What’s a “woman in a refrigerator”? Are you more complex than an Old Maid or Bridezilla? Nagging wife or desperate for a husband?
We’ll discuss what tropes are, and what tropes storytellers use in their depictions of women. How do these tropes undermine or over-simplify women’s complex ranges of emotions, ideas, and personalities? How do tropes affect our own biases, and why does this matter?
With lots of examples from TV and movies, we get into crazy women, old maids, wedding-obsessed ditzes, and perhaps the most pernicious: straw feminists and women on the sidelines.
Don’t worry, we end with examples of TV shows, movies, and books that bust tropes with realistic, complex, nuanced female characters that bring women’s identities into the forefront.
Audio from: Wedding Crashers, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, Community, Powerpuff Girls
With more examples from: Married With Children, Roseanne, New Girl
Shows We Recommend in This Episode: The Kids Are Alright, Orange is The New Black, The Wire, Grace and Frankie, Big Love, Parks and Recreation, Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, Black-ish
Books We Recommend in This Episode: The Wife (Wolitzer), Manhattan Beach (Egan), Asymmetry (Halliday), Burning Girl (Messud).
Find Profess-Hers on Twitter and Instagram @professhers. Email us at professhers@gmail.com. Listen to us everywhere you find podcasts.
Written by Misty Wilson-Mehrtens and Allegra Davis Hanna
Women in WW2 | 30
29 | Girls Who Game
28 | Warrior Women in Real Life
27 | Warrior Women of Westeros
26 | GOT Queens?
25 | Fangirls
24 | Bosses Who Happen to Be Ladies
23 | The Uneven Bar - Women in Gymnastics
22 | The No-History Episode - Updates on Women in TV, Sports, Music, Science, Space and More
21 | Female Investigative Journalists - Women's History Month 2
20 | Women of Science - Women's History Month 1
19 | Women in Space and Flight - MCU Part 2
18 | MCU Part 1 - Representation and Women in Superhero Films
17 | 80s Ladies at Work
15 | Math Class
14 | Dudes + Feminism (Featuring a Profess-Him)
13 | Villainy, Crimes, and Musicals
12 | Lady Detectives on TV
11 | Lady Detectives in History and Literature
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