The men in the sitcom are all ‘tall, dark and handsome’, and they all own big upmarket homes, with expensive cars, which evidently show that they have a lot of money. Some of them are ruggedly handsome, and some of them have a nice clean shaven look but the women in the show find attraction in them. The women in the show are mostly portrayed as either floozy, or wanting to everything to be absolutely perfect, whether it be in their everyday lives or it being within their own families. These are the stereotypical views of the women and men in suburban areas of America.
In Peep Show however, the portrayal on the women and the men in this sitcom are very different compared to the characters in desperate housewives. One main example of the difference between the sitcom is that they are not based in American or in the suburban area of Britain as that is where they are based. The main male characters in this sitcom share a flat in Croydon South London. So this sitcom is a representative of the attitudes and values of two men sharing a flat in London. This was portrayed as to be very unhygienic and messy. One of the main male characters clearly show this by being a drunk and obviously a hedonist who evidently lives only for the pleasures of life e.g. sex, drugs, and drink. He character is named Jeremy. The other however challenges the idea of a stereotypical male sharing a flat, as he is more feminine, clean and definitely more organised than Jeremy. He is also much more nervous compared to the other more laid back character, this character is named Mark. The women in ‘peep show’ are pretty and slim, but they are not as exaggerated as the women in desperate housewives. The women characters in Peep Show merely show a clear contrast between men and women in Britain as they are evidently much more clean and hygienic as opposed to the drunken unshaven men in peeps how excluding Mark and this shows how Mark has a more feminine side compared to the other male characters in the sitcom. Also in Peep Show, mark is afraid of a long term commitment of marriage which is correctly portrayed of most males. This therefore shows that Mark also has a masculine side to him.
In Peep Show, the gender and masculinity is mainly shown through the way they act and what they say. In Peep Show, Jeremy enjoys sex and always getting drunk and also very unhygienic habits, whereas Mark does not correspond to this idea of stereotypical males, as his is much more hygienic, he also carries himself appropriately although his fears of marriage shows the emblematic male in him.
The women in both sitcoms portray themselves as clean and know how to look after themselves, however in the American sitcom Desperate Housewives, they seem to be more obsessed with money, and also in both sitcoms the seems interested in sex which portrays them as sexual objects.
In both sitcoms the do a good job of portraying different characteristics to do with the gender of people.
