Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Honors Thesis.pdf (448.75 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

I Love Lucy, That Girl, and Changing Gender Norms On and Off Screen

De Leo, Emilia Anne
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1525640462074147

Abstract Details

2018, BA, Oberlin College, History.
Women on television of the 1950’s and 1960’s have a contested place in American television history. The common belief that women in postwar TV adhered to and promoted strict sexist stereotypes is pervasive, but there has been some debate as to how accurate this generalization is. This paper examines the roles women played on television through a close analysis of two shows, I Love Lucy (1951-7) and That Girl (1966-71). These two shows demonstrate women’s general places during the decades in which they aired, with Lucy Ricardo representing the housewife of the 1950’s and Ann Marie representing the increasingly popular independent woman of the 1960’s. This paper places these shows in the context of real-life changing gender roles in order to locate progression of restrictive gender norms on and off screen. TV as mass media needs to appeal to largest audience possible, thus it would show moderate gender role change. TV responds to society, as shown by creation and airing of shows like That Girl as real-life gender roles were changing, but doesn’t push the envelope. Ultimately, female characters on television were somewhat aware of their marginalized status as manifested through strict gender roles that kept them in the home, showed them as girlfriends, wives, and mothers, and held them to beauty, sexuality, and femininity standards of their respective times. However, these characters did not try to totally dismantle these norms, instead trying to find freedom within them.
Clayton R. Koppes (Advisor)
Leonard V. Smith (Committee Chair)
72 p.
American History; American Studies; Gender Studies; History; Mass Media; Womens Studies
television; women; woman; gender; character; Lucy Ricardo; Ann Marie; history; TV; stereotype;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • De Leo, E. A. (2018). I Love Lucy, That Girl, and Changing Gender Norms On and Off Screen [Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1525640462074147

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • De Leo, Emilia. I Love Lucy, That Girl, and Changing Gender Norms On and Off Screen. 2018. Oberlin College, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1525640462074147.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • De Leo, Emilia. "I Love Lucy, That Girl, and Changing Gender Norms On and Off Screen." Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1525640462074147

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

oberlin1525640462074147
4,084
© 2018, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Oberlin College Honors Theses and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12