The Representation of Women in Television

The article discusses how the image of women has been portrayed in television over time. In the early days of television, women were often confined to family settings with limited representation. As more women entered the workforce, TV shows began to depict working women leading non-traditional lives. However, in the 1990s, a postfeminist era emerged where liberal feminist ideas and ambiguous images challenged traditional roles. The article also touches on how television has impacted cultural consensus and presented progressive roles for women and minority groups. Furthermore, it highlights the representation of African Americans, gay men and women, and their struggles with stereotypes and marginalization.

REQUIRED READING
Johnson, C (2007), ‘Negotiating value and quality in television historiography’ in Helen
Wheatley (ed) Re-Viewing Television History: Critical Issues in Television Historiography,
London: I. B. Tauris pp 55-66.
This chapter presents an assessment that when a particular text is well placed in a particular
context, it can perform a particular function. The text can have a historical importance with high
quality artistic creativity. The old television programs on being critically analysed by historian
have been asked about their historical importance, artistic creativity and quality etc. One such
difference is that the nature of creativity is found to be different and a relationship has been
found between the quality and the artistic creativity on evaluating the television, and specifically
historical television. The author suggests that the programming forms like studio drama and light
entertainment along with other forms can be termed as the ‘bread and butter’ television. But
these factors are likely to conflict strongly with the contemporary dominant criteria of aesthetic
value. However, the author suggests that while engaging in the evaluation of the old television
programs and their quality, are offering a manner of challenging the dominant criteria for
evaluating the quality of contemporary television. This evaluation has been helpful in shaping
the writing of television’s history.
** REQUIRED READING: Lull, J. (2003). Hegemony. In Dines, Gail and Humez, Jean M.
(eds.), Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader, pp. 61-66. London: Sage.
The authors have tried to capture the readers with the a comprehensive introduction to the mass
media studies and have presented an innovative and classical reading which critically analyses
the influential and pervasive mode of media entertainment culture which includes shows,
sitcoms, advertising, pornography, celebrity gossip websites, online social media etc. The power
and the issues have repeatedly been related to the class, sexuality and are integrated with various

economic and financial implications. The article puts an emphasis on gender and race in the light
of media and their emergence from time to time in any form of media.
**REQUIRED READING: Robertson, R. (2010) Eisenstein on the Audiovisual: The
Montage of Music, Image and Sound in Cinema. London: I.B. Tauris. Introduction pp 1-
12.
The article focusses on the study of cinema which has potentially being overwhelmingly visual
in nature. The article presents the audio visual perspective of cinema on the ideas of the authors
regarding the montage of music, sound and image. The article presents on the various audio
visual focus on the key works performed by film directors like Stanley Kubrick, Spike Lee,
David Lynch, Fritz Lang, Maya Deren, Alfred Hitchcock and also explores the audio visual in
landscape in cinema, in the avant-garde animation, and in films beyond the European tradition.
** REQUIRED READING: Gibbs, J. (2012) Mise-en-Scène: Film Style and Interpretation.
London: Wallflower. ‘The elements of mise-en-scène’, pp 12-31
The article presents the various film styles and interpretation. The action and performance
section has been described as the important base level and the décor, lighting, use of colour etc.
along with the direction of action and through the skilful performance. It presents the importance
of delivering the line and the position of the actor. The authors suggests that writing about
complexities and performance is difficult and the understanding of narratives is central to the
performance which has been explained by the example of Barbara Bel Geddes’ performance in
caught. The author explains the importance of eye movement and various other actions that
define the performance of the actor. Further the author explained the concept of space which is
considered to be vital expressive element which also includes the personal space between the

performers. Further the author stresses upon the importance of placing camera at a correct
position in order to determine the understanding of the scene. Similarly the concept of framing
and interaction of all the elements have been given a critical position in the film style and
interpretation.
**REQUIRED READING: Mulvey, L. (1975), ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”,
Screen, Vol 16 Issue 3, pp 6-18.
This article discusses the pleasure and pleasure that the traditional narrative film offers. It ranged
from the scopophilic instincts to ego libido, to explaining the image of women as a raw material
in cinema. This article discuses about the controlling of time dimension and space dimensions to
produce as a measure of desire. The image of women has been presented as such due to the
patriarchal historical presentation of the inferior women. The article suggests that the spectators
look beyond the to-be-looked-at-ness of the women and is herself presented in the way the
spectators want her to watch. The author reflects on the festishistic representation of woman
which seems to threaten to break the spell of illusion and further their erotic images shown to the
spectators, the fixation of the spectator etc. The image of women, according to the article has
continuously being stolen and used for in the end.
** REQUIRED READING: Press, A. (2009), ‘Gender and Family in Television’s Golden
Age and Beyond’ in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,
Volume 625, No 1. pp 139-150.
The article focuses on the image of women, family, work etc. on the television and discuses on
how it has changed since the heyday of the network era. It focuses on how the women were
shown to be confined in the family settings with restricted set of images in the early television.
With the increase in the number of working women the television started showing the images of

working women, leading a non-traditional life. But in early 90s, a postfeminist television was
started where the ideas of liberal feminism along with a series of ambiguous images were
challenged. With this, their role in the workplace was seen increasingly and a sense of nostalgia
was yearned for the family life which they had displaced beautifully. The author also highlights
on the fact that the due to the lack of actual cultural consensus marked by television, the
multiplicity of television is playing a role of presenting progressive role for women and minority
groups in our culture. For now the medium has been experiencing a vast technological changes
and life has been characterized due to the proliferation of new media.
** REQUIRED READING: Lotz, Amanda D. (2014). Cable Guys: Television and
Masculinities in the 21st Century, New York: NYU Press. Intro. pp 1-18.
Leading feminist media and television scholar Amanda D. Lotz’s work explains the various
complex intersection of various identities and industries emerging from the postfeminist and post
network era of America. The article begins from discussing the need for incorporating a
methodology which will utilize media with various cultural and socioeconomic factors but has
shifted from representation of men instead of women. She performs a televisual analysis of
various male characters who have continuously been linked to masculinity which was considered
to be a much underexplored area of feminist television criticism. Due to simple no complication
and straightforward aspect with the masculinities in the network era, exactly like the American
society’s gender roles much before when the women started to demand equal rights to their own
male counterparts.
** REQUIRED READING: Bogle, D. (2002) ‘The 1950s: Scraps’ in Primetime Blues:
African Americans on Network Television, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

The relationship of African-Americans on the television have been examined by Bogle from
various decade eras, shows and even on the basis of episodes. Bogle has not only measured the
shows sociologically but also aesthetically and with the help of this article he has aimed towards
explaining the influenced of the critics rating and representation of blacks and Hollywood
politics on that. Brief biographies with the help of dozen of actors have been presented and
described in his work. He with his straight-ahead method has presented an insightful and
thoroughness analyses. The author has been presenting a sympathetic version of his work
towards the extra burden given to the black performed which they had to carry. Further he
stressed on the fact that the black performers were judged not only for their acting skills but for
the parts they have been chosen to perform and play. He presents that for a long period of time
the acting jobs for the black performers and actors were few in number and most of these actors
only wanted to have a good role and did not want to be a role model.
** REQUIRED READING: Hall, S. (1994). ‘The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies
and the Media’ in Dines, Gail and Humez, Jean M (eds), Gender, Race, and Class in
Media: A Text-Reader, pp 89-93, London: Sage.
The Whites in their eyes has presented a rich vocabulary and syntax for the race that has
repeatedly being used by the media. The articles focuses on the relation between domination and
subordination. It also stresses upon the notion of inferior and superior species. Furthermore, it
reflects upon the displacement of issues that were present in history into the nature. The author
presents racial differences as a sign of inferiority which has been arising from the natural and
breeding ranking. He insists that the whole idea can be reflected in the imperialist writings and
also in the white eyes which offer the frame outside and offer a perspective to the past. The
history and the subordination and denomination of whites has been reflected in the paper.

** REQUIRED READING: Becker, R. (2004). “Prime-time TV in the Gay Nineties:
Network Television, Quality Audiences, and Gay Politics.” In Allen, Robert C. and Hill,
Annette (eds.), The Television Studies Reader, pp. 389-403. London: Routledge.
The article focuses on the fact that the gay men and women were increasingly present in the
prime-time television during the 1990s and their characters and issues were presented with
boldly and clearly. Their lives which was always mirrors due to their demographic profiles
resulted in their marketing press. Various examples like Frasier’s gay boss, Paul’s sister in Mad
About You, Spin city etc have been discussed throughout the paper. But with the change in time,
their representation on television was changed and their image has continuously been constructed
while keeping in mind the straight, white and affluent spectators in mind. With the emergence of
Ellen in 1997, the lives of gays and lesbians were explored in a humorous manner by explaining
their ordeal. Television has alaways been a site of cultural negotiation and has presented the
struggle of gays and lesbian rights since the 1990s and has led the battle on to play. Therefore it
is important for the gay and lesbian community to understand the complex interaction among the
social movements, industrial forces, political aims and cultural conflicts.