Shirin – Analysis Paper 1, Leslie Knope

I will analyze the fictional character Leslie Knope from the television series Parks and Recreation. Parks and Recreation airs on NBC and was created by the producers of The Office using a similar mockumentary filming style. The show started in 2009 and is currently in its 5th season. NBC describes the show as an “ensemble comedy that follows mid-level bureaucrat Leslie Knope and her tireless efforts to make her American town more fun.” Leslie is the deputy director of the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana. She is “optimistic and over-achieving.” In Parks and Recreation, each character’s flaws are presented in a complete and unapologetic manner. Leslie Knope is everything a woman is not supposed to be at the workplace: she is highly emotional, irrational and takes everything personally. The coup de force of this show is that Leslie is an invaluable employee. Her passionate spirit, commitment and almost maternal sense of responsibility come together and create a whole that makes sense. It is a refreshing new note that seems to suggest women and men can be exactly who they are and still be highly valuable.

I watched six 21-minute episodes of Parks and Recreation, episode 17 to 22 of the second season. In Woman of the Year Leslie tries to solve a dispute between a boys and a girls’ soccer team. She wrongly assumes that the male coach coaches the boys’ team and mistakes a little boy with long hair for a girl. Back at the office Leslie is outraged when Ron wins a “Woman of the Year” award for a project that she started. Ron uses this occasion to teach Leslie a lesson because he believes that awards are stupid. To be especially annoying he thanks Leslie for making him look good in the job so that he can be recognized. It turns out that the “Woman of the Year” award was purposefully given to a man that year, simply to draw attention. In episode 18 The Possum a possum bites the mayor’s dog, so Leslie assembles a task force. The possum is caught but as they leave Leslie spots another possum, forcing her to question whether they caught the right one. In the 19th episode, Park Safety, Jerry has to fill the hummingbird feeders. He accidentally falls but claims that he was mugged in the Park to avoid ridicule. Leslie feels terrible and meets with the park ranger to improve park safety. In Summer Catalog Leslie reunites all the former living Parks Department directors for a picnic. She quickly realizes that these directors are cranky old men who never loved the job the way she does. In 94 Meetings Ron is furious with his assistant, April. Ron prides himself on not doing his job; therefore April scheduled all his meetings for March 31st thinking March only has 30 days. Luckily, Leslie loves taking meetings and is thrilled to help. When she learns that a historical landmark will be destroyed Leslie chains herself to a gate to stop the destruction. In Telethon Leslie hosts a local 24 hour telethon to raise money for diabetes research. Tom almost ruins the event by making a lengthy detour instead of driving the celebrity guest directly to the telethon.

In the article Business girls and two-job wives: Emerging stereotypes of employed women by Marcellus (2011), there are two types of women in the office: the office machine (or operator) and the office wife. Leslie is definitely an operator: an autonomous figure with power. Every character in the show is highly aware of how passionate and hardworking Leslie is. Clearly, Leslie is running the show and holding the department together. Nevertheless, the highest job title, director of Parks and Recreation, is held by Ron. Ron believes that there should be no government and plans on idly waiting at his desk until that day comes. This illustrates a gendered work environment. Throughout the show we notice that many of the male characters do not work hard. Tom almost ruins the telethon for his own private benefit. It seems that the women work harder in order to prove themselves. While Leslie is not an office wife, she does come across as the office mother. She cares for each employee personally and goes to great extremes when she feels that someone was unfairly harmed, i.e. when Jerry was “mugged”. Chaining herself to a fence in the 94 Meetings episode is an interesting metaphor because it does imply that she is somewhat married to the job.

The audience can observe that Leslie Knope’s character depicts many female stereotypes, working in a gendered office environment. Unlike Carlin & Winfrey’s findings, Leslie Knope receives the most attention and coverage. Leslie often has to fight in order to receive the credit she deserves, but she is successful in her quest. Ms. Knope’s character can be seen as a positive hybrid of both Palin and Clinton: she can be sexy, feminine, ditzy and aggressive. On the other hand, Leslie is an outspoken feminist, never afraid to demand fairness and equality. In her office, Leslie actually has framed photos of several female role models, including Hillary Clinton. Leslie is neither portrayed as a sex object nor an iron maiden. She plays a maternal role that accentuates her sense of human responsibility, personal accountability and ambition to improve the Parks. Unlike the negative framing that Clinton and Palin are subjected to, Leslie is loved and respected by her co-workers. The characters play pranks and tease each other, but they also have a skin thick enough to let it go. It is a comedy after all.

In the research article Audience perceptions of Strong Female Characters on Television, Oppenheimer et al examine the audience reactions to strong female characters on five prime time television shows: Amy from Judging Amy, Sarah from JAG, Margaret from Becker, Tess on Touched by an Angel and Maxine of Judging Amy. Oppenheimer states that changes in the portrayal of women on television may reflect changes in the personality and characteristics of women in the real world. The authors hypothesize that college women would view powerful female characters more positively than their male peers. The results were consistent with the hypothesis. The study also indicates that the men surveyed can accept a women character in a professional role without assigning her masculine characteristics.

The article by Oppenheimer et al ties in with Marcellus’ article by demonstrating that audiences are ready for television to present a strong female voice and not just the traditional male voice, which in this case would be Ron. Carlin & Winfrey’s article points out gender stereotypes, gendered media coverage and the objectification of female figures. In opposition, Parks and Recreation character Leslie Knope shows that despite remaining patriarchal structures, it is possible to have a strong, accepted voice. While it is still necessary for Leslie to fight old patriarchal remains, the show seems to imply that we are different but equally qualified: women simply have flaws that are unique to them and men have flaws that are unique to them.

Resources:

Carlin, Diana B. & Winfrey, Kelly L. (2009). Have You Come a Long Way, Baby? Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Sexism in 2008 Campaign Coverage. Communication Studies, 60(4), 326-343.

Marcellus, Jane. (2011). Business girls and two-job wives: Emerging stereotypes of employed women. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. (Ch. 3 office machine, office wife).

Oppenheimer, B., Adams-Price, C., Goodman, M., Codling, J., & Coker, J. (2003). Audience Perceptions of Strong Female Characters on Television. Communication Research Reports, 20(2), 161-172.


Sendy – Analysis Paper 1 – Evelyn Harper(Two and a Half Men)

Analysis paper Sendy

The character I chose is Evelyn Harper. She is a high-powered Los Angeles broker/realtor in the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, which had a great impact on American sitcom. The show began in 2002, when everybody thought the comedy was stuck in gutter.It soon became the No.2 show of that year, and was rated as the hope of comedy.Two and a Half Men was about how a jingle writer Charlie Harper’s free-wheeling style life got completely differently when his divorced brother Alan moved into his beach-front Malibu house along with Alan’s 7year-old(in the first season) son Jake.

As a mother of two men, Evelyn shows love to her sons, but her love is always superficial and difficult to understand because her way to express it. Besides that, Evelyn is cold-blood as Charlie said in this sitcom. Also, she is extremely greedy about money and power, but she seems to be weak sometimes.

In season 1 of this sitcom, when Alan had a difficult time dealing with his divorce she showed up right after she got the news, insisted Alan to live with her so she can get closer with Jake. But Charlie and Alan found out that she didn’t even let them sit on the couch, they realized that it was like the childhood nightmare coming at them, they run away. Thus, her sons and grandson always returned her favour and avoid interacting with her.She quickly replaced Charlie and Alan with a new family when they told her that no one would attend her funeral because nobody loved her that much. She tended to be happy about the death of celebrities because when people dying, she saw business. Alan described her business like this: “Grandmommy doesn’t just prey on the death, Jake. She also profits from the pain of devoice and the humiliation of bankruptcy”(Lorre & Aronson, 2003). However, somehow her cold-blooded character brings her wealthy. Evelyn lives a quite a noble and comfortable life and insist others to live like her when Jake spend a night over her place. The conflict became more obvious when Alan borrowed money from her but it turned out that he was not living a glamorous life as he thought. Though she thinks women should get their own business and money, she tends to marry rich men who are dying so that they will leave her large amounts of money when they pass away.Though she is strong and powerful, she is still woman. She turns to be vulnerable when her lover left her for other young lady. But nobody will ever understand that is she crying for the money her lover own or just for love.

Here I would like to analyse this very different woman using the connection between her family and her business. In the family side, Evelyn Harper is never a good mother, she’s never a conventional housewife. On the contrary, she is successful and powerful in the business side. Evelyn Harper plays the typical “new women” role: “take-charge roles rather than [women’s] usual embourgeoised family roles” given by Robert Deming. (Lotz, 2001, p107) Her love for family is superficial and aggressive because she shows up as an empowered woman who wants to express her love to family just because she wants to show her importance in the family. It is just the way she shows her power, or even, it is the desire for controlling everything.Money actually means power in this sitcom though the writers put this in an exaggerated way. Lotz (2001) states that marketers believe successful women controlled most of their disposable income, and I would like to say here Evelyn not onlyuses money to show her love and live a wealthy way, butalso, as a new woman who does not depending on any men for a living, she needs to be looked rather successful to live a life like this.

What about her identity in her business? Though the sitcom never showed Evelyn’s office or working condition, it did reflect the identity of her in the workplace. She is like the operator but also the secretary. As a money worshipping woman, Evelyn makes herself as a money making machine. She is like an operator who “has a voice”(Marcellus, 2011, p95). She can actually express her thoughts while “she herself might listen in on other people’s [private thoughts]” (Marcellus, 2011, p93). She has her own thoughts (like which house to sell, how much, whom to sell to) and voice so she is independent unlike the Office wives whose do not have own idea but only express her boss’ ideas. “The secretarial work was seen as a temporary interlude on the way to getting a husband—who might just be the boss himself…”(Marcellus, 2011, p95). Not only will the secretary use work to get a husband, but also Evelyn will. Though there’s difference between those two. The secretary sees finding husband as the most important thing in her career, it is an final goal of the secretary’s job. But Evelyn doesn’t think so. She takes her job as a chance to seek rich people and marry them for the things she wants, money or love.

Evelyn is a bad mother, but a successful businesswoman. It seems that women can never be good at both family and business. Senda-Cook (2009) analysed six films that all talk about successful women and promote feminist ideals.What these films have in common is that women come to their career’s success point, however their male lover against their career. Senda-Cook (2009) analysed the choice by using Gregory Bateson’s concept of the double bind (asituation in which no matter what a person does, he [sic]‘can’t win)(Senda-Cook, 2009, 19), Kathleen Hall Jamieson’s articulation of the double binds that women face (women are unable to be feminine if they are successful in their career), and other theories of postfeminism.

Evelyn Harper is a good example of double bine. Though she is a total failure in taking care of her family and her lover or husband, she takes that as nothing because she is very successful in her business. She behaved as a “professional non-woman” (Senda-Cook, 2009, p19). Go back to the connection between Evelyn’s family role and her business role, she plays the new women role as Lotz(2001) states in family, she fits both secretary and operator’s role mentionedin Marcellus(2011)’ article, the connection between these roles which is failure to be a good mother but success in being a businesswomen completes the double bind theory. Whether she chose to be that way or not, we never see her struggle. She tried to show care for the family because the society needs her to, she’s really not care about how her family is influenced by her actions also because the society needs her not to. The sitcom set an exaggeratedly warped society in which money means power and normal people never get good result (as Charlie’s brother Alan in the sitcom) as the background, yet the characters seem to be comfortable with such settled society system.She completes the double bind theory by accept the outlined social term.

References

Lorre, C. (Creator), & Aronson, L. (Creator) (2003). Two and a half men, the complete second season [DVD of a television series]. Burbank, CA, USA: Warner Brothers Entertainment.

Lotz, Amanda. (2001). Postfeminist television criticism: Rehabilitating critical terms and identifying postfeminist attributes. Feminist Media Studies, 1(1), 105-121.

Marcellus, Jane. (2011). Business girls and two-job wives: Emerging stereotypes of employed women. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. (Ch. 3 office machine, office wife)

Senda-Cook, Samantha. (2009). Postfeminist Double Binds: How Six Contemporary Films Perpetuate the Myth of the Incomplete Woman, Rocky Mountain Communication Review 6, no. 2, 18-28.

Analysis paper: The Office by Alan Wu

Analysis Paper

I chose the main female character Pam Halpert, from The Office. The Office is a sitcom produced by NBC. It is based on a British series of the same name and was adapted for an American audience. Pam works as a receptionist at Dunder Miffin, a paper company. The significance of Pam is that she is one of the most likable characters in the show and is known to be very kind. I feel the whole TV show is dominated by males, such as Michael, the manager and Dwight, the assistant, I would say Pam is the main female character in the show, because the developing relationship sense between she and Jim, the handsome officeman. Pam’s personality changes as the series goes on. At first she is shy and denies liking Jim. However, she later becomes more comfortable with talking and tells people what she thinks.

During the two hours, I watched two episodes. The first episode I watched was called “The Dundies”, which is the annual awkward embarrassing awards show for the Dunder-Miffin Scranton employees, which takes place at the famous Chili’s restaurant. Michael, the manager thinks his subsidiaries would love the awards and his comedy act. On the other hand, they think its stupid and do not really care. Pam has an emotional scene in this episode, when she has some drinks and she drunkenly kisses Jim on the lips. By this sense, the audience can tell that they both have a crush on each other. The second episode is called “Hot Girl”. What happens in this episode is that Pam is mad and a bit jealous, because Jim informs her that he is going to go out with Katy, a hand-bag sales person. From this episode, the audience now knows that Pam cares about Jim, and she does not want him to be with other girls.

Pam Halpert is one of the few female workers at Dunder Miffins Company in the series, and she is also the most attractive one out of them. Not only Jim Halpert, but also most of the male workers in the show express interest in Pam. From Laura Mulvey’s theory (Haraway, 1997), who is a British feminist film theorist that believes in “Male Gaze”, it is said that in film audiences have to ‘view’ characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. The working environment in the show is somehow not very restricted, and people can express themselves easily. For example, Dwight, sales representative, always tries to approach Pam’s desk, flirt with her. Since she is the first person people will see when the door is opened, she sometimes would receive different attention from sales people from other companies. When these things happen, Jim, who later becomes Pam’s husband, would stand up and stop the sexual harassment.

Pam Halpert works as a receptionist, whose job inculdes being a secretary and a telephone operator. In the Office Machine, Office Wife reading, Mr. M. L. Rayne (1974) states, “Like the secretary, the operator lived in a Taylorized world, her movement surveilled and measured according to standards of speed and productivity.” This reading suggests that a secretary’s status was like a servant back in the 1950’s, and Pam participates in similar the work, but she seems to always be quiet and never want to be the center of the show. I would say that Pam is a typical woman who dresses conservatively. For example, she always wears the plain sweater or the long skirt that does not have bright colors on it. This reflects on her personality, which is kind and friendly. One time, when Michael was demonstrating how things work in the office, he made a joke that he was planning to fire Pam, and she cries immediately.

The article that I would like to use is “Cynics Encouraged to Apply: The Office as reality viewer training”. By Christopher Kocela. The article analyzes the how the production crew makes the comedic element and the difference between The Office and several different shows, such as Big Brother and American Idol. The article starts by telling the reader that The Office is the “mockumentary” adapted from England, and each episode’s footage supposedly derives from a camera crew’s silent observation of office life in a mid-sized paper supply company. When Michael the manger is doing something silly, the cameraman would often give the shot at another normal character, such as Jim, and he would look at the camera and shake his head for the aural interruption of canned laughter.

In the section of the reading “It’s Not Business, It’s Just Personal” (Christopher, 2009) Michael Scott, who mentions himself not just an amateur comedian for his employees, but also as an aspiring reality TV host, and the main character of this TV series. One time, Michael tries to impress the new office temp, by staging a mock firing of his receptionist, Pam. After she realized it was a joke, she would not stop the tears. I would say from this case. the audience could tell Pam is considered the conscience of the minor branch of Dunder Mifflin. She provides reason and insight to whether actions are moral or debauched. Pam does have a comedic side in which she usually brings sarcasm, judgments and insensitivity to drama.

 

 

Prefernece

Haraway, D. J. (1997). Syntactics. New York: Routledge.

Mrs. M. L. Rayne, What can a Woman Do? Or Her position in the Business and Literary World (Petersburgh, NY: Eagle Publishing Co., 1898; reprint, New York;                           Arno Press, 1974), 28-57.

Christopher, K. (2009). The office as reality viewer training In Heldref Publication

 

Chenny: Analysis 1- The Big Bang Theory

Analysis 1

The characters I decide to analyze is Penny and Amy in a situation comedy: The Big Bang Theory(TBBT). TBBT airs on CBS and was created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. The sitcom  premiered in 2007 and will begin its 6th season this fall.

TBBT shows the life of several scientists who have high IQ, which is centered on five characters: roommates Sheldon and Leonard, Penny, Raj and Howard. The sitcom brings lots of fun to the audience due to the main characters’ identity, which is scientist.

TBBT is a very popular show not only in the US but also all over the world such as in China. The characters in TBBT show several gender stereotype including blonde and female Ph.D. Penny and Amy are two important female characters in TBBT. They are two person who are totally different from each other. Penny is a blonde who is not well educated and had many boyfriends in the past, while Amy is a Ph.D. and know little about how to get together with people. Penny is a normal pretty girl in the US, however, she is really special in TBBT because all other characters are  well and highly educated. On the contrary, Amy is similar to other character is TBBT, however she is not that normal compared to ‘normal’ US girls.

I choose the last two episodes of season 5 and first episodes of season 6 (the latest season) as my content to conduct the analysis. Each episode lasts about half an hour. In the two hours I’ve watched, Penny and Amy are good friends and they have common friends such as Sheldon and Bernadette.

Penny shows up as Leonard’s girlfriends while Amy is Sheldon’s girlfriend. The two characters of the sitcom showed up in different ways. Penny comes from a small town. She is a blonde who lives across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard and is in a romantic relationship with Leonard. At the beginning of Season 5 episode 23, Penny offer to have sex with Leonard when kissing each other since she thinks that “You know how we’ve been taking things slow”.

In the next plot, Sheldon and Amy are going to have a date at Amy’s home. The topic they are talking about are totally different from Penny and Leonard. In other word, they do not seem like the normal couple. They love to talk about issues in a professional way. For instance, Amy says that “With our friends moving forward in their relationships, I have decided that we should make progress in ours as well.” Or “I’ve designed an experiment that I believe will increase your feelings for me.” These words are weird during couples.

After watching the two hours of the show, it could be figured out that Penny and Amy are two different person. Linking them with Lotz’s studying of “post feminism” would be interesting. According to Lotz (2001),post feminism refers to “a retreat from feminist ideas challenging women’s traditional role in the family, and instead marks an increasing openness toward traditional notions of femininity and feminine roles.” Penny and Amy are not traditional women. They are not the typical “new woman” who are capable of balancing a successful career and conventional family life which liberal feminism indicates. Penny doesn’t have a successful career and Amy doesn’t seem to have a conventional family life with Sheldon. However, they can illustrate Lotz’s view of post feminism. Even though totally different, low educated and high educated; beautiful and boring, Penny and Amy are honest to express what they want in terms of love or sex, which build them another kind of new woman.

In another article, Marcellus(2011) looks at office machine and office wife. According to her, woman are often seen as office machine in offices. They are considered no thoughts and can only do machine work. However, television shows today are breaking this type of stereotype. In TBBT, although Penny is only a waitress working in the Cheesecake Factory, she is still perusing her dream which is becoming an actress. She is independent, optimistic and attractive. Penny has her own view of love and sex, knowing what she wants and don’t want. As a new woman, she wants to make love with her boyfriend and refuse to marry Leonard just because she doesn’t want. In other words, women are no longer being passive.

Amy is not an office machine at all. As an female Ph.D., Amy has professional knowledge and is doing a good job in her field. She thinks independently, although kind of different from others.

Setting up the two different stereotypes, TBBT well illustrate how post feminism is and how woman differently seen compared to earlier time. Women are free today regardless of their job or education level. They are free to do what they want.

Imre’s article gives the audience more connection between feminism and television. According to Imre (2009), television, as an industry and as an object of study, has been gendered from the start. Today, feminism is not only an academic approach, it also becomes a social movement, which makes us live in a post feminism era. Thus television programs are becoming feminism inevitably. However, recent scholarly and industrial efforts to resurrect television as a distinct medium and object of study tend to disavow its gendered aesthetic and the feminist grounding of television studies. (Imre, 2009). Thus, Imre introduces the term “quality television” and points out that both television studies and the television industry requires “remasculinizing” the medium by disavowing its “feminine.”

The journal article interests me for its linking with Lotz’s concept “post feminism” and “new woman”. According to the author, current scholarly discussions of postfeminist culture and its central figure, the “new woman” are not as important as in earlier times. On the contrary, the author uses the term “quality television” to identify current television shows. He points out that both masculine and feminism are need to make the show more quality. Feminism should not be paid much more attention.

For me, TBBT is a quality television because it is nither masculine or feminism. Male characters are funny although kind of weird in the show, and female characters are pleasing such as Penny and Bernadette. All the people in the sitcom is equal and make the audience feel comfortable. Although having no high IQ and education, the female characters in TBBT are not looked down.

Overall, Penny and Amy are two important characters in TBBT, which fulfill the sitcom and help it more “quality” in a post feminism way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference:

Lotz, Amanda. (2001). Postfeminist television criticism: Rehabilitating critical terms and identifying postfeminist attributes. Feminist Media Studies, 1(1), 105-121.

Marcellus, Jane. (2011). Business girls and two-job wives: Emerging stereotypes of employed women. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. (Ch. 3 office machine, office wife)

Imre, A. (2009). Gender and quality television. Feminist Media Studies, 9(4), 391-407.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moss: Analysis Paper 1-Emily Prentiss-Criminal Minds

Emily Prentiss

When most people hear about women in the workplace,
they assume jobs such as secretaries, clerks, customer service representatives
and waitresses; some rarely envision women as hardened FBI agents protecting
the country. Criminal Minds, which focuses on a Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) in Quantico, Virginia is a
crime drama television show that differs from typical crime shows for it
focuses on the criminal rather than the crime itself. The BAU field team,
agents investigating the crimes, consists of a group of male detectives and one
female agent, Emily Prentiss. Prentiss is a significant character on the show,
being the only female agent in her field. She is a leader and more courageous
than most of her male co-workers; she is the first agent to enter a crime
scene, jump in front of a bullet, or interrogate the witnesses and criminals.

 

The context of her character is mysterious, yet
stimulating. According to her history, she is a United States Ambassador’s
daughter who traveled the world under FBI protection throughout her entire
life. Since Prentiss is extremely well travelled due to her upbringing, she
became fluent in Arabic, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, and Greek.  She graduated from Yale and worked with the
FBI Interpol for ten years before joining BAU. Upon joining, she felt like an outsider and often worried that people
doubted her abilities. Over time, Prentiss proved herself through sharp
profiling skills and dedication to her work, gradually earning the trust and
respect of her fellow BAU team members. Emily
Prentiss carries herself professionally, and is shown to be extremely
competent, level-headed, and courageous; she shows no fear when undergoing
dangerous and often unpleasant tasks such as chasing criminals and analyzing
bodies. She does not allow
her personal feelings to interfere with investigations and constantly puts
herself in the line of fire to protect her fellow agents. Her
peers describe her as someone that they can rely unconditionally and view her
as professional and brave; they are proud to have her as part of the team.

 

Reputation is based on
how someone acts and carries themselves in a workplace, amongst friends, or in
society. For decades, women have been subjected to sexism and discrimination
because of their gender; in relation to Criminal Minds, Emily Prentiss never
let spiteful comments and discrimination stop her from being one of the best agents
in her field. She carries her own weight and rarely relies on others to help
her, thus incurring a reputation of courageous, fearless, and respected.
According to Shaviro (2005), another strong, independent woman who is highly
respected in her field of work is Lil’ Kim; she has broken through racial and
gender stereotypes to gain power and fame in the hip-hop industry.  She is proud of who she is and proudly boasts
of her sexual mystique and power over men. Shaviro (2005) says that Lil Kim’ is
not a typical rapper trying to gain control over men and  get rich, but rather she uses her body as a work
of art in her videos in order to gain a mass appeal. Male rappers negatively rap
about female artists and advocate people to avoid and distrust them; Lil’ Kim,
in retaliation, does not critique these stereotypes, but instead willfully
inhabits them, and pushes them as far as they will go. In comparison to Lil’
Kim, Emily Prentiss exceeds what is expected of her and breaks through the stereotypes
of a typical female police officer. Prentiss does not boast nor flaunt herself,
but subtly displays her power over her team and has become the driving force of
the team’s success.

Lotz (2001) is a strong believer in equality for women and advocates
highly for postfeminism, for she believes that it can reveal realities about
gender. She says that postfeminism is the represents the current period of time
in which women are treated equally in society, the workplace, and the home.
Over the past few decades, women have been subjected to stereotypical jobs from
powerful men in companies; along with unequal treatment, women have been
portrayed in the media as “lesser” members of society. In relation to Emily
Prentiss, although not directly stated, she too is an advocate for
postfeminism. She believes in equality in the workplace along with the
delegation of power and responsibilities. She is independent and believes that
she should be judged for her work, not because of her gender.

Although crime dramas are aired for viewer’s
entertainment, both men and women hold highly contrasting views on the
objectification of women in crime dramas according to Lee, Hust, Zhang, & Zhang
(2011).  According to “Effects of
violence against women in popular crime dramas on viewer’ attitudes related to
sexual violence,” they conducted a research study amongst 176 undergraduate
college students by having them watch television crime drama scenes which
included either sexual or violence against women in order to determine the
effects of crime dramas on enjoyment.
What they found was that males said that scenes involving physical
violence were more exciting to watch than nonviolent clips.  The majority of the female viewers however
felt that crime dramas objectified women because women were almost always the
victim; they were the ones being attacked while walking alone, or victims of
abusive partners. The female participants felt that crime dramas enhanced
societal gender stereotypes and increased the depiction of women as victims to
sexual and physical violence.

Lee, et al
(2011), produced results that women felt objectified and discriminated in crime
dramas; women were seen as sex objects or used for entertainment purposes for
viewers, thus creating societal stereotypes against women. Shaviro (2005) says
that Lil’ Kim’s success arose from her retaliation against, and her inhabiting
of, societal stereotypes. Lil’ Kim experienced gender discrimination, but
rather than being affected by them, she embraced and acted upon them. In
contrast, Lotz (2001) felt that women should not be treated poorly due to their
gender, but rather treated as an equal; women are not for entertainment purposes,
nor should be treated as a lesser part of society. In relation to Emily
Prentiss, she too felt that she was treated differently than her fellow male
agents; she was seen as weaker and less competent upon joining, thus causing
her to break gender stereotypes to become the competent and fearless leader of
the BAU team.

 

Work
Cited

 

Lee,
M. J., Hust, S., Zhang, L., & Zhang, Y. (2011). Effects of violence against
women in popular crime dramas on viewers’ attitudes related to sexual violence.
Mass Communication and Society 14,
25-44.

Lotz,
A. D. (2001). Postfeminist television criticism: rehabilitating critical terms and
identifying postfeminist attributes. Feminist Media Studies, 1(1), 1-18.

Shaviro, S. (2005).
Supa dupa fly: black women as cyborgs in hip-hop videos. Quarterly Review of
Film and Video, 22,
169-179.