Reflection Post (Debate)

In class last week we had a debate on whether the representation of women in TV was fair. My group agreed with the above point, so, a week prior to the debate, we started to make points and find statistics to back up our points.

We found statistics like for every one lead, serious role for a woman in TV, there are six 'real housewives'. This particular statistic showed us that women are still being represented unfairly in TV, as there are less lead roles, and more gossiping, reality TV stars who were classed as talkative, generally thin and rich.

Additionally, women's appearances on TV are the 'girl next door', extremely beautiful, tall, slim, and not overly smart. Women on TV who were overweight tend to get negative comments on their bodies, and, it was found, 80% of the time these comments were followed by canned audience laughter.

In their professional lives, women are generally housewives or their careers are ignored. However, if their careers are shown, they are generally feminine jobs, such as secretaries, teachers or nurses. despite this, there are women in TV who further their professional lives, but they tend to fail. Of course there are women roles who are high in power in their jobs. Like for instance, action and fantasy or spy movies, but these women roles are limited and, sometimes, they even end up being the villain overall. For instance, in Fringe, a woman who owns a huge cooperate in science in actually evil for a couple of seasons.

Another example of women's professional lives and their portrayal is Big Bang Theory. Though it's a great show, it goes by the stereotypical dumb, blonde who has a failing actress career, and the intelligent female scientists like Amy or Leslie are portrayed as unattractive and nerdy.

Above were just some of the points we planned to make on the day of the debate day. Unfortunately, I wasn't very well on the day of the debate of the day so I couldn't participate, but I enjoyed making the research points and giving evidence.