House
Essay by 24 • December 30, 2010 • 1,237 Words (5 Pages) • 941 Views
Shows such as "House" and "Two and a Half Men" construct a myth of female inferiority in our media. The popularity of these shows is entirely based on working with the stereotypes of female inferiority and feminine values. The myth of female inferiority also identifies with female gender roles and social characters of a woman. Women are expected to be insubordinate to men and often blamed for all the failures in a man's life, not only that they are also underrepresented, manipulated and sexualized in countess ways.
Two and a half Men constructs the myth of female inferiority through its characters and sexualized humor. It involves three main characters and all of them are male figures including "Charlie", "Alan" and his eleven year old son "Jake". It also includes the sub characters of Alan's wife "Judith", his mother "Evelyn" and their housekeeper "Berta". The basic conclusion of the show is that Charlie lives the most successful life since he never involves himself in any relationships. Compared to Charlie, Alan's life is in turmoil since he loves women and respects their character. He expects the same response from women instead they leave him and often take full advantage of him. House shows female inferiority in very different manner. Dr. Gregory House works under Dr Lisa Cuddy but yet he is able to undercut her authority countless times. Cuddy, who is an amazing Doctor, is often manipulated by House's obscure ideas because of his amazing personality and amazing ability to sexualize women in every possible way.
House portrays women as obstacles towards success. Women are shown as concrete walls which have to be either broken or hiked to achieve subjective goals. Just by her name, Cuddy seems like a cunning woman who knows her profession. One could wonder why such a name was chosen for her character. Perhaps it shows how the role of women has changed since the traditional times. But wait; doesn't showing a powerful feminine character cancel out this essay's thesis statement? Actually it
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doesn't. because even Lisa's cunning personality doesn't relieve her from continuous criticism and humiliation. Even though she is the head of the hospital and House's boss, she is shown inferior to House in countless ways. House and Wilson make continuous plans to manipulate Cuddy. What I find interesting is the fact that Wilson himself doesn't approve House's decisions. He often gets in long arguments with House yet he always helps him get whatever House demands. The show depicts Cuddy's character as an outsider and what we see is a mutual understanding between house and Wilson. They are not necessarily the best friends but they are men, and bound to that relationship they always unite themselves against Cuddy.
Women are often blamed for the flaws in a man's life. In Two and a Half Men, Charlie's character shows signs of mistrust towards women. He cannot commit himself to anything but he is never blamed for his mental state. However his mother "Evelyn" gets charged with all his problems. Charlie describes himself as "scarred for life" due to his mother. Two and a Half Men Not only blames women for psychological problems in life but it also creates a hole in our myth of femininity. It tells us that women are not necessarily the nurturing mothers they are shown to be.
Women are expected to be nurturing mothers in our society. They are expected to take care of their family above all means. But Two and a Half Men and House diminish women gender roles by showing them as either one or two. They tell us that unlike men, women cannot be good mothers and successful professionals at the same time. Evelyn and Cuddy's character would be very helpful to understand my point. Evelyn is a rich real state dealer who lives a single life. She has two sons and a grandson. But all of them dislike her up to a point where they would do anything to avoid her. This is partly because of her ignorant personality. Cuddy on the other hand is a very beautiful, rich and intelligent doctor. Yet she lives a single life because she can not take time out for her personal life. She is shown dating men a couple of times but none of her relationships work out. She even tried some internet dating
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