Critical Photo Essay

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The Female Stereotype and Oprah!!!

I have to say that I am a little confused about the reading choices for this week. I would expect to find these two pieces of writing in a class about women and gender studies (a minor I will be officially pursuing next semester). I feel that Jamieson was talking about 19^th and 20^th century women; I feel that her analysis falls short for the 21^st century reinvention of the “new woman.” I have met many women that not only engaged in open debate but they did so with much more competition than men. Her description reminded me of the quiet housewife who only whispered her stance as to not be bothersome. I did not understand much of this with the overarching theme of our class; however, I did enjoy the line that housewives were invariably the “storytellers” of the household. This skill effectively locked in their indispensable use in television.

The womanly role in television is a fascinating subject that has helped continue the stereotype. However, this role of the storyteller has evolved into just that: the woman’s story being told. Paradoxically, this has helped to reverse the stereotypes in certain ways and was likely an integral step in boosting women towards equality. In a strange way, the role of women in television has split into multiple uses. On the one hand, women are still exploited through television (via ads or shows/movies that use stereotypical roles). The scantily clad woman slowly reaches into a cooler full of beer; her voluptuous breasts are nearly popping out of her bikini as she firmly grasps the shaft/neck of a bottle of beer. She pulls it out of the ice bent over at an exact 90 degree angle as sweat glistens off of her perfectly smooth skin. I believe you are getting the picture; the Sexualization of the female body draws the attention of a male audience. Wysocki talks about the sexualzation of women in ads, but only a printed one out of a magazine. In this context, we lose the action that the woman enacts in a picture; however, we are allowed to “fill in” the situation (pursuant to McCloud’s ideas about comic book frames involving faces and situations being filled in by the individual). So it seems that watching the action unfold is purely physical stimulation; inversely, seeing an individual picture staged in the middle of a scene requests that the observer fills in the rest of the scenario using themselves.

Women have also used television to positively influence their outlook and reinforced their capabilities within our culture. Oprah is a great representation of the positive female movement on television. Not only is she extremely successful and rich, she has placed herself in an infallible position for women to emulate (power, success, and strength). This link will show a little parody about Oprah that admits her strength while exposing a male invented weakness. Warning! There is nudity and swearing, so enjoy!