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Discuss gender related to power
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Madam Secretary is a TV series about a woman, Dr. Elizabeth Faulkner McCord, who was a former CIA analysis and later became a college professor until she was elected as the secretary of the State by the demand of the president of the United States. Because of her political leanings, artistic thinking, and understanding of the Middle East, she earned the honors of her bosses (Madam Secretary - CBS.com n.d.). Her roles are to impel global international relations, combat office politics and evade set of rules while bargaining national and international concerns (Madam Secretary Series - TV Tropes n.d.). Her husband Dr. Henry McCord, a former retired United States Navy captain and a fighter jet pilot of the F18 Hornet during Operation Desert Storm who later became a theology professor. Furthermore, Dr. Henry McCord had written and published eight books (Madam Secretary - CBS.com n.d.). Mr. and Mrs. McCord have three children. The oldest daughter is Stephanie McCord, a college dropout. Next to the oldest is Alison McCord, who mopes about breakups and has sleepovers. The youngest is Jason McCord, twelve years …show more content…
Both husband and wife project a satisfied alliance and outline a traditional family (The 2 Most Surprising Things about ‘Madam Secretary’2014). In addition, the show also represents a nuclear family that consists of a father, a mother and their three children. What is more, Madam Secretary depicts a patriarchy and in addition to portraying an egalitarian. To illustrate the patriarchy, Dr. Henry McCord is portrayed to be powerful for being a fighter jet pilot and a captain in the U.S. Navy who maintained and supported his family together. Additionally, the President of the United States is a male; therefore, displays males as the primary authority figures. To illustrate the egalitarian, the TV series main character is a female who projects herself to be powerful and capable of evading set of
A main theme in this small town’s culture is the issue of gender and the division of roles between the two. Not uncommon for the 1950’s, many women were taught from a young age to find a good man, who could provide for them and a family, settle down and have children – the ideal “happy family.” As Harry states after singing the showstopper “Kids,” “I have the All-American family: A great wife, 2 wonderful kids and a good job.”
In the 1950’s becoming a wife, having and raising children and taking care of the home was the primary goal for most women. Post war brides were marrying young, having children at significant and unrivaled rates, and settling into roles that would ultimately shape a generation. This ideal notwithstanding, women were entering the workplace like never before and changing the face of American business forever. In the movie The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit directed in 1956 by Nunnally Johnson, we get an inkling of the type of voice American women would develop in the character of Betsy Rath. We are introduced to a wife and mother who leverage her role in the family to direct and influence. The decade of the 50’s signify the beginnings of the duplicity that women would embrace in America, being homemakers and independent women.
“We are victims of a matriarchy here my friends…” (Harding). A matriarchy is a social order where women have power. In the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest the women are portrayed as the power figures and have the power manipulate, or control the men in the ward, as shown by the characters of Nurse Ratched, Mrs. Bibbit, and Vera Harding.
During the 1950‘s suburbs such as Levitown were springing up all across the country, and the so-called American dream was easier to achieve for everyday Americans than ever before. They had just come out of two decades dominated by The Great Depression and World War Two, and finally prosperity was in sight. The need for women to work out of the home that was present during the war was no more, and women were overwhelmingly relegated to female-dominated professions like nursing, secretaries, and teachers, if they worked at all. Televisions became very popular, and quickly became part of the American cultural canon of entertainment. Leave It To Beaver is a classic American television show, encompassing values such as respect, responsibility and learning from your mistakes. But, at least in the episode used for this essay, it is also shockingly sexist to a modern viewer. This begs the question, what does the episode The Blind Date Committee1 say about the gender expectations of the 1950’s?
We see the births of Elizabeth Carol Mackin (b: 2002) and Claire Elise Mackin (b: 2004) who are daughters of Catherine and Chris Mackin. Dylan (b: 2005) and Rylie (b: 2008) are the son and daughter of Daniel and Amy. Courtney and Adam Hollis give birth to Anna Hollis in 2009 and John Hollis in 2012. Anne and Wendell Yee give birth to Alyson Lange in 1990. Matthew (b: 1986) a...
In both of these series, representations and meanings of masculinity and femininity are affected by the ideology of patriarchy. Even though it is true that these shows tried to fight back against stereotypical representations of men and women, the subtle textual evidence in these shows show that there are limits to how gender norms can be represented on television, especially in the Classic Network
These two categories outline the entirety of Moynihan’s description of the black woman. In the article the idea of a black woman being the head of the Negro family is heavily pressed upon. Moynihan uses a study that states, “Negro husbands have usually low power” (Moynihan, III 2). This statement associates with idea that men should have more power in a relationship. Frances Beale states “America has defined the roles to which each individual should subscribe.
Many current crime dramas give younger female viewers female role models in professionally powerful positions. Law and Order: SVU commonly casts their district attorneys and judges with women. In addition, the characters often are portrayed as independent and strong women as they battle against tough male opponents. For too long, women have been portrayed in television as either being the “woman behind the man” or as needing to use her sex appeal in order to be powerful. Another crime drama, Criminal Minds, has casted females in roles such as the director of the FBI’s Behavior Analysis Unit, agents who also worked undercover in the CIA, and as international secret agents. All of these characters have, for the most part, been portrayed positively. An adult is aware that in the real world women in powerful positions is not fiction; and, wom...
In contrast, men have been seen as more dominate than women because of their masculine abilities and other traits and most importantly their profound responsibility of being the provider and head of the household. Americans constantly uses theses two distinct stereotypes that in many cases present many biases regarding gender codes in America. Things have changed over time the women are no longer just house wives taking care of the house and children waiting for their husband to come home from his nine to five occupations. Andrea L. Miller explains in her article “The Separate Spheres Model of Gendered Inequality” that, “A common theme in the study of gender is the idea that men and women belong in distinct spheres of society, with men being particularly fit for the workplace and women being particularly fit for the domestic domain” (Miller 2). Miller gives two very specific examples on how gender is viewed in American
During the time period Tennessee Williams, author of the play A Streetcar Named Desire, lived in, men were typically portrayed as leaders of the household. Through Williams' usage of dialogue, specific descriptions of each characters, as well as sound, he illustrates to readers of today's society how differently a man and woman coexisted in the mid-1900s, compared to today. Through the eyes of a topical/historical theorist, who stresses the relationships between the story and the time period it takes place, the distinction between today's society and that of five decades past, can be observed with depth and precision.
...ew ideal woman, the public has changed its expectations of a woman to coincide with the ideal. It is relatively uncommon to see a woman on a television show that does not work, and oftentimes they work at high positions such as doctors or lawyers. If she is married, she often has more say in the relationship than the man, a complete switch of earlier roles. These new ideals have mostly improved the public's view of women and improved women's view of themselves.
Also gender is an important factor in America social class. Men will be affected differently and women will be affected differently by the class system. In the class system there is inequality between genders and that greatly affects the social mobility of the genders. Men usually hold more important jobs in businesses while women will work under them. For instance in a article by Richard Hogan, it conveys, “How gender relations within the family are reproduced (emulated), at work, in class relations between secretaries and their bosses.” (Hogan 2001: 68). In families the female is usually taking care of the house, children, etc., while the male has a job and earning money. In this example it explains that the boss has a job and is earning money, while the secretary is taking care of the bosses work. This limits the social mobility of females since they always have to work under someone in most cases and they will earn less money than males. Women also take their husband’s social class position when they are married to them. Hogan explains, “Firstly women have been subsumed into class analysis through being identified with the household unit defined by the male partner 's social class position.” (Hogan 2001: 147). This displays that a female has no identity of her own since they take their husband’s social class position it is linked to them. Yet, females still have some kind social class and some social mobility in the class
We, as Americans, have come towards the concept of equality in relationships. Male dominant relationships were common throughout the forties and fifties in the United States. Women were deemed as housewives, whose job was to clean and have dinner ready for their husband's return from work. Imagining women in that type of status is difficult to do in society. Families are not a place for tyranny.
Men are traditionally seen as being in the "supervisor" position in the home. They are the heads of the household, the breadwinners, and the women are behind the scenes, like the threads that hold everything together. The same can be said about the workplace. Men tend to hold administrative positions, while women usually have the positions that support the administrator. They are the secretaries and assistants that do the work for their male bosses and prepare things for them that later on only the administrator may receive credit for. " ‘Where,' asks the Englishman who is prominent in social welfare, 'are you're men? We see their names on the letter-heads of organizations, but when we go to international conferences, we meet almost entirely women.' 'Our men-oh, they are the chairmen of boards, they determine the financial policy of our agencies, but they leave the practice to women. They are too busy to go to conferences.'" (Mead 304).
The roles women typically play in the family may not always be consistent with success in the occupational arena. Staying home to care for a sick child may conflict with an important meeting (Broman 1991:511). Sometimes there has to be a change of plans when it comes to the family. Most people believe that family comes first no matter what. Men 's engagement in paid work fulfills prescriptions of hegemonic masculinity by facilitating their ability to gain status in the public sphere. A man can judge his worth by the size of a paycheck (Thebaud 2010:335). Most research shows that women are more likely to be effected by the household and men are more likely to be effected by their job. Some people feel that the goal is to reach higher on the occupational