Gender and Identity

Representation Of Gender In The Past – Key points

Men and Women on TV

· In the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, there were only 35 percent of female character roles on TV

· Mid 1980’s there was a substantial increase of women in leading roles; however there were twice as many men on screen.

· In 1975, Miles found out that comedy situations had equal proportions of men and women, although the gender roles and the humour could still be traditional and sexist.

· Furthermore, in 1987 a study found female characters to be most common in comedy programmes (43 percent).

· Despite these statistical parity – whereas in action adventure shows, only 15 percent of the leading character where women.

· A study by McNeil (1975) concluded that women’s movement had been largely ignored by television. With married housewives being the main female role portrayed.

· Further more studies in the 1970’s found that men to be the dominant characters and the decision makers on TV.

· Women were more likely to be passive; men were more likely to be adventurous, active and victorious, whereas women were more frequently portrayed as weak, ineffectual, victimised, supportive and laughable.

Women and Men in Movies

· In the 1950’s films “Angry Men” almost always focused on male heroes, men typically made the decisions which led the story and narrative, they were also assertive and dominant.

· However women had roles that were likely to depict them as frightened, in need of protection and direction.

· In the 70’s the there was a backlash at the typical representation of women as Leia from Star Wars is depicted as a princess, top of the social hierarchy.

· 1990’s – Kathi Maio noted ‘strong, victorious women exist in film, just not often enough, and generally not in movies that get much play’. Susan Faludi went a step further by saying women were being ‘reduced to mute and incidental characters or banished altogether’, with particular reference to Predator (1987) and Lethal Weapon (1987).