Its visual nature makes it particularly appealing. Television plays a central role in most youngsters' social lives, providing the fuel for conversations and peer group cohesiveness. Despite ongoing and seemingly endless changes in programming, the prime-time television world transmits a compelling and fairly stable set of images about gender roles. The most consistent image we have of women on television is that of under representation. The ratio of men to women is most uneven in the violence-laden crime and action adventure programs, while somewhat more equal in situation comedies.
Women are likely to be younger than men on television, but they age faster.
Children's cartoon programming accentuates gender role differences. Women are more invincible in cartoons than other types of programs and often are found in stereotypical roles. Similarly, in commercials, roles for both men and women are stereotyped and gender-typed, with most of the talking done by the men. Studies of TV's effects are generally hampered because it is almost impossible to find people who do not watch television. Nonviewers are quite rare and tend to be demographically eclectic.