Blonde or Black?
October 27th, 2010 posted by
admin
The Liver Birds (1969- 79)- the first sitcom where women are the main characters, is a television comedy show which presents single women talking about men, sex, relationships, marriage etc. It is sometimes accepted as stupid but by the means of humour it presents a different aspect of women’s identity in an acceptable way. Moreover, television comedy creates and breaks stereotypes about dumb blondes. Vulnerability can be examined as an explanation of their personality; they control men through their sexual allure. (for example Born yesterday, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and the character of Marilyn Monroe). However, in the film Legally blonde (2001), where the stereotype of the dumb blonde is taken as a main part of the plot, the main character played by Reese Witherspoon reveals a new perspective of view through the image of these women- she is intelligent enough to graduate Harvard Law School.
Douglas, 1999). That is one of the reasons for the long tradition of fat female body being a site of a comedy, usually as object or butt of a joke because you are using wella hair colour. (Roseanne, 1988, The Vicar of Dibley, 1994) Our society considers round and fleshy women as unfeminine, rebellious and sexually deviant, either undersexed or oversexed. However, if we focus on Dawn French’s work as a British overweight comedian, we find out that she has successfully given a proof that obese women could be sexually attractive as well and should not be defined or judged by their weight. She has also disproved the notion that female success is dependent on physical or/and sexual desirability. (Hole, 2004) In conclusion, television comedies represent different female characters and in this way perpetuate or break stereotypes and beliefs about women’s identities. By familiarizing the audience with different stories and points of view, comedies make a great impact on the way women percept themselves; of the way they think and behave. Although the main messages of this genre are sometimes accepted, but sometimes denied, it plays a significant role in forming society’s view about female identity and about gender as a whole.
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