Sitcom Discussion
Watch the episode, concentrating on these “parts of the whole”.
Concentrate on just these topics in the discussion:
Group A: Jobs (husband compared to wife)
Group B: Household Chores ( what is each parent’s chores around the house)
Group C: Priorities (What does the husband find important? What does the wife?)
Group D: Friends (husband’s friends vs the wife’s friends)
Gender role stereotyping occurs when a person is expected to enact a series of norms or behaviors based upon their sex. Gender is a social construction, and other social categories such as race, ethnicity, class, religion, and language also influence that construction. In most European and North American societies, gender roles divide through male and female behavioral norms. Certain types of behaviors are categorized as masculine or feminine. However, gender as a continuum is social and relational, rather than categorical. In other words, gender only exists as a comparative quality (if people are “less masculine” than others, they are also “more feminine” than those same others, even if their biological sex is the same). Thus gender role stereotyping occurs when individuals are expected to enact certain practices or behaviors because of their gender.
Regarding gender and sitcoms, TV shows need not fortify traditional ideals. But how far has television come? Findings from a pilot study employing a Grounded Theory analysis of selected US sitcoms from 1952 to 2004 suggest that, regardless of the progressive nature of some programming, the most-watched sitcoms reaffirm mainstream stereotypes of women. What has changed, however, is the hierarchical relationship between the sexes. While sitcoms have modified roles of women in an effort to keep up with changing social norms, they have failed to meaningfully alter traditional masculine narratives. What has been won is a superficial role reversal: Where once television women were childlike subordinates to their male counterparts, now men are depicted as irresponsible children women must mother and discipline.
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