The first theme that arose throughout my research was the sexualization and/or objectification of female television characters. Within this theme, I also included how open or closed off female characters were sexually/about their sexuality. For this theme, I counted the number of times female characters were displayed in provocative/revealing clothing, the number of times they were displayed in non-provocative/non-revealing clothing, and the number of times males or females made comments sexualizing/objectifying women. Additionally, I analyzed how these changes have evolved in television over the course of my timeframe.
70s/80s:
The results of my analyses for this theme illustrated that in the 1970s and 80s, female characters were less sexualized in terms of their clothing and physical portrayal, but were still very sexualized and objectified by the male characters. For example, in The Brady Bunch, the mother is dressed in very conservative clothing in all of the episodes I watched (Shwartz 1969). I recorded 6 instances of female characters being sexualized/objectified. For example, Jessie states, “I don’t want to be judged by my measurements.” Her statement is followed by this comment from Slater: “Why? You’ve got some great ones” (Engel 1989). Another example of this is when Cindy Webster states, “ [all the girls are discussing dieting] How about you, Nat? Are you gonna try to be pencil thin?” Similarly, Natalie Green states, “Who wants to be a skinny pencil? I’d rather be a happy Magic Marker!” (Schwartz 1969). These are both examples of young girls worrying about the appearance of their bodies, and wanting to look a certain way to appeal to men.
90s-2020:
The results of my analyses of female characters in television from the 1990s-2020 for this particular theme illustrated that women were more sexualized both in terms of their clothing/physical portrayal as well as being sexualized and objectified by male characters. These results also showed that female characters in the 90s-2020 were more open sexually/with their sexuality. The theme song and introduction for the show Beverly Hills 90210 portrays a shot that pants down the body of a woman in a bikini without showing her face. For example, Brooke is portrayed as being very open sexually, and is at times in the show referred to as a “slut”, specifically when her friends found out that she had made a sex tape (Tollin 2004). Another example from the show One Tree Hill was when Dan looks a waitress up and down and assures her that she hit the bull’s eye in service (Tollin 2004).
I recorded 8 instances of female characters being sexualized/objectified. For example, one of the ‘cool’ girls from school, Cordelia, is shown in a sexualized outfit, a very short skirt and cut off shirt while being shown dancing alone (Davies 1997). Additionally, in the show Teen Wolf, Jackson taunts Scott by saying, “And also think about all the things you’re able to do to get her out of some tight little dress by the end of the night” (Genier 2011). In the same show, one character states, “can someone tell me how new girl is here all of 5 minutes and she is already hanging out with Lydia’s clique?” Followed by a response from Stiles saying, “Because she’s hot. Beautiful people herd together” (Genier 2007). An example of female characters being dressed provocatively can be seen when Spencer is shown wearing a short skirt and knee stockings while staying home from school (Cochran-Neilan 2011).