Challenging the Notion of Gender Stereotypes in Entertainment Media Television is a medium for humans to share news stories and

creativity instantly throughout the globe. Unfortunately, it is also a platform for cultivating beliefs in human minds, and this creates problem such as gender stereotypes. The Cultivation Theory developed by George Gerbner proved that people who spend more than 4 hours a day watching TV hold ideals and opinions that are similar to what is portrayed on television, even among high educational and high income audiences (Cohen et al. 2000). Alarmingly, most average Americans spend about 5 hours a day watching television, which means we are easily influenced by whatever is shown on TV (Hinckley). To fortify the problem, many screenwriters implement gender stereotypes as the base plot for their productions. Especially in programs for adult audiences, women tend to have jobs that correspond to traditional feminine characteristic: they are often portrayed as nurses or secretaries, as subordinates of male characters such as doctors or bosses (Ingham 1991). These gender stereotypes cultivate gender-specific roles and expectations while our personalities, preferences and habits are already distinctive to each individual and independent from our gender. This is an issue because children who do not fit their gender roles are often bullied or disrespected in school, a stepping-stone to other problems such as emotional depression. Weak, timid boys who are not in the football team get pushed around, girls who do not know how to dress fashionably according to the trend are considered lame. Thus, to prevent us from being brainwashed to have fixed judgments for men and women, and from becoming an outcast and molded to behave according to these stiff conventions, it is important to challenge these gender stereotypes by portraying men and

women differently, defying the custom. Entertainment media that opposes these conventions will counteract our fixed mindset of gender stereotypes in society by showing that we already do not have gender specific behaviors and roles. In this paper, we will be challenging gender-stereotyped personalities and roles by analyzing the movies Wall-E and the sitcom The Big Bang Theory where some characters behave divergently from the fixed gender conventions. The sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S and movie Meet the Parents will be used as examples of gender stereotypes reinforcements in the entertainment media. Men are masculine and women are feminine: these are the standard behaviors portrayed in the media that became the basis of gender stereotypes. In entertainment media, most women are attracted to masculine men, and men are attracted to feminine women. So what does it mean to be masculine? Levant summarized traditional American masculinity into 7 principles: restrict emotions, avoid being feminine, focus on toughness and aggression, be self-reliant, make achievement the top priority, be non-relational, objectify sex and be homophobic (Male Gender Role), while Thomas Gregor summarized masculinity into two: the provider and the protector. Femininity, on the other hand, is being dependent, emotional, sensitive, weak and nurturing (Gender & Gender Identity). Entertainment medias reinforce the stereotype that men constantly need to be masculine, such as the sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S (1994-2004) that is still on air. In the episode The One with the Baby on the Bus, Chandler and Joey were mistaken as a gay couple for taking Ross baby for a walk. This event prompted Joey to initiate a conversation with a woman on the bus, Were just two heterosexual guys hanging out with the son of our

other heterosexual friend doing the usual straight guy stuff (Crane, & Marta, November 02 1995). Joey feels emasculated for being mistaken as a gay couple, because avoid being feminine and being homophobic are two of the seven principles of masculinity. As such, Joey felt the need to reassure his masculinity by telling a woman that he is not gay. This scene emphasizes that it is not acceptable and unmanning for men to be viewed as feminine and gay. It is important to spread the awareness that happiness and success do not come from compromising to behave according to the fixed gender conventions. The sitcom The Big Bang Theory is a series about the lives of four nerdy men working at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and a waitress whose dream is to become an actress. Howard is a 5 foot 4 Jewish engineer that lived with his mother until his recent marriage. Evidently he is not self-reliant, and is considered to be the least intelligent out of the four best friends for only holding a masters degree in aerospace engineering. In addition, most of his work revolves around developing toilets for the International Space Station, prompting his friends to call him the space plumber. Despite all that, Howard is the first person out of the four to achieve something remarkable in his field. In the episode The Russian Rocket Reaction, Howard was given a job from NASA as a payload specialist where he is given the opportunity to be an astronaut at the International Space Station. He is also the first to get married to a beautiful lady, Bernadette, who holds a Ph.D. in microbiology. Challenging another gender stereotype, Bernadette is the alpha in their relationship. According to Levant and Gregors criteria, she possesses more masculine traits than Howard. She is self-reliant and making achievement her top priority from the fact that she lives alone, worked for her tuition, and would rather go out and

work than take care of a child. In the episode The Roommate Transmogrification, Bernadette bought an expensive Rolex watch for Howard because she landed a well-paid job right after she received her Ph.D., getting paid at least twice as much as Howard. She told Howard, Oh, you let me worry about the money. I just want my baby to have pretty things (Lorre, & Prady, May 19 2011). This indicates that Bernadette is the provider in the family, and according to Gregor, is a trait for masculinity. However, Bernadette still appreciates and loves Howard even if he is not considered a masculine man, and vice versa. To some extent, our personalities may be influenced by our gender, but gender is not the base of our personalities. The Pixar movie, Wall-E exhibits a happy love story where the female and male-figure robots personalities are inverted. Wall-E, the malefigure robot is nothing like the stereotyped men. He was hiding behind a rock, shaking while EVEs spaceship arrived. From the background music and the eye-line match, it is clear that Wall-E is attracted to Eve like love in first sight. However, Wall-E was afraid of EVE at the same time, and he never had the courage to start a conversation with EVE. When EVE shut down after she found the plant, Wall-E took her on dates, tried to hold her hand and kept her dry from the storm. These scenes suggest that Wall-E is not masculine according to both Levant and Gregor, since he failed to meet even one criteria of masculinity. EVE, on the other hand, is stronger and posses more masculine traits. She is equipped with an explosive gun and is violent at times. In a scene where EVE was sucked to a large magnet off a ship while being frustrated from not being able to find vegetation on Earth, she shot the ship continuously until everything burned down even after she was detached from the magnet. This scene shows that EVE is tough and

aggressive, which are traits of masculinity. Even when Wall-E (the man) is regarded as more feminine and EVE (the woman) is more masculine, they were still able to appreciate each others personality. This shows that even when our personalities, habits, likes and dislikes are different from the norm, it is not unfavorable. In terms of social status, female characters are usually portrayed as the subordinate (lower hierarchy) of male characters. For example, Disneys Beauty and the Beast, where Belle acts as the servant to the Beast. The Green Hornet, where the superheroes are men and the only female character is a secretary that is hired for her looks. This is a problem because these entertainment medias reinforce the stereotype that women are always beneath men, and men have to hold superiority over women. When men have female-stereotyped professions as their occupation, they are often made fun of, bullied or belittled. The movie Meet the Parents is about a Jewish male nurse, Greg who plans to ask his girlfriend, Pam to marry him. However, Pams sister, Debby just got engaged to a doctor named Bob, and he learns that her strict father, Jack expects to be asked for his daughters hand before she can accept (Sacksteder). During the visit to Pams parents house, Greg is alienated and made fun of by Jack and his future in-laws. Other than the reason that no one is good enough for Pam, being a male nurse is evidently one of the main reasons why Jack disapproved of Greg. Jack could not fathom that nurses can be as smart, or even smarter than doctors by the fact that he does not believe that Greg did well on the MCAT. Evaluating by how much Jack belittles Greg for being a nurse shows how little he views men with a feminine profession. Although later in the movie Jack decides to let Greg marry Pam, it is evident that Jack still dislikes the fact that Greg is a male nurse from asking Greg to consider another profession.

Despite the fact that Greg is portrayed as an intelligent male nurse, his feminine profession acts as an obstacle to his social status. We need to reinforce the thought that there is no such thing is gender-stereotyped roles by showing the audiences that there are successful men and women with profession that is unconventional to their gender. Revisiting the movie, Wall-E, the male-figure robot Wall-E has a feminine role according to Gregors criteria. Wall-Es job is to clean up the Earth by collecting, compressing and compiling trash: a domestic job. WallE is also a caretaker, evident by the fact that he nurtures and protects the cockroach. These roles assigned to Wall-E are conventionally feminine, but Wall-E seems to enjoy his job that gives him access to unwanted collectibles. On the other hand, the femalefigure robot, EVE has the responsibility of finding habitable evidence on Earth. She was given an X-ray sensor to search for vegetation (equivalent to humans acute observational skills) and advanced weaponries. She is portrayed as a detective, conventionally mens profession/role (reinforced in the entertainment medias Sherlock Holmes, The Maltese Falcon, etc.). Later in the movie, Wall-E acts as an assistant to EVE and safely transported the plant into the pilots hands. Although they faced many problems, their teamwork successfully brought humans back to Earth and showed that as long as you work hard, gender is not an obstacle to success. Both Wall-E and The Big Bang Theory serve as equilibrium to gender stereotyped personalities and roles portrayed in the entertainment media. It is also important to dispute gender stereotypes in different genre of entertainment media that attracts different kinds and age range of audiences. With Wall-E and EVE being the protagonists that brought humans back to Earth, they are considered heroes and automatically favored and

adored by the audiences, especially children. Howards success reminds people that it does not matter whether we follow the norm, because prosperity comes from hard work and dedication, not gender. It is important to be careful what kind of seed we plant on peoples mind. Equalizing the frequency of male and female doctors appearance and altering their personalities can counteract gender-stereotyped roles and personalities in entertainment media. Diversity is important to a nation. A nation will not prosper with only male leaders because we need opinions of females to accommodate female residents. Thus, it is critical to counteract these stereotypes to prevent having a homogeneous society and to ensure the rights of humankind.

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