Gender Roles

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Recommended: the effect of mass media on gender stereotype

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Gender Roles
Everybody Loves Raymond

The Media plays a major part in what we perceive as socially acceptable stereotypes. With the constant visual concepts flooding the media with what is socially considered to be the normal role of a man or a woman. We are conditioned with gender roles from an early age. Think about how little girls grow up playing with dolls and little boys grow up playing with cars. We are conditioned with specific gender roles almost from birth. We are instilled with what is politically correct by many examples and television and the media is one of the main sources. Sitcoms about families are a perfect example of how television portrays gender roles and what is considered socially acceptable or “normal” by our society. The television sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond suggests that men hold more power in a marriage because they provide for the family and also suggests that women are only good for caring for the children, cooking, cleaning, and catering to their husbands.
The television show is based on what is considered to be your typical American family. The characters include Raymond Barone, his wife Debra, their twin boys and a daughter. They live across the street from Ray’s parents Frank and Marie and Ray’s brother Robert who also lives with the parents. The show revolves around Ray’s family life and the every day events and problems that his family encounters. Raymond is what you would consider the “typical man” His interests are watching sports, having sex and playing golf. Ray is the provider for the family and his wife Debra is your typical stay at home mother. She handles all of the responsibilities that have to be taken care of on an every day basis. She has lost her identity to play the ro...

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...lice officer and an officer of the law is seen as being a masculine figure. If you think about it, even women that are police officers are seen as being masculine. Most men that still lived at home with their parents would not be considered a “ladies man” but because of Robert’s position, he is quite the ladies man. Even though this is a fictional show and a lot of families are very different than this. There are a lot of families where both the mother and father have to work. There are some families where the mother works and the father is the homemaker. There are a lot of mothers that are single and are playing the role of mother and father. This show and so many other shows and media sources portray gender roles and stereotypes in these ways. The roles played in this show are considered to be the normal role of genders and anything else is considered “different”.

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