David Gauntlet - Media Gender & Identity...Representations of Gender in the Past

Women and Men on TV

Gunter(1995) Elasmer et al. (1999)-

• In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s only 20 to 35% of charcters were female.
• 1980s- more leading females

Miles (1975)-

• nearly equal proportions of men and women in situation comedies- humour was still traditional & sexist
• only 15% of leading charcters were women in action adventure shows

- a study shows that women more common in comedy programmes (43%)

Davis (1990)-

• action adventure shows- women doubled their showing to a still low 29%

Gunter

• studies in 1970's consistently found that marriage, parenthood and domesticity were more important for women than men

McNeil (1975)

• womens movement largely ignored by television- main role was housewives

Woman and film, Sharon Smith: “Women, in fully human form, have almost completely been left out of film. . . The role of woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction, and the mating games she plays with the male characters. On the other hand a man is not shown purely in relation to the female character, but in a wide variety of roles”

Kathi Maio, 1990s:“Women are not only given less screen time, when we’re up there on the screen we are likely to be portrayed as powerless and ineffectual...Where are the triumphant woman heroes to match the winner roles men play constantly?”