Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The Influence of Media on our Thinking About Gender

Valerie Koury
"Messages from TV Land: The Influence of Media on our Thinking about Gender" (245)


I am working on the topic of 1950s television because I want to find out how gender roles are influenced by television to help my reader better understand what role society plays in our perception of ourselves and each other. This study seeks to understand how media influences societal views on gender roles. More specifically, this study will consider how traditional gender roles have emerged, how these notions about gender have changed since the 1950s, and whether television has been an instrument inspiring change. I will look to the scholarly articles written about television and gender roles as well as watch popular television shows of the 1950s to have a better context of how gender roles were. To this end, residents in the Erickson Retirement Communities will be interviewed regarding gender portrayals in popular television shows from the 1950s (e.g. “I Love Lucy”, “Gunsmoke”). The interviews will give me a first-hand account of what living in the 1950s was like in terms of gender roles and how messages of gender roles were portrayed on television. Upon data collection I will examine the ways in which gender roles were portrayed in the 1950s relative to today. Research suggests that television is a medium through which ideas of “normalcy” are transmitted and that people often imitate what they view on television in their everyday lives. In that society has evolved much over the past half-century, it is likely that ideas of gender roles have changed as well.


Keywords: gender, gender roles, television