleaning the entire
house and dealing with the many stresses of raising a child. SpongeBob’s work is deemed
inferior to Patrick’s male workload so it is socially acceptable for SpongeBob to continue
working while Patrick gets a break. While some of these things may be true, not every
household is constructed this way, and kids should not have a preset image of this being normal.
In some cases, the man of the house plays the mother role while the mother is the sole provider
for the family. Television chooses to highlight the stereotypical situation, and further continue
gender roles in society.
In our society media has a large effect on the socialization of gender and influences
people’s behaviors and attitudes toward the opposite sex. Sexist attitudes tend to “objectify”
women, which mean they treat women as objects of sex. Fiat and Axe commercials are guilty of
showing this behavior. In some car commercials women have to be depended on a man to
achieve material items such as a car (http://www.youtube.com /watch?v=hbRKAVZBlRc). In
this Fiat commercial the women uses their sexuality to get the attention of the male driver by
removing their clothing, applying make-up, and creating unique hairstyles. This commercial
places women as a dependent status instead of playing an independent role. In a sense it suggests
that women have to depend on a man to get nice things instead of working and paying for them
on their own. These types of commercials tend to channel women into dependent statuses and
roles.
In Axe Body Spray commercials, girls will submit to guys once they smell the fragrance
that was sprayed. In all Axe commercials, girls are either half naked or in a bikini. Axe is
basically telling guys that if you smell good, girls will do anything to be with you. For example,
one commercial shows atractive girls all around the world running through the woods, climbing
mountains, swimming in the ocean, and viciously pushing each other to get to one guy spraying
Axe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKNTCP-ctGw). This is giving the impression that girls
are sexual and crave attention from guys and are willing to do anything to get it.
As individuals progress into the adult world, we begin to see both genders interact with
one another in romantic situations. Television continues to portray society’s favored gender roles
through the economic market as demonstrated by the advertisements for Kay Jewelers
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltA50HKyM14). A man and a woman sit in a cozy cabin
watching a storm. Thunder strikes and the woman retreats into the arms of her companion who is
ready to protect her. Here, the man presents his gift of diamonds and silver and the woman
swoons. Typical gender roles are expressed. The woman is meek and easily scared, she requires
the comfort of a man to feel safe. At the same time, the man is prepared and confident in being
that source of protection. He also executes the expectation that men are to provide for their
women when he produces an expensive piece of jewelry. A third party narrator reiterates the
importance of a strong male figure in the relationship by telling the viewers to “[S]urround her
with the strength of your love.” Once again, a man is measured by his strength. Finally, the
woman expresses her dependence on this strong man by asking him not to let go of her. The
media has clearly set a course for shaping male and female behavior. By setting the couple in a
desired situation, exchanging gifts and words of affirmation between romantic partners, the
producers of the commercial have set a standard for society to mimic in order to hopefully
replicate a similar positive outcome. Men will try to be strong to win a female’s affection and
women will acknowledge that men want to provide nice jewelry for women who need to be
protected. Kay Jewelers has gone beyond marketing an item to marketing gender behaviors.
Even as family aged adults we are still exposed to gender roles through adult TV shows.
Consider the show, American Dad. In American Dad, we see the “ideal American family”
through the husband, Stan, and his wife, Francine. As the man of the house, Stan is the “bread
winner” for the family with his position at the C.I.A. However, despite his highly esteemed job,
Stan is characterized as an idiotic, impulsive, immature, and lazy person. Stan is emotionally
distant to his children and is usually found tormenting them at least once in each episode. Stan is
also passionate about being a man; and for a man, being sensitive is the worst thing imaginable.
The way that Stan is portrayed on American Dad perpetuates the idea that the older men in
society should be the ones that make the most money in their home, keep their emotions
suppressed, rely on their wives to do the household chores, and act as manly as possible.
As Stan’s wife, Francine is the traditional American wife that cleans the house, takes care
of the kids, cooks the dinner, and does all of the small chores that need to be done. An example
was in the episode when George W. Bush came to visit the Smith home and Francine was
expected to make dessert for the dinner or face divorce. Francine puts up with Stan’s lethargic
and childish behaviors because it is “expected of her” as the wife. Francine is also the one to
express the most emotion about how she is feeling in a given situation, but when Francine
expresses herself people ignore her because it is expected of her gender to communicate feelings.
Francine’s character further confirms how women should behave, and if they are not to this
standard, then they fail to be the “perfect” wife. As a comedy, American Dad does a great job at
satirizing how we view gender in our society and how we expect these people to act based upon
their gender. If somebody in society fails to live up to these expectations then they are seen as a
failure and are an embarrassment.
Over the course of television history, it is apparent that gender roles are stuck in the same
position. Whether it is a cartoon made for a child or a cartoon made for a mature adult, men and
women are given their conventional separate responsibilities. A woman is the backbone of the
house, but the man is still the bread winner. A woman does not get a chance to contribute. The
man should not have to waste time with silly things that women need to do. Women change
themselves to appeal to men and make men want them. Women are depicted as needy in some
cases, and in other cases the woman is depicted as strong but in charge of the stereotypical
housewife duties. All of these minor separations still affect whoever is watching the television
show or commercial. Society does a good job at making light of gender roles through television
and pushes aside the fact that something needs to change, but fails to actually promote action. At
this rate, nothing will ever change.