Get unfettered

Cartoon by Gou Ben; Poem by Long Yuan

In traditional script, women are stereotyped

And fall within three broad archetypes.

The ‘significant other’ satisfies what men expect

While ‘self-made’ women are what they reject;

And ‘dependent’ women can hardly earn men’s respect.

All these portray modern women as far from perfect.

The fact is, they are no longer frail

In a society where patriarchal values prevail.

They pursue self-dignity,

They are exploring social identity.

Being resolute and independent with personality,

Most women also strive for wisdom and bravery.

Youth and beauty are not merely what they pursue,

And they consider self-improvement a great virtue.

But the charisma of female images on TV are diluted

And the harmful narratives never refuted.

Fettered by such a patriarchal mentality,

When will equality become a reality?

Media plays a huge part in gender specification as well as the construction of the female identity in society. Today, television is one of the most influential forms of media because it has the potential to reach the largest audience.

When one examines the gender traits and values of young female characters in contemporary family dramas, the resilience of the patriarchal narrative in culture becomes apparent. Depictions of women vary in family dramas that focus on the younger generations. Female characters in TV series tend to fall within three broad archetypes: the significant other, the self-made woman and the dependent woman.

Significant other

The significant other refers to women who are created according the needs of men and conform to ideals of female gentility in the male narrative.

Women of this type are sensible and attractive. They are created to fulfill the subjective desires of men and have all the attributes that men expect of women, such as beauty and charm. Female characters in TV series, such as Li Mei in Safeguarding Marriage, Xia Bing in The Story of Spicy Mom, Yang Tao in Let’s Get Married and Luo Li in Divorce Lawyers are all capable winning over audiences with their graceful figures and young, beautiful faces.

At the same time, these women embody the aesthetic values and charm that the audience—especially men—demands, and through the media, they establish standards for beauty and the female body. Females reshape themselves and become the other by conforming to men’s desires and they seldom resist this trend because the pursuit of beauty helps to hide the dominant narrative from view.

At the same time, the significant others submit themselves to the ruling perceptions on the values of life, aesthetics and morals. They agree with men on differences of gender rank and social values as they pursue these standards. In TV dramas, the ideal of a woman as an understanding wife and a loving mother is a typical form of the other. But significant others are not necessarily those who receive less education and are of a lower social status. Elites could also be part of this group. In contemporary family dramas starring women, the collisions and choices concerning values of female elites show more evidence of the dominant narrative’s regulations on female gender value.

Lin Jun, a character in the drama Husband and Wife, is an elite architect who received Western higher education and chooses to live the life of a DINK, which is short for “dual-income, no kids.” As an independent woman in contemporary society, Lin thinks she has the right to dictate if and when she chooses to have a child. But in the latter part of the drama, when Lin’s values come into conflict with her family identity as a wife, mother and daughter-in-law, her values collapse. Her mother-in-law chastises her for refusing to have children and her marriage is on the verge of divorce. In the end, Lin had to give up her DINK status and give birth to a son for her husband’s family, representing her return to a male-dominated society. She has a happy ending only when she realizes that her fundamental social role is that of a mother.

No matter how much social status women achieve, nothing can make up for the lack of status within the family. If this is true, women can only pursue happiness through abiding by traditional morals.The image and story of Lin reflects the male perception of the ideal female elites who should be responsible for not only careers but also their traditional role at home. At the same time, men tend to set moral rules for female elites through the masculine narrative and make women conform to their expectations. This kind of social expectation fetters women within families, giving them a limited private scope. As a result, women give up their role as individual living only as devoted wives consigned to the margins of society.

Self-made woman

The self-made woman refers to those who prioritize their own social status, self-actualization and individual dreams.They usually can take charge as a leader in a professional domain of society, such as politics or business. They believe in independence and freedom, challenging social norms that devalue women. Most of them assert their value in public space.

This category can be further sub-divided into tough women and emotional perfectionists. If the significant other reflects the masculine ideal of what constitutes a perfect woman, the self-made woman highlights the anxiety that men feel when confronted with women who defy norms. Men may expect women to be financially independent and also able to do their duty to their family, but they worry their traditional authority and social status will be threatened by the self-made woman’s pursuit of individual value. Some may fear that the traditional social division of labor and hierarchy based on gender will break down as more women become part of the male-dominated public sphere.

In family dramas, there are many self-made women who are young and beautiful as well as outstanding and independent, such as Li Mei and Yang Dan in Safeguarding The Marriage, Na Yi in Husband and Wife and Jian Ning in The Sweet Burden. But at the same time, many of them are perceived as losers in some aspect or they struggle in their careers. Others are trapped by their marriages or even divorce their husbands. Also, some are forced to compromise in the pursuit of love. For example, the upper-class Li Mei has a successful career but her marriage is in crisis. The leather product company owner Lan Xin expects to dominate the industry but her factory closes in the end. Female boss Na Yi never stops searching for true love but in the end loses her fortune and beauty. Bi Shengnan’s determination to always win leads to the failure of her career and marriage, and her daughter suffers from depression. In these dramas, every woman who challenges the existing family order and male status ends in paying a price.

This situation mirrors the difficulties women face in real life. Also, it reflects men’s hostility toward women who attempt to challenge patriarchal values. The stories of failures underscore the consequences self-made women will reap in the masculine narrative. The subjugation of women is more than an economic or even a political phenomenon. It is a kind of social psychology and lifestyle.

Dependent woman

The final archetype that is seen in contemporary family dramas is the dependent woman, who is not economically independent because she is unemployed or works as temp labor. Their lives are limited to the domain of the family because they rely on their husbands financially and have no spiritual independence. Characters of this type include An Na in Husband and Wife as well as Jiao Yanyan and Luo Meiyuan in Divorce Lawyers.

Unlike dependent women in the traditional feudal society who were forbidden from participating in social affairs and forced to rely on men, most dependent women in contemporary society choose the lifestyle. Some give up opportunities in the public sphere and return to their families to become full-time housewives who are emotionally and financially dependent on their husbands. Some give up personal independence, trading their beauty and youth for fortune to become stereotypical materialistic women.

When a woman’s dependence becomes a hardship for the man in his life, the woman is invariably discarded. The antipathy shown toward the dependent women reflects the masculine concept of a romantic relationship in which affection is bought. But this also illustrates how patriarchy oppresses and restricts men.

Family dramas tend to follow a pattern in which men have power and money, while women possess youth and beauty. They are traded for each other. The social system demands that women give up their jobs and stay home to support their husbands any time work conflicts with the family. Wang Hailing, a renowned drama writer, referring to her series Chinese-Style Divorce, said, “The dominant social psychology remains that women place faith in their husbands to achieve a better future for the family, and they must be willing to selflessly sacrifice.”

Due to the patriarchal mentality and the profit-driven nature of commercial media, dramas tend cater to men and reinforce the ideas of a male-dominated society. Also, most media producers, writers and directors who control the media narrative are men. In such an atmosphere, the voices of female writers in dramas have been undermined. Driven by the desire for ratings, dramas often dilute the female narrative and logic,preventing women from developing an empowering sense of social consciousness.

In TV dramas, contemporary women are seldom described as brave, independent, professional, free and wise, which does not mimic their social status in the real life, revealing the lack of recognition of women as individuals. Once women become target demographics, their double identities as consumers and subjects of consumption leave themselves with no choice but fall victim to conspiracy of commercial culture in a male-dominated society.

Su Meini is from the School of Journalism and Communication and Film and Television Arts at Hunan University.