Blog #1: TV Shows and Hegemonic Masculinity and Femininity

In much of today’s popular culture, it is easy to find many examples of masculine and feminine ideals whether it is depicted as true or false. For example, many television shows portray how life should be instead of how it really is. This can give people ideas about gender roles and how males and females should act. Sometimes it reinforces the dominance of masculinity and femininity; other time it disrupts is.

One show that can be seen as an example is ‘Girlfriends.’ This show features four different women who all have different issues. One woman, character name Joan, has a law degree and has potential to go up for junior partner at her law firm. Although she may seem very much accomplished, she feels like she is lacking because she is not married. When she was approaching 30 years of age, she was ashamed and felt like she needed to lie about her age.
“They reinforce insecurities bred into women by decades of inaccurate media reports of “man shortages” and brokendown biological clocks. …’You always hear those horror stories: 40 and single! I don’t want that!’ “

As a result, every man Joan dated was assessed for marriage. Sometimes this scared her men and they often broke up shortly. Afterwards, Joan would feel like something was wrong with her. She felt like she did everything right so she should have been married. Other women watching this show may feel the same way. They may see Joan’s struggle and attempt to do the opposite of what Joan did. For example, Joan had a law degree; some women might feel that the law degree was intimidating to other men. Hence, these women would stay away from law degrees. They may place appearance or other ‘feminine” qualities above education and may begin to believe that those qualities are what is most important when seeking a husband. In ‘Girlfriends,’ the predominance of femininity was reinforced.

In another show called ‘Family Matters,’ one can find examples of how masculinity is supposed to look like. First of all, there are certain WAYS that men should look like.

“That means behaving in ways that are gender appropriate. …For boys and men, it usually means things like being assertive, not overtly displaying certain emotions, and not nurturing others, especially other adults.”

The above quote shows how men are supposed to conduct themselves; totally opposite from how women behave. Missing from the quote is the notion that men do not clean either. In an episode of ‘Family Matters,’ the husband, Carl, was shown cleaning and doing chores around the house while wearing an apron and a feather duster in hand. Not only that, Carl looked happy while he was cleaning. His lieutenant walked into the house and immediately started to ridicule Carl for what he was doing. Offended, Carl felt like he had to prove himself by telling his lieutenant that he wears the pants in the house and he is the breadwinner. Men seeing this show may feel the same way and so they do not get ridiculed, these men watching the show may feel like they have to let everyone know that they are not feminine and are breadwinners. In this episode of ‘Family Matters,’ the predominance of masculinity was reinforced by Carl’s reactions however; his masculinity was also disrupted because he was found cleaning and doing household chores.