ls. Allan and Coltraine (1996) noted that television commercials had changed between the 1950s and 1980s, but primarily in their gender portrayals of women. Women were shown in other occupations and other venues than the traditional housewife and kitchen of the earlier era. Men, however, were still portrayed in ways congruent with the traditional masculine stereotype.
One of the most helpful recent studies on gender and television was conducted by Nancy Signorielli (1998). Signorielli performed a content analysis across six media, looking specifically at messages received by adolescent girls and boys. The results of this two-part study were interesting. In general, she found that the media often offers girls strong, positive role models; for example, in the television programs studied, 35% of women relied on themselves to solve their problems and in commercials, 29% targeted for women appealed to them "being in control of their lives." Television also showed women using their television more than men (34% to 30%) (Signorielli, 1998).
However, the media also reinforce female stereotypes. Both boys and girls indicated that the characters they see on television are thinner than women in real life, while male characters are about the same weight as men in real life. Some traits are associated more with female characters such as worrying about appearance or weight, crying or whining, weakness and flirting, while leadership and play
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