The Portrayal of Women on Television.
The Portrayal of Women on Television
Helen Ingham
One point of interest would be how people respond to the representations of women embodied through television. I have interviewed four people concerning their personal opinions of how fair these representations are.
Person A is female and nineteen years old, person B is female and twenty-years old, person C is male and fifty years old, and person D is male and twenty-four years old.
When asked to think of five stereotypes for women, the one stereotype that all respondents gave was the bimbo, a conventionally beautiful young woman with little intelligence and who they considered would usually be found on soaps and quiz shows. All the stereotypes that the respondents gave were from soap operas, dramas and adverts. None of the respondents felt that women are represented in a wholly accurate manner.
But what is interesting, however, is the fact that C and D thought representations to be more true than A and B. A and B both rejected the majority of images they spoke about, and even said they felt angry at what television portrays as a woman. The messages that the men and women received were different, but still not constructive. A and B both said that they felt television telling them that their place is behind men and that there is a pressure to always look good. Respondent D said he felt that television dictates what type ...
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But what is interesting, however, is the fact that C and D thought representations to be more true than A and B. A and B both rejected the majority of images they spoke about, and even said they felt angry at what television portrays as a woman. The messages that the men and women received were different, but still not constructive. A and B both said that they felt television telling them that their place is behind men and that there is a pressure to always look good. Respondent D said he felt that television dictates what type of woman he should be attracted to, but despite that, he felt that the representations of women are getting better all the time. C Thought that the numbers of women involved in television programmes are representative of the number of women in the population. On referring to the roles of men and women, he states that; "..generally, the men are the hunters and have to provide, and women are the carers." He also stated that he tends to associate shallowness with beautiful women (the mannequin), but denied that this view came as a response of the women portrayed on television.
One might argue from these interviews that men consider television representations of women to be more true than do the women. Even though everyone admitted that they are not wholly representative, these portrayals still have some effect on the views that the respondents hold about women.
Therefore we can see the different roles that women are shown to fill, and in some aspects they are representative; there are domestic women, career women, single mothers, beautiful women etc. While television can be said to reflect the changing roles of women, it seems to portray them in a light of approval or disapproval, positive or negative according to the roles that patriarchy favours: the housewife is favoured, whilst the woman in power is often shown to be the villain. More importantly, women are often represented as not being so intelligent as men, and having to rely on them. It is also shown that a woman is either intelligent or beautiful; but rarely both. It is important to note also, the effects that these portrayals have on people, and while these interviews are by no means representative of the population, it proves that they do affect peoples views of what women are really like.
Bibliography
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November 1995
