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Javier Pinedo

Professor Lawson

English 113B

Research Paper Final Draft

12 May 2017

Word count: 1700

Gender and Sexual double standard in the Media

You are watching your favorite TV show and apparently you see a male or female

character do something in the show that offends you because it looks bad and represents your

gender in a poor way. Do not worry, you are not alone and crazy about this because some people

do not have the knowledge to understand why thats offensive. In our society, the gender role is

the behavior, attitudes and values that a society considers appropriate for a male and female. The

media have been doing this for quite a while and gender/sexual double standard still exists and

has a negative impact on both gender roles. The media aggravating it strengthening this twofold

standard in Television programs and the Network programs need to find a better solution to

eliminate this quandary from society.

The gender role in our society sees men as more dominant than women. The mens role in

society is that they have to be the leader in their household making the decisions. They have to

be financially stable and provide anything their family wants while the women are working full

time in their homes taking care of their family. The media supplement the gender roles of society

in television, making this more noticeable. The media did this on so many TV shows with the

characters involved in the show. The article Not so Modern Family: Top sitcoms make for

sexist, inaccurate television by Michelle Haimoff stated that male characters are professionally
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accomplished, while female characters are unemployed or struggling She talks about how

women in TV shows are mostly not employed, but if they do have a job they barely have enough

to pay their bills showing a sign of struggle. Male characters have good paying jobs and seen as

perfect in TV shows making it seem like men are more valuable than women in our society

are. We are all equal no matter what gender you are.

The show Modern Family on American Broadcast Association (ABC) is giving their

viewers a funny perspective of family life, but there are so many problems with the show. An

article Why 'Modern Family' Is One of the Most Old-Fashioned Shows on Television by

Rebecca Raber stated The real problem with Modern Family is that it is so popular and, at its

best, so eminently watchable, that its underlying sexism or racism is ignored or, worse, unseen.

We are so busy laughing at these characters that we dont think about why we are laughing or

what we are laughing at. People who watch this show are caught up with the comedy that they

do not see the problems that the show has. I love this show and I laughed at these characters that

I don't see any problem with it but thats the problem. This show is good at making the people

laugh that people dont notice the flaws of the show.

Modern Family has the female characters stay at home taking care of the family while the

male characters are working, but the is called Modern Family. Today, women with kids are

looking for work or either working, but are house mom in the show and the show clearly needs a

different title name for the show. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistic states The labor force

participation rate--the percent of the population working or looking for work--for all married

women with children under age 18 was 70.5 percent in 2016. Therefore, married women with

children are likely to be working than staying at home like Modern Family. Modern Family is

giving a wrong perspective of women in our society to the people who watch this show.
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The majority of married women with children are working, depending on their economic

status and needs for their children. The majority of these women would be in the lower class

versus the upper class married women. The families that are in the upper class are financially

stabled and even have more than they need so the married women would just be a house mom

and would not mind it at all. A blog Three cheers for women who say they dont want to work.

At least theyre honest. from Penelope Trunk, stated, Jennifer Lawrence said she is getting

ready to stop doing movies so she can have kids. She said she is much more interested in having

a family than a career. This is, of course, a luxury she can have because she had a career early.

Jennifer is already financial stabled to be able not to work and be a nurturing mother. She makes

so much money and considered in the upper class. The rest of women are in the lower class that

to work to be able to support the family, which puts stress on men who are supposed to support

their families with anything they need like the male characters in the sitcoms.

In the sitcom, male characters are seen as leaders and intelligent with good paying jobs,

but some men have minimum wage jobs and some women are leaders in their family. The sitcom

The big Bang theory male characters, Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper are physicists.

They are very competitive people that argue with each other about their work. In the article

Gender Stereotypes in TV series by Daniela Frendo states In the first episode, Sheldon and

Leonard compare their works on whiteboards and start arguing that their own is better than the

others in front of Penny. Men who watch this show want to be like these male characters in the

shows but end up being disappointed. Some men arent as intelligent as the male character from

The Big Bang Theory. I even feel disappointed that I am never going to smart as them and men

would agree with me on this. It is as the majority of men would be like Penny from the show

seeing the smart people like politics debating on a topic in our society.
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Women have been seen as an object for men in many shows. The show that caught my

attention is The Bachelor on American Broadcasting Company (abc). The Bachelor has 26

women competing for the love of one person. Women should not be competing with other

women to get a mans attention to find love. This TV show has the male character meet all the

female characters. The male character goes on a romantic date with each female character on the

show to get to know them individually. If the male character doesnt feel a connection with the

specific female character. The male character would let the female character go and move on to

the next female character on the show. This makes men seen by females in a negative way

because the male character in the TV show represents them in a bad way by going on different

dates with the women in the show making it seem as if women are objects to men.

On episode nine in season seventeen in vudu a media company the male character sean

talks about the women he had to send home. He went on specific dates with the women in the

show testing them. If he did not like the way the date went well he sent the women home. At the

end of the episode, he sent one woman home that was Ashlee. She was so mad and frustrated

because she was rejected and sent home. This episode gets me mad because why would you

spend time and effort with that person just to reject them. Women are not just a toy that you can

play with. That person has a heart and has feelings. Women should not be treated like that in a

TV show. Women should be treasured in TV shows so they can be highly valued and not just

seen as an object. Women can see men in a different way by watching the Bachelor and be more

precaution around men.

Men are also impacted by many TV shows as well. Male character in tv shows has been

seen as manipulative to female character and are in control over them acting a certain way

making it seem like they are superior over the female characters in the sitcom. The sitcom How I
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Met Your Mother on American basic cable and satellite television channel (FX) is a great

example of men being negatively impacted by the role of male characters in the sitcom. The

article 8 Super Popular TV Shows That Are Actually Sexist by Nina Braca stated that Their

whole "brotips" thing is pretty bothersome the way they actually treat women on that show is

the worst. They often lie and manipulate women in order to have sex with them or get what that

want. This sitcom provides false ways in the show about how men treat women just to get what

they want and gives men a bad reputation.

Media is the major key in creating social standards because it is everywhere in our

culture. Gender and sexual double standard still exist today because society still accepts it

instead of not accepting it and making people more aware about this issue at a young age. The

problem is that the people accept this issue because they don't have enough knowledge about it.

The media needs to find a better solution to eliminate these double standards in our TV shows

while entertaining us. TV shows should make the characters roles equal to work and personal life

related to eliminate this issue.

Ever since there was television, the media has been making double standards in their TV

shows affecting men and women in a negative way. So many popular TV shows have this issue

like the Bachelor, Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory , How I Met Your Mother etc These

TV shows are good at entertaining the person watching the show that they dont see this issue.

The solution would be that male and female characters need to make their roles equal to each

other and over time these issues will fade away.

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Works Cited

Braca, Nina. "8 Super Popular TV Shows That Are Actually Sexist." Gurl.com. Clever Network,
04 Nov. 2016. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

Frendo, Daniela. "Gender Stereotypes in TV Series." Reel Rundown. Reel Rundown, 17 Oct.
2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

Haimoff, Michelle. "Not So Modern Family: Top Sitcoms Make for Sexist, Inaccurate
Television." The Christian Science Monitor, (2012): 14.

Raber, Rebecca. "Why 'Modern Family' Is One of the Most Old-Fashioned Shows on
Television." Take Part. Participant Media, 27 May 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2017

The Bachelor. Host by Chris Harrison, producer by Martin Hilton, American Broadcasting
Company, 2013.VUDU,http://www.vudu.com/movies/#!overview/407416/The-Bachelor-Sean-
Tells-All. Accessed 23 April 2017

Trunk, Penelope. "Three Cheers for Women Who Say They Dont Want to Work. At Least
Theyre Honest." Penelope Trunk Careers. Penelope Trunk, 9 Jan. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

U.S Department of Labor. "Employment Characteristics of Families Summary." U.S. Bureau of

Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 Apr. 2017. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.