Tutorial targets 11/1/13

Targets
- Find Quote from BBT for title
- don't use my or I
- More Quotes for bibliography (issues/debates/theory)
-Textual analysis on "big bang theory"

 BBT quotes
"Women. Delightfully mysterious or bat-crap crazy"

"You got her to have sex with you. Obviously your superpower is brainwashing"

"Well she was engaged to my cousin while she was sleeping with my brother, so shes kind of family"

"Look you are a great guy, and it is the things you love that make you who you are.. I guess that makes me large breasts"

"i don't know how, But she is cheating! nobody can be that attractive and this good at a video game"

Penny:" Hey guys my friends and i got tired of dancing so we came over to have sex with you"

"Sometimes stuff just happens and there's nothing you can do about it. For example, Lisa Peterson hasn't talk to me since the eleventh grade because no matter
 how much you apologize you can't go back and un-dryhump someone's boyfriend". 

"Hello, Penny. I realize you’re currently at the mercy of your primitive biological urges, but as you have an entire lifetime of poor decisions ahead of you, may I interrupt this one?"

"Interesting. Sex works even better than chocolate to modify behaviour  I wonder if anyone else has stumbled onto this?"

"I asked myself, what is the most mind-numbing, pedestrian job conceivable and three answers came to mind: Toll booth attendant, Apple Store Genius and what Penny does"



More quotes for bibliography 

Propp- Cinema: A visual anthropology 
"Propp concluded tat there were thirty one narrative units and eight character types. The eight types include the hero, the villain  the princess the donor, the magical helper, the dispatcher, these roles are sometimes distributed among various characters and sometimes one character plays more then one role" - Page 54

Olvia Biondi-  "Gender Stereotypes in Reality TV: An Investigation of "The Real World"
"Cultivation is the cumulative process by which television fosters beliefs about social reality, as the idea that only repetitive, long range and consistent exposure to patterns common to most programming such as casting, social typing and the fate of different social types can be expected to cultivate stable and widely shared images of life and society".- page 2 chapter 1

"stereotypes of women continue to occur. in prime time television, men still outnumber in a way that over represent male population and under represent the female population" - PAGE 3 chapter 1- Relates to smurfette principal.

Choices in Relationships: An Introduction to Marriage and the Family By David Knox, Caroline Schacht 

"Androgyny refers to a blend of traits that are stereotypically associated with both masculinity and femininity. However such transcendence is not equal for women and men. Although females are becoming more masculine partly because our society values whatever is masculine, men are not becoming more feminine."

- Page 103 Chapter- How are gender roles changing?

Politics, Society, and the Media By Paul Wingfield Nesbitt-Larking

"In the liberal-Pluralist view the media are seen as mirrors reflective of the achieved cultural consensus. In a capitalist society, freedom of the press and market competition ensure that all pertinent viewpoints are expressed and available to all consumers" Page 83- Chapter 4

Issues In Americanisation And Culture By Neil Campbell, Jude Davies, George McKay

"America Shapes the way non-Americans live and think"

-Chapter 1 page 1 

Video analysis 

Using CLAMPS to analyse this video we can clearly see how Amy and Benny are dressed differently which refers to their character types as we have penny in a blue dress and Amy in a cardigan, which shows the different type of women in society and how we objectigy certain ones as with penny in the dress she is clearly there to attract the male gaze where as amy is there for the comedy (sexy vs normal girl). Furthermore we see the lighting bright but coming from the lamps etc from within the scene refering to the comedy genre and the "normal" daily life idea to go with the sitcom ideologies which is one to present a normal life style so audineces can relate to the scene and the show. and with the actors we see how penny and amy are talking about the men in their life which relates to the "Bechdel Test" which was created by feminists which is a test that movies within the oscars had to pass in order to see if the film was "female friendly" and the test consisted of two or more women in the cast, the women are in the same scene together and if they talk more then 30 seconds and are they talking anything besides men. Which we see in the scene big bang theory fails at as Penny and Amy are talking about "guy problems" with each other the stereotypical "girls night out", not really representing females as independent and career oriented. And also the props within the scene we see Penny trying to remove facial hair of Amy which again refers to the female physical oreientation as society has this "picture perfect" image of females and with Amy trying to conform to "her blonde friends ways" we see that society forces women to conform to the social norms and female audiences accept this representation of themselves. Lastly the fact the audience are watching their "private beauty sessions" it gives a sense of voyeurism as we are invading women's personal life, and that it is a norm to know what goes on behind close doors of women's life. 

TASK 6

First paragraph 

Feminists over the years have debated on how negative female representation has started from the 70's and 80's. As even though my main texts such as Big Bang theory and 30 rock are contemporary text, if we compare it to historic texts such as Bewitched we can see how the representation of women has improved and how much of it hasn't. (Zeitgeist). Such as how if we see Bewitched was a US sitcom that came out during the 60-70's and if we look at how society was back then in the 60-70's. Relating it to SHEP during that time there was a improvement in women's position during that decade, as they became more independent and more career oriented. But also there was a increase in negative aspects to society, as we saw less women have children, increase in crime rate and increase in inflation, so as relating to women's position in society we can see that bewitched is actually "demonising" women in the sense they are the "witches" of society as they are going out of the stereotype, and it can also refer to how all American women should go back to the norm of being the typical housewife. In addition looking throughout the first episode throughout the husband finds out his wife is a witch he asks his friends for advice, where instead taunting comments are made by the friends saying how "all women" are witches. Which brings the question up of, as how the writer and director is male is he trying to refer to his thoughts of women (showing his prejudice thoughts) or is he parodying the views of American society during that time, this relates to the quote “dream through the dreams of men”, ‘make herself object’ and ‘renounce her autonomy (Jenainati Cathia, Groves Judy: Introducing Feminism (2007).  Showing that how we are viewing a image of the writers reality, referring to cultivation theory as by watching repeated images of women as "house wives" or the playing the emotional roles, society has accepted that view and images that go against this stereotype audiences tend to reject. For example in 30 rock Tina feys role, as a career oriented woman.

Task 5

Essay plan

Despite the fact that we're supposedly living in a post feminist society, why are female characters in contemporary US shows such as "The Big Bang Theory" still being negatively represented?

"Female jealousy is an evolutionary fact, Lemon. If you try to breed it out of them, you wind up with a lesbian with hip dysplasia"-30 rock
or 
"I am trying to guide a 14-year-old. Maybe I could help her realize some other life goal. To become a doctor’s nurse or a lawyer’s mistress or even the president of the United States Shopping Association."-30 rock

Introduction..

My critical investigation will focus particularly on female representation within US sitcoms, As television is a example of liberal pluralism as within television there are shows which appeal to different groups and represent different groups, however television over the years still perpetuate certain stereotypes and the biggest is the negative representation of women . As within books, articles etc we have heard how the 21st century is the era to gender equality and female liberation. For example we have movies which are with female protagonists or tv shows that are female centric, and are successful. However my argument is that even today there are tv shows that perpetuate negative stereotypes of females and how US television plays a important part in this as "Americanisation" is a big part of the media and of our lifestyle, and many of the values portrayed in the shows have been accepted by audiences and have become a part of our life. Referring to my hypothesis, in where i believe females are negatively represented as because of how the media is still male dominated for example there is a higher proportion of male writers, and we are watching shows with their values in it. And to support my hypothesis i will be using the big bang theory as my maim example as how it is a contemporary text and a popular US sitcom aswell. Where we can discuss Pennys representation but also how Amy's and Benerdettes characters are shown to represent positive female representation, but however just fall into the tv trope of reterosexism. Furthermore i will also use historical texts for example bewitched etc to see whether female representation has really improved? Or is it just shown to have improved in order to achieve a larger female audience? (A,R,S)

Sitcoms over the years 
even though my main text is a contemporary text, if we compare it to historic texts such as Bewitched we can see how the representation of women has improved and how much of it hasn't. (Zeitgeist)
-As how Bewitched was a show that took place in the 1960-1970, if we look at SHEP during the 1960-1970 there was a improvement in women's position during that decade,as they became more independent and more career oriented. But also there was a increase in negative aspects to society, as we saw less women have children,increase in crime rate and increase in inflation, so as relating to women's position in society we can see that bewitched is actually "demonising" women in the sense they are the "witches" of society as they are going out of the stereotype, and it can also refer to how all american women should go back to the norm of being the typical housewife.  (R,H,E,S)

-Also throughout the first episode of when the husband finds out his wife is a witch he asks his friends for advice, where instead taunting comments are made by the friends saying how "all women" are witches.which brings the question up  of, as how the writer and director is male is he trying to refer to his thoughts of women (showing his prejudice thoughts) or he is parodying the views of American society during that time, relates to the quote “dream through the dreams of men”, ‘make herself object’ and ‘renounce her autonomy (Jenainati Cathia, Groves Judy: Introducing Feminism (2007). (R,A,S)

- (R,S)

-Darrin and in Big Bang theory Leonard is the victim from the female mind games and how men suffer from never understanding the complicating women. Relating it to SHEP we see how in today's society women are seen has more liberated and we are in the "third wave of feminism" and how women are proud of their sexuality and like to flaunt it however we can say that even today American society is conservative as for example the idea of "retro sexism" (tv tropes article) and how all these old sexist views of women are just presented in a contemporary way, for example how Benerdette and Amy don't fit the typical stereotype of a "perfect american women" and are hence shunned by men and society and are isolated by men. Which shows Zeitgeist and how over the time women's characters have changed but the representation of women hasn't changed. (S,R,H,A)

Tv tropes in the sitcoms
Stereotypes over the years in tv shows have a big contribution as to why certain female representations take place today. As when certain stereotypes are repeated it becomes "tropes", and due to these tropes society start to accept the representations and we then have these neagtive images as the norm. For example the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, “Let's say you're a soulful, brooding male hero, living a sheltered, emotionless existence. If only someone — someone female — could come along and open your heart to the great, wondrous adventure of life...It's Manic Pixie Dream Girl to the rescue!”. The manic pixie dream girl is every male characters dream. She’s the funny and pretty character. But this isn’t the best representation of women, as this character is put in the show just for the males satisfaction and doesn’t really have a quality input to the story line, as how the sad, hurt and injured male needs a lovely woman in his life to spark him up so he can go out there and save the world again. For example in big bang theory we have Leonard who is a smart guy but has a low self-esteem, however later enters penny who sparks up Leonards life and then becomes the character that is most wanted by women. Where penny is a perfect representation of a manic pixie dream girl as we never really  have an idea about her family etc., and she only helped change Leonard so he can go back in the “real world” and live up to his “full potential”. This can give a explanation of why females are still negatively represented in the Sitcoms, as over the years the same stereotype is being represented as for example in New Girl aswell Zooey dechannel "the sweet girl next door" is the perfect girl who gives advice to her 3 other male house mates which again shows how she is the manic pixie dream girl and gives them advice so the men can be "saviours" of society. Also we can say that female audiences have seen so many examples of the manic pixie dream girl, the stereotype has become a norm and now female audiences accept the role (identify) with the role and aspire to be like that, which the results in females behaving the same way in society and men expecting that behaviour from each female. (A,R,S,H,T)

Furthermore in US sitcoms another huge issue with female representation, is also the higher proportion of male casts. “Well, commercial television -- what did I expect? The surprise is that public television, for all its superior intelligence, charm and commitment to worthy values, short changes preschool girls, too”

The article talks about smurfette principal and how in US contemporary TV there are shows where there is a high disproportioned gendered cast. Where the show will have a higher proportion of male characters to female, and the only female character will be highly stereotyped of negatively represented. For example New Girl Zooey Dechanel lives with 3 other guys in the apartment and she is the main protagonist however she is highly stereotyped when it comes to behaviour and her clothing. This fits in with the idea as how females are still be negatively represented. As this also has a effect on female audiences as if they watch this show they feel they want to aspire to be like her hence taking her clothing style and behaviour on board. (T,S,A,R)

Female representation in contemporary shows (other texts)

"Men infantilize women and women tear each other down.". Said Tiny Fey in the episode of "TGS hates women". This episode was absolutely perfect in reflecting the contemporary US sitcoms views on women and societies view on women. As we see through out the episode characters make comments such as "my dream, is to create a kids shows that promotes illiteracy in little girls"- this shows how the sitcom is parodying certain aspects of the media, for example how kid shows promote negative representations of women and how girls from a young age are taught to be sexualised- "Taught  from a young age that they should be sexy,edgy and seek male attention". furthermore we can see that How us sitcoms effect young girls to then later  behave in that sexualised way in society, hence starting this cycle of negative representation. (R,S)

Ideologies 

Within all contemporary US sitcoms we see majority family and heterosexual ideologies being portrayed within the shows. As emphasis on these ideologies reflect that society even today is quite conservative as in the documentary in BBC2 it was said by writers/directors, that things that are happening in soceity will be potrayed in the shows so audiences feel they not only gain escapism but also to some extent relate to the situations. As if society like conservative values then it will be portrayed in the shows for example in 30 rock Tina Feys character who is a middle aged woman and is unmarried, does get joked about by her colleagues,which can show a paradoy of american society and how they believe after a certain age women should be married, and how your appearance is important. - "Women are portrayed in all media as being primarily involved in relationship and men are more often portrayed in the context of their careers"-- refelcting the traditional conservative view of society that has been in shows for many years, as this has become the norm of society and going out the stereotype makes society rejecting the view. This shows how in 30 rock tina feys character is different as "American sitcoms of the modern era, in contrast with other so-called ‘women’s’ shows that target a female audience through their female leads, yet have no women in prominent creative or editorial positions"  even though tina fey is shown to be in a "boss" like position in the company she still goes through problems such as being stereotyped and still have a sexist boss, that represents the patriarchy in society and in the media industry and the reason for why women are still negatively stereotyped.  (R,I,S,H,A)

Conclusion 

in conclusion US sitcoms continue to negatively represent females due to societies beliefs and acceptances  As also due to patriarchy within society and the media industry. As if we look today 90% of sitcoms are written and directed by men and watching the shows directed/written by men we are watching a sense of their reality and as using cultivation theory by repeating these images and values  audience believe and accept them as to be the norm. Furthermore due to these negative representation  women aspire and identify with these negative representation and then tend to accept and imitate these traits and then making a cycle of women behaving like that in society.  ( S,H,R,A)

Task 4

Peoples choice awards- Big bang theory won best show 

http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/MM38_Politics_Sitcom.html- Whilst UK sitcoms have in recent decades established a highly successful tradition of female writer/actors, ranging from French and Saunders and Victoria Wood through to Caroline Aherne, this has been less notable in the US. However 30 Rock is especially notable for being one of the few truly ‘female-led’ American sitcoms of the modern era, in contrast with other so-called ‘women’s’ shows that target a female audience through their female leads, yet have no women in prominent creative or editorial positions.


http://www.genders.org/g55/g55_mizejewski.html
-30 rock 
This is the line of inquiry that informs this essay on 30 Rock, which represents feminism as a contentious, often contradictory bundle of beliefs conveying mixed messages about female power and authority. Given the high expectations of Tina Fey's politics, online feminist media critics have expressed considerable disappointment with the series because 30 Rock so often undermines Liz Lemon's feminist ideals and also because it replays the clichés of the feminist as frumpy, unfeminine, possibly a lesbian, or—as suggested by the Bossypants photo--secretly a man.


http://blog.sciencewomen.com/2008/05/women-on-big-bang-theory.html
The Big Bang Theory is a sitcom that features a couple of socially awkward yet brilliant male physics postdocs who live across the hall from a sociable "blond bombshell" actress/waitress of "average intellect.


http://voices.yahoo.com/are-women-presented-fairly-big-bang-theory-11051078.html
"The Big Bang Theory" started out as a predominantly male cast, but over the seasons more and more women have made their mark on the witty show. This has often begged the question, are the women of the show represented fairly?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/08/new-girl-creator-liz-meriwether-on-jess-sexuality-schmidt-more.html
This show is about their friendships, so even if it is a cancer story for Nick, it is a story about Jess helping him realize some stuff about his life. The show has always worked best when all of the characters are involved in all of the stories. Because that is the way actual friendships work: all of your friends weigh in on each other’s lives.

task 3

Bewitched
From the Opening of the show we can see what values are being portrayed and what was seen as the norm in the 70-80's. As the show starts we hear the quote "once upon a time there was a typical American woman", and we see the image of a good looking,blonde and smartly dressed woman. We never really know whether she was a working woman or not, which relates to the manic pixie girl trope where the woman is only there to satisfy the men of society so they can save the world. Furthermore they portray a woman's life as a fairy tale (Propp character types), as we never really hear about her ambitions or anything we just see her falling in love and then getting married. Also throughout the first episode of when the husband finds out his wife is a witch he asks his friends for advice, where instead taunting comments are made by the friends saying how "all women" are witches.which brings the question up  of, as how the writer and director is male is he trying to refer to his thoughts of women (showing his prejudice thoughts) or he is parodying the views of American society during that time, relates to the quote “dream through the dreams of men”, ‘make herself object’ and ‘renounce her autonomy (Jenainati Cathia, Groves Judy: Introducing Feminism (2007). However if we look at SHEP during the 1960-1970 there was a improvement in women's position during that decade,as they became more independent and more career oriented. But also there was a increase in negative aspects to society, as we saw less women have children,increase in crime rate and increase in inflation, so as relating to women's position in society we can see that bewitched is actually "demonising" women in the sense they are the "witches" of society as they are going out of the stereotype, and it can also refer to how all american women should go back to the norm of being the typical housewife.furthermore this relates to contemporary texts such as in 30 rock we see Tina fey being the independent, career oriented woman, and how her colleagues make fun of her and think she's a lesbian etc.. .Which relates to bewitched as how the main female character as how societies view of liberating women is portrayed as negative representations of females. Also within the show bewitched we see how every negative stereotype of female is represented in different female character for example the seductress is represented in "Sheila", and the arrogant and rude mother in law. As we have negative representation and then Samantha who is shown as flawless and beautiful but as a witch which gives the idea females can't always be perfect. This relates to the Big Bang Theory in the sense of how the traditional roles of females and males in the sense of the stereotypical "American females" and American dream/meritocracy. We see how Penny And Elizabeth are "manic pixie dream girls" in the sense how perfect they are and they are just there for visual pleasure (Laura mulvey) , we never really know any important details about their characters as we know about the male character, also we see in Bewitched how Darrin and in Big Bang theory Leonard is the victim from the female mind games and how men suffer from never understanding the complicating women. Relating it to SHEP we see how in today's society women are seen has more liberated and we are in the "third wave of feminism" and how women are proud of their sexuality and like to flaunt it however we can say that even today American society is conservative as for example the idea of "retro sexism" (tv tropes article) and how all these old sexist views of women are just presented in a contemporary way, for example how Benerdette and Amy don't fit the typical stereotype of a "perfect american women" and are hence shunned by men and society and are isolated by men. Which shows Zeitgeist and how over the time women's characters have changed but the representation of women hasn't changed.

Task 2

-Gauntlett, David. "introduction." Media, gender, and identity: an introduction. London: Routledge, 2002. 9. Print
   30 rock Tina Feys character who is a middle aged woman and is unmarried, does get joked about by              her colleagues,which can show a paradoy of american society and how they believe after a certain age women should be married, and how your appearance is importance, refelcting the traditional conservative view of society that has been in shows for many years, as this has become the norm of society and going out the stereotype makes society rejecting the view.

-Holtzman, Linda. "2." Media messages: what film, television, and popular music teach us about race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2000. 72. Print.
            This can also relate to my contemporary text, as in 30 Rock we see Tina fey being the independent, career oriented woman, and how her colleagues make fun of her and think she's a lesbian etc. Which relates to Bewitched as how the main female character as how societies view of liberating women is portrayed as negative representations of females.

-Jenainati, Cathia, and Judy Groves. "5." Introducing feminism. Thriplow: Icon, 2007. 84. Print.

           "all women" are witches.which brings the question up  of, as how the writer and director is male is he trying to refer to his thoughts of women (showing his prejudice thoughts) or he is parodying the views of American society during that time, relates to the quote “dream through the dreams of men”, ‘make herself object’ 

-Levy, Ariel. "introduction ." Female chauvinist pigs: women and the rise of raunch culture. New York: Free Press, 2005. 1. Print.

                 Relating to my critical investigation on how women are being negatively/ sexually represented, it is not just to please the male audiences but also the female audiences as how now in modern society women are sexually objectifiying other women and now see this as normal for example in 30 rock Tina Feys character isn't your normal US sitcom female character which then brings the whole comedy aspect of how they think shes a lesbian and no other male co-worker is attracted to her and also the other female co-workers who also taunt her about her look, which refers back to how women themselves are objecitifying other women and if they don't reach the stereotypical image they will be isolated from audiences. As also in a documentary on BBC two called "Family guy? US sitcoms" where they refer to the idea that US sitcoms always or usually tend to make references to real life situations for example the recession which was reflected in many shows. This refers back to my question as how contemporary stereotypes and views are injected into the story line and show.

-Mulvey, Laura. "3." Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. London: Laura Mulvey , 1999. 19. Print.
                relates to the big bang theory as how penny is represented as a sexual object and how is a big example of the male gaze as how there are more male characters and are more "intelligent", whereas we just have penny who has totally different morals compared to the other male characters showing her as dumb and funny, and with her being attractive it brings "scope" to the television show. As male audiences will gain gratifications by gazing at penny. 

-Olfman, Sharna. "something happening here." The sexualization of childhood. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2009. 73. Print.
.          As we see through out the episode characters make comments such as "my dream, is to create a kids shows that promotes illiteracy in little girls"- this shows how the sitcom is parodying certain aspects of the media, for example how kid shows promote negative representations of women and how girls from a young age are taught to be sexualised- 

-Zoonen, Liesbet van. "Chapter 1." Feminist media studies. London: Sage, 1994. page 3. Print.
                This is a great quote that totally supports my point on that women in US sitcoms are still being underrepresented in education and characters which are scientists. For example Penny in Big bang theory is the best example of how female characters are being shown as these “dumb” characters as we see her character that has dropped out of college and works in the cheese cake factory who dreams big to be in Hollywood, her character really doesn’t aspire to achieve something academically. This really shows how in US contemporary shows have a norm of where the main female character should be just this “attractive idiot”, as if she falls into an opposite characterisation she will be isolated and treated differently from the rest of the characters. For example in 30 rock Tina fey is this confident intelligent woman and that is supposed to be the funny aspect about her, as this doesn’t fit in the norm of “attractive idiot” characterisation.

Task 1

Textual analysis

Using CLAMPS to analyse these to texts we can see that the camera shots are over the shoulder natural shots, a sense that the audience is in the scene and also the audience are part of the debate. and with the whole blonde and brunette and standing in front of each other placement it shows that sense of binary opposition as we have Tina Fey who is a more serious character and then the other female character who is more sexually objectified. In the episode which is "TGS hates women", we see how Tina fey is trying to  be the feminist who supports female rights and how women are being negatively portrayed in shows and then we have the stereotypical sexually objectified dumb sexy blonde" and shows how the two different females in society conflict with each other.

It is a great example in explaining how women are negatively represented in SITCOMS as another clip within the episode is when they make fun out of how women during their periods become crazy and moody. and powerful women for example Hilary Clinton etc make bad decisions because they are women. As this refers to how status doesn't differentiate society but gender does as however powerful a woman is she will make bad decisions because biologically she is a woman.  Furthermore we see also in the scene the colour of clothing such as the blonde character is going for a more a barbie and feminine look and then Tina fey who is dressed in a more formal and serious way.

Furthermore the show also makes reference to how US television from a young age influence young girls, for example how one of the lines are "i want to make a kids show that promotes illiteracy within young girls", which basically parodies the fact how kid shows at the moment on US television promote those values and how women accept those values to later then behave like that in society. As also we can say due to the economic problems females and males watch these shows for escapism and then sometimes accept these representation and then behave like that, which then explains why females are still negatively represented in society as these shows perpetuate negative stereotype and society believe these representations as the norm.