Sitcoms & Women

Aidan

Women Studies

Sitcoms & Women



In these modern times, one concern is representation. Who's face will be on the silver screen matters and how they will be portrayed as well.

Just one look at women's roles in TV throughout the ages shows how drastically that has changed. It is, in a way, a testament to the improvement mankind had undergone over time. It is clear just watching the openings for sitcoms from the late 50s / early 60s that we've come some distance in the way of bettering the representation of women.
In the openings from the late 50s / early 60s women were only an extension of their husbands, as if the writers had taken the term 'better half' too literally. Women's roles in these shows were mainly to smile at their husbands and do chores, which reflects what they were expected to be in the real world. Now the reason representation matters is because, in TV, books and all sorts of media women were represented as being content with a life of remaining in the house and cooking meals, but real women were unhappy with this lifestyle and didn't feel they could talk about it because it would be betraying what the media displayed as 'the norm'.

These days, shows are much better about representation. Not to mention, that women characters are now more interesting than when they were just faceless robot like things. So, yes, representation is important.