Gender and communication in the media
Gendered communication refers to verbal and non-verbal conveyance with prejudice towards a particular sex. This type of communication puts one gender at a pedestal where the other is regarded as inferior and thus does not get enough recognition. In many global societies, being masculine is considered a privilege due to the many opportunities bestowed towards a particular gender. According to Allyson Jule, historically, a patriarchal ranking has prevailed between women and men, the male sex being considered as the norm while the female sex is marked as the other gender (Wang, 2019). This notion has previously portrayed men as superior, while the women are rendered invisible and inutile to society. The media text is from two and a half men, a sitcom that aired from 2003 to 2015. The series is located in IMDb online database from season one to twelve. The whole series is filmed in Malibu, and the main casts are Charlie, Alan, Jake, Judith, and Evelyn. Charlie and Alan are brothers living with Jake, who is Alan’s son. Judith is Alan’s ex-wife, while Evelyn is Charlie and Alan’s mother. Charlie is portrayed as spendthrift and a womanizer who would go to great lengths to manipulate women into having sex with him and desert them the next day. On the other hand, Alan has been characterized as unlucky in relationships due to his awkward behaviors. Charlie is also a bad influence on Jake and regularly participates in giving him immoral advice on relationship issues.
The focus season is season 1, episode 23, with a title named just like a buffalo. In this episode, Jake overhear Charlie telling Alan that if a man has a person to clean the house, go shopping, and regularly gets some action, the only reason he would require a wife is if he has a sick compulsion of giving away half of his property. The three gendered languages used in this text are; a woman is only important for cleaning the house and doing shopping and that the primary duty of a woman to a man is sex. The third aspect is that the men who get married to women are not sane because they have a sick need of giving away half of their possessions. The message by Charlie Harper that a woman is only important for cleaning the house and shopping may not be appropriate for a sitcom. An audience may take it negatively as a sign of degrading and demeaning women. Different genders have distinct roles in a family, and every function is essential in the healthy running of a family (Hoyt, 2013). In the earlier family setting, it was a man’s duty to provide food, shelter, and security for the family while the woman was tasked with taking care of the household. In today’s society, things have changed; women are doing the same jobs as men. It means that women could have performed the same duties as men even in the past, only that they were not given the same opportunities as their male counterparts. Therefore, by Charlie saying that women are only important for doing chores is a way of despising their abilities, yet, they are similar to those of the men. All gender roles are essential in the proper running of a family, and there is no duty inferior to the other. Teen boys might receive Charlie’s message as; women are not of value other than taking care of the man. This idea is further from the truth because most women have become independent in today’s society, providing for themselves and their families.
Reference
Hoyt, C. L., & Burnette, J. L. (2013). Gender Bias in Leader Evaluations: Merging Implicit Theories and Role Congruity Perspectives. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Wang, S., Wang, J., Guo, W., Ye, H., Lu, X., Luo, J., & Zheng, H. (2019). Gender Difference in Gender Bias: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Reduces Male’s Gender Stereotypes.