CRITICAL ESSAY

The beginning of humanity was marked by men acquiring their rights while women were excluded from having these same basic human rights. They were considered weak, unimportant, and useless. That especially was shown when television was created; no woman was ever spotted on programs. However, along with time, change came. After many protests and fights, women finally gained more rights which eventually led to them starting to appear more and more on TV. They went from having minor parts, to becoming secondary characters in programs they took part in, to eventually having primary roles.

Wallace used to say that life used to be so much easier before tv and electronics, when radio was most common especially because of its modern ways of communication (the two-way communication). But things actually started changing after television was first introduced in the 1930s. (Miller, 2010) Ever since then, television has been a very important aspect of our lives. For instance, it played a great role in the World War two: “The Propaganda Ministry of the nazi Party favored TV as a collective experience, so public settings were crucial to German television rather than domestic ones” as well as ‘TV shifted “from painting peacetime pictures in quiet living rooms to the lethal job of war.”’ (Miller, 2010). That said, television changed people’s taste; especially when wanting to spend their times now in different ways than before. According to Wallace, it helped establish what the audience was waiting to see on the screen, and that that is all related to desire (Wallace,1997). That is proved when he talks about lonely people and how television is an escape for them from the real world. That actually shows that there is a connection between the audience and the television, and that when you base a certain program over the audience’s desires it is most likely to affect them psychologically (Wallace, 1997). Lotz supports the claim of audiences having their own ideas of what they would like to watch by stating the following: “As cable channels expanded their original program offerings to more precisely target specific audience interests in the late multi-channel transition, viewers increasingly found programs they were excited to watch and engaged them more closely” (Lotz, 2014). In addition, Spigel talks about how people considered television a remedy after the war. A survey showed how after getting a TV, the wife and husband started getting along more and how children were no longer causing as much problems. And as someone commented: ““It makes a closer family circle”” (Spigel,1992).

Television channels have not always understood what the audiences demanded. That is especially affected by having members in the same house negotiating on what to watch according to one’s liking and not the group; “for many people (and especially for the less powerful members of any household) the programs they watch are not necessarily programs which they will have chosen to watch.” (Banet-Weiser, S., & Higgins, 2021). They also mention that by “powerful members of any household” they more likely mean that there is a difference in the positioning of women and men within the “domestic space of the household” (Banet-Weiser, S., & Higgins, 2021).

I would like to relate that last idea with how female characters just like in real life have always been put down. Up until recently, female lead characters were characterized by a certain personality that made her the ‘It’ girl of the series. You might be wondering, what is this term? The ‘It’ girl is that certain girl whose personality is most engaging. She was created in order to captivate all the attention to herself. Or so they say…

Before, the ‘It’ girl was a damsel in distress. She was the girl who couldn’t live without having someone by her side. Sometimes, that character would be some depressed girl or some loner. It was said that along the show a guy would make his appearance to save the girl of whatever problem she has. That meant that guys were usually portrayed as the ‘knight in shining armor’ in the story. It was also typical to include that the girl was of a soft beauty that no one could compare to but she didn’t know it. Her shyness and insecurities basically overpower her beautifulness. Interpreting that type of scenario nowadays carries many controversiality to discuss. The first type of people are against that cliché story; they are feminists and people seeking to help that ‘It’ girl if she were real to wake up to the fact that she should be strong and independent. A girl does not need to wait until someone comes to rescue her, why can’t she just save herself by herself. The second type are the opposite. They are usually romantic movies fanatics who are also waiting for their prince charming to show up. In their opinion, having a guy coming to save the girl from all the evil in her life while turning it upside down is a dream. The girl will never have to worry, and there’ll always be someone to protect her. What’s there not to like?

Stauff insists that these types of debates can trigger online conversations on the “second screen” by its assemblage because of the “liveness” of traditional tv. It can also happen within the family where modifications, through the discussions, happen (Stauff, 2015).

Nonetheless, the ‘It’ girl character has now changed to become stronger (personality wise), more independent, and more self-accepting. That type of girl has become more of an encouragement for women and girls to go after what they want and to understand that nothing can stop them, no matter the circumstances. This girl has also become very successful. Women have now become part of all work fields; there are characters of successful lawyers, doctors, detectives, engineers, designers, and so many more.

For example, representing the cliché old primary female character, we have Cinderella who is a very famous princess that was only saved from her evil stepmother after she got married. Another example, Rapunzel who was also saved from the tower, where she spent her entire life caged, by a guy. These two examples are very similar along with a big number of other stories that have the same concept because they are both of a Disney production. Disney is one of the main platforms that encouraged the damsel type of It girl. That was a bad move that brought eventually many criticisms because such an influential platform should raise awareness in helping girl be the best and strongest version of themselves instead of teaching them dependance and needing a certain man to be happy and protected. So, Disney changed up a bit by creating new movies such as “Frozen” where the queen is a young, strong, powerful queen who never encountered a boy’s love.

Or movies such as Hong Kong where the gorilla is helping the sweet innocent girl, after she was offered for him as a sacrifice so he can get to eat her, as he is entranced by her delicateness and beauty.

On another hand, these types of main characters have now changed and evolved where the main characters now are always powerful. Annalise Keating, one of the most famous nowadays characters in the television world. Annalise is a character in the series How To Get Away With Murder; she is a lawyer, her personality is very dominant and she works alongside men who might think they are better than her, but they definitely are not. Moreover, there is the infamous detective, Chloe Decker. Very smart, always follows her own intuition and is very beautiful. She is also a mother. Throughout the series Lucifer, we see how she can manage everything while staying all okay and normal.

These characters are the reason behind a lot of the achievements of real-life girls. They have impacted them whether by helping them decide on what job to pursue in their lives or how to overcome your problems, you can feel that there is a connection with these characters. And that proves the advancement the television world has got to. In fact, this leads us to talk about how that change in personalities has actually touched the audiences. Considering we can relate to the person, and considering this new character gives us motivation, audiences now tend to idolize this certain individual (woman) while also working on becoming like them and having similar personalities to them.

All in all, women’s positions in television have come a long way; in hopes that they continue on moving forward with time. Even though great things are now happening in the television world, we can never forget the journey that women went through to get to that. And so, women are supposed to be proud, positive, and happy because of who they are and because of the power that they hold. We should all stick together, as one hand, and work on making the world more accepting towards us so that we benefit of more opportunities in our lives.