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21
THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN ON SCREEN
As women began to break the glass ceiling in the 1970s and enter the workplace,
onscreen portrayals shifted to show women in the workplace instead of traditional in-home
roles. Earlier television shows including The Brady Bunch, Leave it to Beaver, and
Father Knows Best portrayed women in traditional roles like homemaking while the men
worked, explicitly showing a patriarchal ideology. Later, the 1970s introduced female
characters in both private and public spheres, such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show in
1970 (“Mary Tyler Moore”). These types of shows introduced women in the working
world, but the characters retained much of the homemaker, feminine qualities seen
previously. For example, although Mary was a working girl, she had yet to fully break the
Glass Ceiling as an executive. In nearly every episode, Mary has the added concerns of
keeping her house stylish and comfortable, preparing for dates or cooking meals for
guests. She was slender, fashionable, and cheery. It was not until the end of the series that
she moved on to be a successful career woman (Saltzman, 2003, p. 5).
In contrast, men have been portrayed with opposite characteristics. Fateri and
Kleiner (1992) state that, “Masculinity is broadly defined by scholars as objective,
logical, assertive and competitive; whereas feminine traits include subjectivity,
intuitiveness and spontaneity” (p. 14). We have come to view narrative of men as active
and devoid of emotion (Reinharz & Kulick, 2007, p. 257). Communication scholar
Jackson Katz (2003) states, “Persisting images of masculinity hold that ‘real men’ are
physically strong, aggressive, and in control of their work” (p. 341 – 358). Due to our
dichotomous way of thinking, we identify and relate the male body to masculinity, which
Object Description
| Title | Power party girls, good looking crowds and one hellish boss: The portrayal of the female entertainment publicist on reality television |
| Author | Hashem, Camille Renée |
| Author email | chashem@usc.edu; chashem87@gmail.com |
| Degree | Master of Arts |
| Document type | Thesis |
| Degree program | Public Relations |
| School | Annenberg School for Communication |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-04-01 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2011-05-03 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Thorson, Kjerstin |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Floto, Jennifer Saltzman, Joseph |
| Abstract | This thesis is an examination of the portrayal of the female entertainment publicist shown in reality television. With the large success rate of Samantha Jones from Sex and the City in the 1990s, female interest in public relations has increased, and good or bad, Jones has served as one of the predominate images of the publicist in the entertainment industry. Those who have performed critical analysis of the image of the public relations practitioner have deemed these representations as showing negative characteristics of those in the profession. While there has been previous research on the image of public relations in media, analysis of the female entertainment publicist in reality television has been left untapped.; The project consisted of a content analysis as well as interviews with various women in entertainment public relations. Three reality television shows featuring female entertainment publicists were watched: MTV's PoweR Girls (2005), Bravo's Kell on Earth (2010) and E! Network's The Spin Crowd. After conducting this analysis, the author found that the female publicist is put in one of two gender categories, the masculine bitch or the overtly sexy "PR Bunny." Other findings inferred that the dominant images within each series suggested that public relations is overall an easy field to enter, with little or no experience or professionalism needed. Finally, although the three series had some subtle differences, public relations is still shown as a glamorous job.; Interviewee responses showed that the negative representations of entertainment publicists on reality television are not indicative of the real life job itself, but that media's representation of it has led others to believe false or skewed images of the profession. Since these three shows' target demographics include young women about make a career decision, the impact they may have on this demographic, and how it may affect the future of public relations and the expectations of those about the enter the industry, is also discussed. |
| Keyword | communication; entertainment; media; public relations; reality television |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 1990/2010 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3875 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Hashem, Camille Renée |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Hashem-4503 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume26/etd-Hashem-4503.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 21 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 21 THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN ON SCREEN As women began to break the glass ceiling in the 1970s and enter the workplace, onscreen portrayals shifted to show women in the workplace instead of traditional in-home roles. Earlier television shows including The Brady Bunch, Leave it to Beaver, and Father Knows Best portrayed women in traditional roles like homemaking while the men worked, explicitly showing a patriarchal ideology. Later, the 1970s introduced female characters in both private and public spheres, such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970 (“Mary Tyler Moore”). These types of shows introduced women in the working world, but the characters retained much of the homemaker, feminine qualities seen previously. For example, although Mary was a working girl, she had yet to fully break the Glass Ceiling as an executive. In nearly every episode, Mary has the added concerns of keeping her house stylish and comfortable, preparing for dates or cooking meals for guests. She was slender, fashionable, and cheery. It was not until the end of the series that she moved on to be a successful career woman (Saltzman, 2003, p. 5). In contrast, men have been portrayed with opposite characteristics. Fateri and Kleiner (1992) state that, “Masculinity is broadly defined by scholars as objective, logical, assertive and competitive; whereas feminine traits include subjectivity, intuitiveness and spontaneity” (p. 14). We have come to view narrative of men as active and devoid of emotion (Reinharz & Kulick, 2007, p. 257). Communication scholar Jackson Katz (2003) states, “Persisting images of masculinity hold that ‘real men’ are physically strong, aggressive, and in control of their work” (p. 341 – 358). Due to our dichotomous way of thinking, we identify and relate the male body to masculinity, which |
