CMC PRESENTATION

Mary Stufano

TOPIC

Through content analysis and textual analysis, I studied how feminism is influencing women on television through the stereotypes of females in Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, Modern Family, and the Real Housewives of Orange County.

RESEARCH METHOD 1

Textual Analysis of a scene from the series premiere of each episode

DH- opening scene with chores listed and a perfect lifestyle scene and then suicide

MF- Claire cooking and discussing Hailey and her boyfriend with youngest daughter

S&C- having sex like a man discussion at singles birthday dinner

RHOC- mother cooking for family and then discussing her plastic surgery and gym routine to look better for her husband

RESEARCH METHOD 2

Content Analysis of the series premiere and finale episode of each show for 4 seasons

Chart outlining different themes of the show

Themes: • Cooking, cleaning, chores, working, single, single

parent, dominant, little clothes, married rich, expensive clothes, house clothes, sex

DISCUSSIONDH- all episodes showed women cooking, cleaning or doing chores. 6 out of 8 episodes showed sex.

MF- 7 out of 8 episodes showed housework by Claire. Every episode showed Gloria in tight, expensive clothes, and every episode showed Claire in house clothes.

S&C- sex in every episode, and single in every episode

RHOC- only scene doing housework in first episode. 6 out of 8 episodes showed the same women working. Also marrying rich, and expensive and little amounts of clothes were prevalent.

IMPLICATIONS

Women's dependence on men in all four shows.

Single life is looked at negatively

Glamorization of marrying rich over being happy

Men bring happiness to the women

Sexualization of women

Positive: more women seen working