Feminist Theory: The Mary Tyler Moore Show

The old feminine mystique, before the wars end was a woman would have “strength in her hands, pride in her carriage and nobility in the lift of her chin.” This change was caused because the old Rosie figure changed. Her attitude and fashion sense changed to accommodate the more ideal woman for a man of the time period. Not only did this figure change, but the figures of TV shows changed as well. In the shows like ‘Father Knows Best’ and ‘The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet’, ‘Our Miss Brooks‘, ‘I Love Lucy‘, and ‘The Honeymooners’ the women being portrayed are stay at home moms that support the family or women that are independent but need and want a man in their lives. All these women at first reflected the ideal woman, but after a while it became the majority because when people saw it influenced their decisions greatly. In the end of the time period however, and in the later shows like ‘I Love Lucy‘, and ‘The Honeymooners’, the women roles started to show more dominant traits. This idea helped to change the feminine mystique again, changing for the good.

Machismo is the feeling of strong or aggressive masculine pride. There are many misconceptions to feminist philosophy. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye the main protagonist has different relationships with women and acts differently toward each woman based on how he feels about them. In this essay I will be discussing the different relationships Holden experiences with Phoebe, Jane, Sunny, and Sally and how J.D. Salinger shows only the horrible qualities each of these women posses.

Over the course of many years, women have struggled to expand their roles and rights in society, hoping to one day achieve complete equality with their male counterparts. Two women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady, both recognized the patriarchal society in which women had to endure. They despised the way it heaped inequality and servitude upon women, and decided to assert their opinion on the issue in order to change the perceptions and imposed limitations on women. In Stanton’s speech, “Declaration of Sentiments”, and in Brady’s article, “I Want a Wife”, both women attempt to convince their audiences that females deserve complete equality with men by stating the submissive situations and obligations women find themselves immersed in. This is done to get their female audiences to reevaluate how they have been treated and give them a second chance at attaining equality. Both women employ various rhetorical techniques in their arguments to strengthen, as well as compel other women to oppose the ‘domesticated’ image of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady expressed their views in pursuance of forging a path to a revamped lifestyle for women.

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was born in New England in 1852 at the start of the Victorian era. This time during American history women had a certain expected role in society. Their area of influence was known as the domestic sphere. This meant women were in charge of the home, children, and the moral values and eternal souls of the family. Many women during this time were becoming “the single, highly educated, economically autonomous New Woman” (Rosenberg, 245). They were breaking out of the domestic sphere and looking for something more. These women were “eschewing marriage...espoused innovative, often radical, economic and social reforms” (Rosenberg, 245) and were altogether more independent than women before them. Mary Wilkins Freeman

Television, since its inception, has had a knack at being a mirror for the current state of society. Through this medium, one is easily able to spot the changes our culture has gone through since TV was first created. One example of this social shift, is that of the woman's role in television starting from the 50’s to the present. In 1950’s

Entirely self-sufficient and all around powerhouse, Mary Jane is devoted to a family that doesn’t share her motivation. Unlike the traditional female gender role known to us such as Clair from the Cosby Show, Mary Jane juggles her life, her work and commitment to her family. We find out how far she’s willing to go to discover the puzzle piece that she and society insist is missing from her single Black female life in the episode “Huxtables Have Fallen.” Having that of a progressive

South Park has been around for a while now. Since it was aired for the first time on 13th August 1997, the show has constantly pushed the boundaries taking on everything, leaving out nothing. The reception among the wider population and the media had a wide range from “shocking” to “excellent”. One of the aspects of this success story is that, because of its provocative tone the show has managed to stay in the limelight. Public debate was evolving around certain episodes, bringing more and more attention to the show. As it was constantly picking up contemporary themes, topics or events, expectations were growing and “ 'How will South Park deal with x ' has become a common catch phrase” (Johnson-Woods 257). Another

Although the post war economy, the invention of the pill, and the civil rights movement precipitated great change for American women, feminism also failed to achieve change by not resolving tensions of raising a family and trying to hold a job and not stopping marriage from crumbling into divorce. Even though women had become pilots, Supreme Court justices and astronauts, they still failed to “have it all,” by not resolving the tension for women trying to raise a family and hold a job (Collins 393). Failing to resolve this crisis, feminism’s inability to achieve change, left millions of women struggling to “have it all,” when 1980’s television made it seem within reach with women like Clair Huxtable. In fact, women’s inability to make change

As Bonnie Dow says, “If television scholars had established a canon of “great” works” akin to that which exists (although not without challenges) in literature, The Mary Tyler Moore Show surely would be included in it” (Dow 24). A sitcom

“The emotional, sexual and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says ‘It’s a girl’”. Shirley Chisholm stated this in 1973 when she was running her presidential campaign to become the first female president of the United States. Since then, feminism has grown tremendously. People are better informed, laws have been modified, change has been promised, however the novel The Hours by Michael Cunningham serves to prove that not enough progress has been made. It is as if feminism has been twirling around in a circle, not really going anywhere. Although in different eras, Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown and Clarissa Vaughan are all affected by the patriarchal society. They each hold different relationships with the men in their

My analysis of major themes and how the media participate in the construction of attitudes about gender and sexual orientation is predicated upon 16 articles drawn from three major news sources: Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Advocate. The articles were published in the months of January, February, and March. The selection of the articles was not random; I specifically chose articles whose titles and introductions were of particular interest. The three news sources, particularly the Times and The Advocate, published many articles related to LGBT issues—typically greater than a dozen for each weekly search—from which I selected only two per week. In sifting through the 16 articles, I identified three important

The first section of Gender and the Media addresses gender representations and the beginning of feminism. During the late 60’s and early 70’s, women’s rights movements were first introduced with the challenge of the media, prompting them monitor the way the media portrayed women. This portrayal starting in the late 1970’s has seen many transmissions since. Gil states: “I use the term feminism to signal a concern with enduring gender

Her boss was “Lou Grant” who served as the patriarch of the show. Another female on the show was “Phyllis”, a homemaker and mother who worked for her husband. This show was a hybrid of the classic patriarchal dominated family structure but still contained elements of stereotypical gender roles and norms. Another example of this hybrid show was Cagney and Lacey. This show features two women as police detectives. The women reported to male in the role of chief. One of the lead characters was married with a family, and the other was a single woman. These women had an individual approach to gender as related to gender norms. They had careers in a non-traditional gender sphere as police detectives however they still sought to conform to the gender norm of wife and mother. These shows continued to be produced, written and directed by a predominately male staff with an occasional female writer or consultant. Women’s roles were changing in society from the strictly female as gather or homemaker to include a second shift for the female characters. The males in these scenarios continued to hold power and authority over the female characters.

American Women before the 1960’s were subjected to a life where they would be expected to get married early, have children as soon as possible, and then become a homemaker for the rest of their lives. Feminist women in America faced an underlying conflict to find their purpose and true meaning in life. “Is this it?” was a question frequently sought out by women reaching deeper into their minds and souls to find what was missing from their life (Rampton). The ideal woman was defined as a women who puts all of her time into making sure her house was clean, her husband felt loved, and her children were taken care of but this traditional belief triggered these women to not only lose their identity within their families but society as well. The turbulent emotions felt by feminist women based on this oppression created the internal conflict that caused for social steps to be taken in hopes of bringing purpose and meaning back into their lives. While the first wave of feminists demanded their right to vote, these second-wave feminists took a stand for equality, not just in law, but in daily life. As the second wave of feminism grew due to the maltreatment of women, the influence of the newly published Ms. Magazine aided the feminist movement, treading great change for women’s rights. By being able to add onto what the 1st wave accomplished-granting women the right to vote-women developed the level of empowerment needed to demand more.

What do Betty from "Pleasantville," June from "Leave it to Beaver," and Donna Reed from "The Donna Reed Show" all have in common? They all represent the image of the perfect housewife in the 1950s. They represent women who gladly cooked, cleaned, dressed in pearls and wore high heals while waiting for their all-knowing husbands to come home. They represent women who can only find fulfillment in male domination and nurturing maternal love. Tillie Olsen, as a single mother with four children (204), provides readers with another view of women. Through the representation of the narrator in I Stand Here Ironing, Olsen contradicts the image of the 50s ideal woman, a happy housewife and a perfect mother.