Modern Family: Gender Stereotypes

Women play many different characters in movies and television shows. Although these actors may play different characters, more times than not they fit into an obtuse gender stereotype for women. This form of stereotyping has a direct feedback into our culture. Whether it is a young girl or an older women, each are greatly influenced by what they watch on television. This is normal for a man as well, when you see someone you like or look up to it is natural to follow their footsteps. By seeing a women on television or in a movie with a perfect frame tends to have women feeling like they need to mimic that look. The same can go for hair color, style, a shirt, or even the jeans that a character wears. By looking at Claire Dumphy from Modern Family, …show more content…
She gives examples about women having jobs such as a secretary or a nurse, while men may be firefighters or pilots. In Modern Family, Claire is a stay at home mom for most of the show before she inherits her dad’s business. The show even adds more into the stereotype by having the backstory of how she used to have a very good job but gave it up to raise her family. Elaine holds multiple jobs throughout the show. At one point she is a personal assistant to an elderly man, along with being an editor for two different magazines. This always plays right into the gender stereotype of a women. Although in Scandal, Olivia Pope really breaks the stereotype. She has her own consulting firm in DC where she is a crisis manager. She has her own workers and is portrayed as an extremely strong and successful woman. Throughout the show she routinely helps people out of extremely difficult …show more content…
Whether that is fair or not is uncertain. What does hold true is these stereotypes are often just that, stereotypes. These do not apply to the majority. All three of these characters play different roles, are from different periods of time, and have very big fan bases. Thus, they have a huge influence on the everyday lives of their viewers. They all do have gender stereotypes surrounding them, some may not fall into one stereotype but will fall into another. These are three actresses who fit perfectly in the role they play, all along directly classifying as todays common stereotype for women. We must acknowledge the unique gender stereotypes of each actress individually. Sometimes these characters do break stereo types. There is no “yes you’re 100% a stereotype”, everyone has different niche’s and characteristics that might fit the perception or it may not