Sexism in Sitcoms

This article discuses, analyzes and compares thewas not the first working-woman sitcom (Fraiman,
feminism-related TV sitcoms of 1950-70s with1999). Yet it is generally acknowledged as the first to
current sitcoms. Both groups of sitcoms are focusedassert that work was not just a prelude to marriage,
on the life of thirtieth, unmarried, working womenor a substitute for it, but could form the center of a
and their network of friends and co-workers in USA.satisfying life for a woman in the way that it
Their authors were described by reviewers and criticspresumably did for men. This was, perhaps, the most
as an example of original programming both duringconsistent and explicit pro-feminist statement made
and after its seven seasons on TV. The claim toby the sitcom.
originality was based, among other things, onAnother such sitcom is Brady Bunch. Other
production factors, such as its status as the first of a«single woman on her own» programs that
series of highly successful programs that would befollowed Brady Bunch would take this basic theme in
created by its parent companies, on its contributiondifferent, more progressive directions, but the
to the situation comedy format as an exemplar ofshadow of Brady Bunch hangs over them. Brady
the move from domestic or home-based situationsBunch was not just innovative, it was also
to situations based in the workplace, and on its socialtremendously successful. It launched three spin-offs
sensitivity and timeliness as a program focused onand is still popular in syndication almost twenty years
the life of a career-oriented, single woman.after it left prime-time. The television producers
One of the most popular journalist-author ofrecognized the power of its formula is evident in the
sexism-related sitcoms is Mary Tyler Moore. Marynumerous attempts to duplicate its premise
Tyler Moore is generally acknowledged as the firstthroughout the 1960s and 1970s and in the fact that
popular and long-running television series clearly toBrady Bunch still serves as a standard, or starting
feature the influence of feminism. Although thepoint, against which progressive television
show's creators consistently claimed that Mary Tylerrepresentations of women are judged, at least in
Moore was about character, not politics (an impliedpopular media (Butler, 1993).
contrast to All in the Family), writer-producer JamesThe article was produced by the writer of
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