Where are the females at?

The Smurfette principle, no not the girl smurf with blonde hair, is any movie, television show, or video game that only incorporates one female character within a group of male characters. Many TV show, movies, and games have been doing this ever since they could. The mainstream media has gotten better on adding multiple female characters to shows, movies, or games but can still lack on adding females for some odd reason.

One very popular game has been doing it every since it got created. When Mario Brothers first came out the only characters were Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Toad, Yoshi, Wario, Donkey Kong, Waluigi and last but not least the only female character, Princess Peach. She was for the longest time in any of the Mario games, the only female character. In the Super Mario Bros game they would have Princess Peach locked away and guarded by Bowser, who would portray a male character. She would need the males help like Mario and Luigi to free her. This goes against another stereotype that women always need a man’s help, but I will get to that in a second. Princess Peach was the only female character in the game for quite some time. Then they finally decided to add more female characters.

Another add on is the movie Smurfs, which features tiny little human like creatures which are all you guessed it, MALES, except for one, Her name was Smurfette, she was the only female surrounded by all of the male smurfs. In the movie Smurfs, she was created by the enemy of the smurfs in order to distract the males. I know another stereotype!!! Along with failing the Smurfette principle by only having one female, she was again captured by the bad guy and needed help from the males.

Movies, TV shows, and games most of the time have the female be the one needing help from the men. Name a game where it’s the other way around…… That’s right you can’t, and why not? The media has portrayed females as people who always need help from males and can’t do anything for themselves. The mainstream media has really influenced our minds in what is stereotype and what’s not. 

                                        

Are cars Masculine or Feminine? or neither?

Cars have always had that sort of gender stereotype to them. Like muscle cars are only for men while women ride around in beetles, mini coopers, and vans. The most stereotypical people are the companies that do the ads for their products. Ford for instance will try to appeal to young men by talking about the speed of the car, the build of it and other things that will encourage the viewers to buy the car. Most commercials for luxury vehicles, SUV's or any other type of sports car or big trucks will always have a men driving the car or talking about the car, while commercials for smart cars, small sedans, vans, and buggy's will have woman driving them.

                      

Men are known for being the dominant one in the family. The one that pays for things and looks for cars to buy and how to fix cars, with that said men are usually seen as the driver of the family. So traditionally you would then see men driving the cars in commercials because according to the media that's the norm.

                           

                                     

                                       

The same goes for motorcycles. They are seen as things only for men to use. The media will most of the time use men when doing commercials for bikes. if you see a women on a motorclye it's usually on the back holding onto the man.                                                                                                                   

                                                       

The media has changed the way we think about a lot of things that can lead to stereotypes. For instance you’re driving down a highway and there's a big ford f-250 in front of you and it starts swerving a little. You’re going to think “that guy's an idiot" so you go to pass the truck and see a woman driving it. The media has made it so we automatically assume something just because the media has portrayed it like that. Gender stereotypes assume that men always drive the bigger car or more muscular car while the women drive the slow cars. 

                               

Nurse? or Murse?

When you think of nursing what gender pops into your head immediately? Women! Right? the reason for that is for the longest time women were the only ones nursing. They were nursing because of the caring they show for others. Ever since around 300 A.D. when nursing officially started only women were seen in the profession and males were only doctors. For years and years after nursing started it was an all female profession. nurses would also go over in war with the soldiers to help care for the wounded while the men fought in battle.

When Television started the media would have commercials and shows where only women played the roles of nurses.The media gave nursing the so called title of being only a women's job. The show Nurses which ran from 1991 to 1994 was a sitcom that focus on female nurses doing their jobs. It had women as nurses while doctors were men.  

                                                         

It wasn't until around the 20th century that things started changing in the media. They started having shows were men were nurses and women were doctors. Shows like Grey's Anatomy which is a popular ABC show focuses on a group of female doctors along with male doctors. The show also shows a few male nurses as the rise in men going into the profession started growing.                     

                                                        

                                   

Another great show that has male nurses is Code Black. Throughout the years women are no longer portrayed as just nurses and men are no longer portrayed as just doctors. The media has allowed us to see that men like me for instance are fine with going into nursing and not worrying about others judging me for it. 

                                  
Statistics have shown that in 1970 about 2.7% of registered nurses were men. In 2011 that increase to 9.6 which is a big increase.

                                    https://www.census.gov/people/io/files/Men_in_Nursing_Occupations.pdf

Big Bang Theory; Sexist or Hard Truth

The Big Bang Theory is a popular TV sitcom that has aired on CBS for the past 10 years. Throughout the show, we see four brilliant scientist, who are portrayed by men, along with an attractive female character named Penny who fits the stereotype of being "a dumb blonde" who is always needing help from the male characters. Penny, a waitress at The Cheesecake Factory, lives next door to Sheldon and Leonard, both of whom are astro physicists at a university. The two men have two close friends, Howard and Rajesh, who also work at the university as scientist. Despite the distinctive social differences between Penny and the male characters, they become close friends. The show portrays Penny as being an attractive character who often receives attention or regular advances from men, whereas the male characters aren't considered attractive and often get rejected by women. Penny is also portrayed as being dumber than all the male characters which fits the real world sexist stereotype that suggest men are smarter than women, when in reality women can be just as smart or even smarter than most men. She gets looked at as the outsider in the group of friends because of her knowledge in the show. Society gets these messages that the show puts out there and believes them,  thinking that all women are helpless, not as intelligent and need a man's assistance to make it through life. The show also plays on the stereotype that women can often receive favors from men by flirting and using their good looks. There are multiple episodes where Penny asks the men for help with her bills, internet, and other important needs and Leonard usually helps and gets pleasure in return.

Another example of stereotype is with the four male characters. In the show, these characters are nerds who struggle with talking to women. These men struggle with social protocol and are often unable to strike up conversations about topics that do not involve science. They give off the message that men who are incredibly smart, or work in the field of science, are anti-social nerds who cannot relate with females.  The best example is Sheldon. He often tries to start off conversations with Penny that often involve scientific terms, which she has difficulty understanding.  The message the show gives is that these types of male characters are nerds who cannot get together with attractive women. Even though some may believe that Leonard and Penny's eventual relationship falsifies this stereotype, it actually reinforces it as multiple characters make comments about the abnormal nature of their relationship. There is even an episode where Penny tells Leonard that she's fearful of their marriage due to their strong social differences.

The show also displays sexism when it comes to alcohol related activities. The behavior of the male characters vs the female characters when they consume alcohol is a sharp contrast. For this example, let's first consider Rajesh. In the first few seasons, the only way he could speak to women (including Penny) was by consuming alcohol. When he would consume alcohol, he would become obnoxious, often making rude comments and displaying other forms of erratic behavior. The show portrays men as being obnoxious when they drink as Rajesh becomes this romantic guy who can talk to any girl in the world and tries to get with them. When Sheldon drinks, he gets wild and goes crazy like he just had a bunch of candy. The portrayal of the female characters when they consume alcohol is far different. When Penny drinks, she goes after Leonard or any attractive guy she comes in contact with. Another female character is Sheldon's girlfriend Amy. When Amy drinks, she also makes sexual advances to Sheldon, which is something her character would never do sober. The show is basically sending the messages that when girl's drink, they become a lot more sexual.

Big Bang Theory Sexism