History of Television

Gender Portrayals on Television

With the wide spread of television in American homes in the 1950s came TV shows whose characters were portrayed in a stereotypically gendered way.


Western shows portrayed men who were tough and saved the day in programs like "The Gunmen" and "Maverick." By 1959, there were 26 Westerns airing during prime time. Women characters were often passive, but not always as they were sometimes also the villain. Gambling and drinking were seen as virtues and completely acceptable behavior in the Western.


The show considered to have created the sitcom (situation comedy), is "I Love Lucy" which debuted in 1951. It was the story of a married couple, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, who lived in New York. Ricky worked in show business at the nightclub he headlined, and Lucy was a housewife (and later, mother) who longed to be in show business too and got into many shenanigans trying to get into the biz (Andrews 1). What is so amazing about this show, is that Ricky, played by Desi Arnaz, is Cuban. He and Lucille Ball were really married and played each other's spouses as well. The gender dynamic is pretty straight forward, with Ricky being the head of the household, even as Lucy continually tries to thwart him and get into many different scrapes. His being Cuban is often referenced, either in making fun of his accent, or of his yelling in a rage in Spanish. In some episodes Ricky would look down at Lucy and back her into a corner frightening her into confessing some foolish thing she did. As a sitcom, everything was funny and nothing alarming; they were being successful in using Desi's ethnicity, voice, and the stereotype of a Latin temper. (Andrews 12).


Soap operas had their beginnings in radio and so when the new medium of televsion arrived, it found a new home and audience. Soap operas by their very nature are all about gender relations. They were also primarily heteronormative. These have changed partially. Soap operas are part drama, part romance, comedy, and farce. For several decades they have had minority actors in their story lines, but very occasionally are there gay and lesbian storylines. Right now on ABC's "One Life to Live" there was recently a public, mass gay wedding. Highlighting these themes make soap operas more accessible to diverse audiences and also act as teaching agents about acceptance and diversity.


Television has always been a place to enjoy, relax, and escape from the day. The many types of programing reflect the views and norms of society as a whole, but are continually breaking boundaries in areas of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

Works Cited
Andrews, Bart. Lucy & Ricky & Fred & Ethel: The Story of "I Love Lucy". New York: Dutton, 1976:1-12.

Doherty, Carl. "Feminist Media Studies and Soap Operas." 5 Nov. 2009. .

"Western Television." 5 Nov. 2009. .

(Hayley Arrington)