Nilab Ferozan

To be honest, I have never looked at the Big Bang Theory from this point of view. To me that show is more about normalizing the “geek”. It also shows a mixing of the hip and the geek. But I would be interested to hear your point of view on the sitcom. However, Modern Family is an interesting one. While they push the boundaries in certain areas, I still see many of the old gender roles being reinforced. For example, Clair, while an educated woman, is a homemakers until her last child is a teenager. Gloria is a stay at home mom and never shows any interest in working outside the home. While Cam is working now, for the longest time he was a stay at home dad. I am not claiming that there is anything wrong with people who do stay at home with their children, but showing it as a “necessity” of sorts reinforces the traditional role of “mothers”.

Thanks for the comment Daniel. I am a little busy with getting ready for a research trip. I will give you a reply back soon. I do have some thoughts on it, which I will be glad to share with you.

Thank you so much Julie.

Such a great article! I enjoyed reading it.

JakeRoslyn, I have not claimed any such thing. On the contrary, despite the many strong female lead roles represented in TV dramas, sitcoms, especially the ones depicting families are still way behind in that regard.

Thank Arazoo and yes, you are absolutely right. Even new shows still try to reinforce the idea that a woman is the primary child care giver and the man the bread winner of the family. Even though there are more representation of strong female lead roles in TV dramas, sitcoms (in my opinion) are still behind in that regard.

You are right Chrischan. Many of the sitcoms, especially family ones, portray the typical and traditional nuclear family with the father working and mother staying home, which does not represent the lives of so many of us. That is precisely my point in this article that despite having higher educations and work experience, the woman in most sitcoms stay home well beyond the time needed for child care (meaning the children are not babies anymore) and willingly become “housewives” and dependant on the husband’s salary.

Thanks for the comment. Yes, there are many different representations of women on TV nowadays. Strong female lead roles is becoming more common. and yes it would be interesting to include Orange is the New Black (even though I have not watched it) or any other ones similar to it.