Prime-Time Television and Gender-Role Behavior

Abstract

There has reportedly been a resurgence of interest on the part of academia in the mass media and their effects on both individual and public opinion (Lang and Lang, 1981: 654). This resurgence comes after a 30 to 40-year famine (Gans, 1972: 697). Some of the recent interest has been focused on commercial network television and its portrayal of women. Butler and Paisley (1980: 68) point out that the media portrayal of women has been of concern to the women's movement since the 1960s, and that systematic analyses of such portrayals have been carried out since the 1970s. While the audience effects of television programming and viewing have not yet been convincingly demonstrated, feminists and many sociologists agree that the potential, at least, for such effects is great and that the portrayal of women is largely negative. Tuchman (1978), Lemon (1978), and Butler and Paisley (1980) have pointed out that television may not only reflect contemporary standards in gender roles, but may also generate such standards. Consequently, the content of programming on commercial network television is worthy of attention and analysis in relation to the gender-role behavior of women and men. The focus of this article is on prime-time (7-10 p.m. Central Time, 8-11 p.m.