Human behavior, attitudes, and gender roles can be shaped by various societal components. One major source of development however, especially among adolescents, is television. Television, and character portrayals in television, have become an integral part in shaping the ways adolescents choose to represent themselves in terms of what gender norms they fit into and what roles they play within society. The early development of television began in the 1920s, but since then has grown into an American staple as a source of news, information, entertainment, etc (Jost 1994). Researcher Alan Rubin (1983) found that people typically have two uses for television; entertainment and news and/or information. Not only can viewers learn from television, but they actively use this information in their everyday lives, and whether they are conscious of it or not, television may play a role in their development of beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes.
Since television programs are intentionally created by a medium with a specific point of view, they cannot provide a perfect mirror to society. Wren-Lewis (1983) described a two-step model in which both the creation of the television show and how the viewer interprets those messages have equal weight. He described the encoding/decoding model of television programming as “a product of a specific set of signifying practices (encoding) whose meanings are ultimately fixed by a second set of signifying practices (decoding)” (Wren-Lewis 1983:179). Adolescents in particular consume a great amount of television programming, specifically an average of four and a half hours a day (Rideout, Foehr, and Roberts 2010).
Television portrayals may have an influence on adolescents’ formation of gender roles and scripts. Scripts, like those used in television and film, allow people to understand the cues and appropriate responses to certain scenes or situations. Howard (2012) claimed that gender scripts foster stereotypical notions and ideals, and give adolescents an idea of what they should and should not do according to their gender. As adolescents watch television programs, they develop gender role expectations which can shape their views of gender for the rest of their lives. It is important to research the portrayals of gender to determine what messages about femininity and masculinity are being displayed, as well as this genre of television, being that adolescents are its target audience.
Gender stereotypes have been a part of television since the creation of the medium. These stereotypes reflect the cultural context of the country at the time of television’s creation, when a primary role of women was to take care of their children and the home (Mittell 2010). Press (2009) described how the depictions of women on television reflected this idea and also how they developed over time as the culture of American society developed. She explained that the increase in working women in the 1960s and 1970s was reflected in television’s portrayals of women working and living nontraditional family lives. These working women, however, were still stereotyped in the kinds of work that they pursued and their roles within the families. Women in prime time TV were outnumbered by men by a ratio of 3-1, and they were often typecast in roles that were ‘typically female’ (Shanahan, Signorielli and Morgan 2008). They were more likely to be young, attractive, married, and portrayed in the context of the home. When they were shown in occupations they were more likely to be shown in typically female roles, such as nurses, secretaries and so on (Shanahan, Signorielli and Morgan 2008).
As the 1960s and 1970s went on, more women were enrolled in college and were more serious about their future in terms of career, and they had more opportunities to focus on their own goals and strive for their own achievements rather than focusing on husbands and children. Goldin (2006) described how in the 1980s women ultimately gave equal priority to their career and familial aspirations. Again, this shift in society was reflected in television sitcoms in the 1980s that featured women as successful business people but also as loving mothers. An example of this is the show, “Who’s The Boss?”, which featured a working mother who hired a man to be her nanny and housekeeper (Press 2009). Consequently, programs in the late 1990s, such as “Ally McBeal” and “Sex and the City”, featured female protagonists who were successful in their careers but felt that their lives were incomplete because they were not fulfilling the “woman’s role” of being a wife and a mother (Press 2009). Most of the plot-lines on these shows revolved around trying to find the perfect guy to fall in love with and settle down into the traditional familial role.
Researcher Rebecca Collins (2011:290) proposed a new trend in the stereotypes of women on television, stating that, “Women are often sexualized – typically by showing them in scanty or provocative clothing. Women are also subordinated in various ways, as indicated by their facial expressions, body positions, and other factors”. These are some of the gender portrayals present in modern television programs that have developed over time and depict a stereotypical frame of gender.
By analyzing the history of adolescent television shows, the gender messages within these programs can be decoded and examined in relation to the gender roles and norms for adolescents. If adolescents’ attitudes and beliefs about gender can be shaped by these messages, it is important to analyze these messages and decode their meanings.