PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The research was aimed at analysing gender portrayal in TV drama in Pakistan over a period of five decades from its very inception in the late 1960’s till 2017. The research explored what types of gender stereotypes were being propagated in the prime time drama serials on the State owned TV channel, PTV which was the only platform available for most part of this duration. The methodology adopted for the research was quantitative in nature and involved a content analysis of the most popular Urdu serials aired between 1968 and 2017. The research focused on the three main characters in each drama and the total sample comprised 72 characters. These characters were analysed in a total of 4834 scenes to observe the display of gender stereotypes. The findings indicated that although overall both the genders were displaying their gender specific stereotypes yet some stereotypes such as bravery and aggressiveness were not being displayed by males and passivity, victimization and fearfulness were not being displayed by females. Later the 50 year time period was sub-divided into five decades to observe whether there had been a change over the years keeping in view the massive changes which had taken place in society. Findings indicated that although there were differences in gender depiction between the five decades for both the genders yet the changes were not linear which pointed to the role of other factors such as government policies which could have contributed to the increasing and decreasing stereotyping over the years.

• Abbas, S. (2018). Conventional female images, Islamization and its outcomes: A study of Pakistani TV dramas. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 8(2), 20-38. https://doi.org/10.12973/ojcmt/2352

• Ahmad, A. M. (2002). Gender roles: A content analysis of Egyptian television [Master’s thesis]. Oklahoma State University.

• Ahmed, A. (2012). Women and soap operas: Popularity, portrayal and perception. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 2(6), 1-6. http://www.ijsrp.org/research_paper_jun2012/ijsrp-June-2012-47.pdf

• Ali, R., & Batool, S. (2015). Stereotypical identities: Discourse analysis of media images of women in Pakistan. Multidisciplinary Journal of Gender Studies, 4(1), 690-717. https://doi.org/10.17583/generos.2015.1502

• Ashfaq, A., & Shafiq, Z. (2018). Contested images of ‘perfect women’ in Pakistani television dramas. Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, 55(1), 45-63. http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/history/PDF-FILES/4_55_1_18.pdf

• Aullette, J. W., Wittner, J., & Blakely, K. (2009). Gendered worlds. Oxford University Press.

• Bandura, A. (2002). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (pp. 121-154). Erlbaum.

• Bosch, B. (2019). Bat meets girl: Adapting the Dark Knight’s love life to the big screen. Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 36(3), 239-251. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509208.2019.1587341

• Carter, C., & Steiner, L. (2004). Critical reading: Media and gender. Open University Press.

• Chalupova, T. (2011). The representation of women in a Czech soap opera: The clash of genre conventions and feminist ideals in the Czech soap opera VelmiKřehkéVztahy [Master’s thesis, Palacky University Olomouc]. Theses.cz. https://theses.cz/id/lnmriq/

• Chaudhry, N. (2016, October 20-23). “This is where you belong”-Representations of the ideal woman in Pakistani television serials from the 1980’s to the present. Proceedings of the 45th Annual Conference on South Asia. University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.

• Collins, R. L. (2011). Content analysis of gender roles in media: where are we now and where should we go? Sex Role, 64, 290-298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9929-5

• D’Acci, J. (1994). Defining women: Television and the case of Cagney & Lacey. University of North Carolina.

• England, D. E., Descartes, L., & Collier-Meek, M. A. (2011). Gender role portrayal and the Disney Princesses. Sex Roles, 64, 555-567. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-9930-7

• Espinosa, D. (2010). Gender roles in the media and debunking society’s stereotypes: ‘Glee’ as a pop-culture reflection [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. Winona State University.

• Fogel, J. M., (2012). A modern family: The performance of “family” and familialism in contemporary television series [Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, The University of Michigan]. Deep Blue. http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/91389

• Gallup Pakistan. (2012, July 12). Watching movies in cinema. Only 11% say they watch movies in a cinema. Most of them are infrequent movie-goers. https://gallup.com.pk/bb_old_site/Polls/120712.pdf

• Gallup Pakistan. (2014, October 17). Radio: Declining numbers of radio listeners over the past thirty years. https://gallup.com.pk/bb_old_site/News/171014.pdf

• Gauntlett, D. (2008). Media, gender and identity: An introduction. Rutledge.

• Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media. (2014). Gender bias without borders: An investigation of female characters in popular films across 11 countries. https://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/gender-bias-without-borders-full-report.pdf

• Gerbner, G. (1970). Cultural indicators: The case of violence in television drama. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 388, 69-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271627038800108

• Gerbner, G. (1998). Stories of violence and the public interest. In K. Brants, J. Hermes & L. Van Zoonen (Eds.), The Media in Question (pp. 135-146). Sage.

• Gerbner, G. & Gross, L. (1976). Living with television: The violence profile. Journal of Communication, 26(2), 173-199. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1976.tb01397.x

• Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Jackson-Beeck, M., Jeffries-Fox, S., & Signorielli, N. (1978). Cultural indicators: Violence profile no. 9. Journal of Communication, 28(3), 176-207. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1978.tb01646.x

• Goffman, E. (1979). Gender advertisements. Harper & Row.

• Gorham, B. W. (2004). The social psychology of stereotypes: Implications for media audiences. In R. A. Lindt (Ed.), Race, gender, media: Considering diversity across audiences content and producers (pp. 23-34). Pearson.

• Government of Pakistan Finance Division. (2016). Pakistan Economic Survey 2016-17. http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey_1617.html

• Gunter, B. (1995). Television and gender representations. John Libbey.

• Hashmi, M. (2012). At the limits of discourse: Political talk in drag on late night show with Begum Nawazish Ali. South Asian History and Culture, 3(4), 511-531. https://doi.org/10.1080/19472498.2012.720065

• Khai, S. W., & Abdul-Wahab, J. (2017). Prettiness as a shield: The romantic perpetuation of patriarchy through the representation of pretty boy in popular Korean dramas in Malaysia. Media Watch, 8(3), 298-310. https://doi.org/10.15655/mw/2017/v8i3/49153

• Kharroub, T., & Weaver, A. J. (2014). Portrayals of women in transnational Arab television drama series. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 58(2), 179-195. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2014.906434

• Kiran, E. (2016). Hidden Gender Stereotypes in TV Commercials. Papers on Social Science, 2, 123-137.

• Kothari, S. (2005). From genre to Zanaana: Urdu television drama serials and women’s culture in Pakistan. Contemporary South Asia, 14(3), 289-305. https://doi.org/10.1080/09584930500463719

• Lauzen, M. M., & Dozier, D. M. (2005). Maintaining the double standard: Portrayals of age and gender in popular film. Sex Roles, 52, 437-446. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-3710-1

• Lauzen, M. M., Dozier, D. M., & Horan, N. (2008). Constructing gender stereotypes through social roles in prime-time television. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52(2), 200-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838150801991971

• Lippman, W. (1922). Public opinion. Harcourt.

• Long, M., Steinke, J., Applegate, B., Lapinski, M. K., Johnson , M. J., & Ghosh, S., (2010). Portrayals of male and female scientists in television programs popular among middle school–age children. Science Communication, 20(10), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547009357779

• Lorber, J., & Farrell, S. A. (Eds.). (1991). The social construction of gender. Sage Publications.

• Luif, V. (2014). As seen on TV: The portrayal of women (A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the presence and portrayal of women in Dutch television fiction and non-fiction) [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. University of Amsterdam.

• MacLean, D. (2011). Discourses of masculinity in the contemporary male-centred drama [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. Western University.

• McGhee, P. E., & Frueh, T. (1980). Television viewing and the learning of sex-role stereotypes. Sex Roles, 6, 179-188. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287341

• Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Screen, 16, 8-18. https://www.asu.edu/courses/fms504/total-readings/mulvey-visualpleasure.pdf

• Mumtaz, K. (2006). Gender and poverty in Pakistan. Pakistan poverty assessment update. Background Paper Series 7. Poverty Group. Pakistan Resident Mission.

• Neuendorf, K. A. (2011). Content analysis—A methodological primer for gender research, Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 64(3-4), 276-289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9893-0

• Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority. (2010). PEMRA Annual Report 2010. http://www.gilanifoundation.com/homepage/Free_Pub/PEMRA/Pemra%20annual_report_2010.pdf

• Panitchpakdi, J. (2007). The representations of women in Thai soap operas: The contestation of gender ideologies and cultural identities. Thammasat Review, 9-51. https://sc01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/tureview/article/view/40846

• Pérez, M. (2005). Cultural identity: Between reality and fiction: A transformation of genre and roles in Mexican telenovelas. Television New Media, 6, 407-414. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476405279956

• Perkins, T. E. (1979). Rethinking stereotypes. In M. Barrett, P. Corrigan, A. Kuhn & J. Wolff (Eds.), Ideology and cultural production (pp. 135-159). Croom Helm.

• Poerwandari, E. K., De Thouars, T., & Hirano, K. (2014). Gender construction in five Japanese serial dramas: Fantasy and the real lives of Japanese youth. Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, 20(2), 97-132. https://doi.org/10.1080/12259276.2014.11666183

• Prieler, M. (2016). Gender stereotypes in Spanish- and English-language television advertisements in the United States. Mass Communication and Society, 19(3), 275-300. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2015.1111386

• Prieler, M., Ivanov, A., & Hagiwara, S. (2015). Gender representations in East Asian advertising: Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. Communication & Society, 28(1), 27-41. https://doi.org/10.15581/003.28.1.27-41

• Ryan, J. R. (2009). Reel gender: Examining the politics of trans images in film and media [Unpublished Doctoral thesis]. Bowling Green State University.

• Saleem, N. (1994). Cultural imperialism: A case study of the impact of dish antennas on Pakistani’s society [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. University of Punjab.

• Sandonato, N. (2014). The history of gender representations in teen television [Unpublished Bachelor’s thesis]. Boston College.

• Scott, A. M. (2011). The roles of women in television situation comedies: A pilot study [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. Gonzaga University.

• Seidler, V. (1994). Unreasonable men: Masculinity and social theory. Routledge.

• Shanahan, J., Signorielli, N., & Morgan, M. (2008). Television and sex roles 30 years hence: A retrospective and current look from a cultural indicators perspective. Conference Proceedings - International Communication Association, 1-26.

• Signorielli, N. (2003). Prime-time violence 1993-2001: Has the picture really changed? Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 47(1), 36-57. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4701_3

• Sink, A., & Mastro, D. (2017). Depictions of gender on primetime television: A quantitative content analysis. Mass Communication & Society, 20(1), 3-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2016.1212243

• Song, G. (2010). Chinese masculinities revisited: Male images in contemporary television drama serials. Modern China, 36(4), 404-434. https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700410368221

• Steinke, J. (2005). Cultural representations of gender and science: Portrayals of female scientists and engineers in popular films. Science Communication, 27(1), 27-63. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547005278610

• Talib, S., & Idrees, Z. (2012). Pakistani media and disempowerment of women. In T. Carilli & J. Campbell (Eds.), Challenging images of women in the media: Reinventing women’s lives (pp. 29-33). Lexington Books.

• Tuchman, G. (1978). The symbolic annihilation of women by the mass media. In G. Tuchman, A. Daniels & J. Benet (Eds.), Hearth and home: Images of women in the mass media (pp. 150-174). Oxford University Press.

• Verhellen, Y., Dens, N., & de Pelsmacker, P. (2016). A longitudinal content analysis of gender role portrayal in Belgian television advertising. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), 170-188. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2013.871321

• Walderzak, J. (2016a) The killing and the exemplary anomaly of the female Antihero. In F. Peters & R. Stewart (Eds.), Crime Uncovered Series (pp. 124-134). Intellect Ltd.

• Walderzak, J. (2016b). Damsels in transgress: The empowerment of the damsel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In M. J. McEniry, R. M. Peaslee & R. G.Weiner (Eds.), Marvel comics into film: Essays on adaptations since the 1940s (pp. 150- 164). McFarland & Company Publishers.

• Wood, J. T. (1994). Gendered media: The influence of media on views of gender. In Gendered lives: Communication, gender, and culture (pp. 231-244). Wadsworth.

• Zeisler, A. (2008). Feminism and pop culture. Seal Press.

• Zheng, Z. (2011). Stereotyping of women’s images portrayed in prime time Chinese TV series from 1979 to 2008: Has the picture changed over time? [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. Iowa State University. https://doi.org/10.31274/etd-180810-44