Tv's New Wave Of Women Analysis

Great Essays
Have you ever watched television shows and noticed the genders of the main characters? If so, how does the producer create their personalities? Does he or she consider the actors as “crazy” or does he or she consider the actors as airheads? Two articles that discuss this topic are “TV’s New Wave of Women: Smart, Strong, Borderline Insane” by Heather Havrilesky and “Male-Bashing on TV” by Michael Abernathy. In Havrilesky’s article, she talks about how women are portrayed as “crazy” on television and also compares the different actresses on different television shows. As for Abernathy’s article, he discusses the portrayal of men on television and ads and compares the way men have evolved over time. The two authors mainly differ about the portrayal …show more content…
Havrilesky and Abernathy both use the portrayals of gender in the media throughout their articles. In Havrilesky’s article, she argues about how women are portrayed on television (1-5). In her article, she states “I mean that these women are portrayed as volcanoes that could blow at any time” (Havrilesky 1). Havrilesky realizes that the “crazy” actresses on television are relating to women in real-life (5). Havrilesky does not like the way that media has portrayed women as “crazy” because “crazy” has summed up her personality (5). In Abernathy’s article, he argues about the portrayal of men on television shows and ads (350-353). Abernathy states, “It would be nice to turn on the TV and not see ourselves reflected as idiots” (353). Abernathy dislikes that …show more content…
In Havrilesky’s article, she argues that in today’s society some television shows stereotype women as “crazy” (1-5). In her article, she gives examples of television shows that makes viewers stereotype smart women as “crazy”. For example, she states “Many smart and confident female characters have paraded onto the small screen over the past few years.” (Havrilesky 1). Havrilesky believes that the smart women being stereotyped as “crazy” on television are in an act of self-hatred to avoid themselves of who they really are (5). As for Abernathy’s article, he argues that the media stereotypes men on television shows and ads. Even though the media tries to avoid gender stereotypes, Abernathy argues that in advertisements, women are stereotyped as caring, and men are stereotyped as pathetic (351). In Abernathy’s article, he stated that men are stereotyped as pathetic, because on television shows men are considered “selfish and lazy, inconsiderate husbands, and poor parents.” (350). Abernathy does not like that television stereotypes men as something negative because he states there is still men out there that deal with their house-hold and their children (353). In both Havrilesky’s and Abernathy’s article, there is a use of ethos. Havrilesky has a weak use of ethos in her article because she does not give a variety of credibility in her article (1-5). Although, Havrilesky does give credibility on

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