Television

I was glad we were able to watch a couple of clips from Mad Men today in class. The show presents an extremely accurate portrayal of gender and race relations in the 50s and 60s – either fortunate if looked at for the purposes of the class or unfortunate if you look at it for its historical value in demonstrating how race and gender relations used to be.

We can hear all day long all of our lives how things used to be in the 50s and early 60s, but this show does a good job of depicting it in color, in a more modern TV show with more modern actors and actresses that we, as a society, can identify with more. I think that brings the issue a little closer to home than it would be to people otherwise – especially younger generations.

When we talked about the most common concerns surrounding the effects of TV, I was not surprised by most of these. Of course violence, sex, unrealistic images, gender and racial stereotypes, etc. have always been on the list – and of course will be more amplified when talked about children. Hopefully some of these concerns will change over the next few decades, specifically for women and minorities, because it’s honestly ridiculous to be dealing with such stereotypes in the 21st Century.

Another representation issue that should change in the next few years is that of gay characters on TV. In 2011, there were 33, which might sound like a lot but comparing that to the percentage of people in the country who are gay, it’s not really that much. Plus, it seems like most of the shows were gay characters are main characters are targeted at younger audiences for the most part. It’s not likely to see a gay main character in a show for older audiences.