'His Women Problem' An Analysis of Gender on 'The Newsroom'
Year: 2015

This textual analysis focuses on the portrayal of female journalists on Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom, which premiered on HBO in 2012. The researchers argue that the four main female journalists are depicted as being unprofessional in the workplace, being inadequate at their jobs, and being motherly and weak. While these female journalists have impeccable credentials, stellar resumes, and a genuine interest in disseminating the best possible news, Sorkin and his fellow writers consistently depict these powerful women as inferior to the male characters. The researchers conclude that Sorkin and his creative team failed in their ethical obligation to the audience and society because the portrayals could negatively impact the perceptions of real female journalists. Disciplines Communication Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Journalism Studies Sports Studies Women's Studies Comments This document is provided for download in compliance with the publisher's policy on self archiving. Permission documentation is on file. This article is available at eCommons: http:/ecommons.udayton.edu/cmm_fac_pub/28 "His Women Problem" 1 "His Women Problem" An Analysis of Gender on The Newsroom Chad Painter Assistant Professor Department of Communication Eastern New Mexico University Portales, NM 88130 Chad.Painter@enmu.edu and Patrick Ferrucci Assistant Professor Department of Journalism University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80303 patrick.ferrucci@colorado.edu Introduction Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom has received mixed reviews since its June 24, 2012, premiere, with many critics writing that the show was preachy and unrealistic. Another common cry was that the female journalists on the show were ditzy, subservient, and shallow. Critics contended that MacKenzie "Mac" McHale (Emily Mortimer) was as intelligent as the leading men, and that Leona Lansing (Jane Fonda) was tough, although they weren't portrayed that way. Following the start of The Newsroom's second season, there appeared to be improvement, although one critic observed that the changes were "as obvious and shallow as Sorkin's stale, tone deaf stereotyping." While MacKenzie McHale is at times seen as heroic, the other female characters are marginalized and function as "supporting players to their more successful male counterparts." This marginalization led "His Women Problem" 2 Ellen Killoran to ask whether, with The Newsroom, Sorkin solved "his women problem" that also surfaced in his earlier Sports Night series. Sorkin, speaking to the Television Critics Association, disagreed with the criticism that his female characters were portrayed as inferior and incompetent: I completely respect that opinion, but I 100 percent disagree with it. [The characters are] shown being good at their jobs. Caring about something other than yourself or reaching higher or being curious, plainly smart, and great team players, those qualities to me are what define these characters. And once you nail that down, you can have them slip on as many banana peels as you want. That's just comedy. The purpose of this study is to investigate how fictional female journalists were portrayed on The Newsroom. The show featured powerful women, including the showwithin the show's executive producer and the owner of the network's parent company, as well as reporters and on air personalities. The researchers focus their analysis on several key themes developed in the literature. After the analysis, the authors discuss the ethical implications of these characters and portrayals, especially as they relate to socialization and cultural conditioning of future journalists.  Portrayal of Female Journalists in Popular Culture Feminism is defined in its simplest form as the creation of a society where women are provided the same opportunities as men. The depictions of feminism on television are understood not as a matter of politics but as a matter of identity and lifestyle. Such depictions fall into postfeminism, or third wave feminism, which combines feminist ideas with postmodern concepts of society's instability. This feminist identity is expressed most readily on television programs such as The "His Women Problem" 3 Mary Tyler Moore Show, Murphy Brown, Sex and the City, Sports Night, and The Newsroom through white, straight, single, professional women working in a man's world. Researchers argue that fictional portrayals of people have a powerful impact on how we perceive those types of people in real life. Humans do not look at the world around them neutrally but rather as a part of "an active construction that incorporates our past memories and expectations as well as the current context." Feminist theorists argue that cultural conditioning and learning experience affect a woman's career decisions. Socialization is the "process leading individuals to accept institutionalized realities as their own perceptions of what is real." Television and other sources constantly inundate young girls with ideas about cultural norms, and this mediarich environment reinforces cultural norms of femininity. Socialization of a particular nature, whatever the source, ultimately will become a part of an individual's conception of his or her abilities. The media can and do socialize young women about gender identity and intellectual ability, and media portrayals provide socializing messages about women in a certain profession, such as journalism, or women in general. Consequently, stereotypes of passive, overemotional, and dependent women in fictional portrayals have a powerful impact on real women. Portrayal of Female Journalists on Television The sight of a female reporter on a television screen is nothing new. However, television shows portraying female reporters are not simply about journalism. Instead, journalism is used as a way to explore certain gender based conflicts: career versus marriage, workplace versus home, co workers versus family, freedom of the night versus middle class domesticity, the individual versus the collective, feminism versus femininity, "His Women Problem" 4 and agency versus victimization. Further, the focus is on women's relationships with men, a focus that undermines the importance of the female community by assuming that male relationships ultimately have the most importance in women's lives. Women on television systematically are underrepresented, usually reduced to traditionally feminine roles, and appear traditionally feminine. Women portrayed as journalists or other professionals are an attempt to break this traditional mold. The appeal to genre type is related to its capacity for change: "Its flexibility allows the foregrounding of different combinations of traits as the type is re interpreted by different stars, in different genres and different eras." However, television shows that attempt to break the stereotypical genre mold still tend to situate female characters within overarching patriarchal schemes. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970 1977) was "informed by and commented on the changing role of women in American society." Mary Richards (Moore) an associate producer and later producer for the Minneapolis television station WJM TV, was "bright, attractive, well liked, ha[d] a good job that she perform[ed] well, and [was] generally happy." She was seen throughout the show's run as a positive character, one who redefined understandings of personal relationships. The title character in Murphy Brown (1988 1998) can be seen as a more advanced version of Richards. Unlike Moore's Mary, Murphy (Candice Bergen) has made it: She is the award winning network co anchor of a primetime news magazine. Murphy Brown is considered to be influenced by or representative of feminism because it is a sitcom based on a single, working woman. Sex and the City (1998 2004) starred Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw, a sex "His Women Problem" 5 and relationships columnist for a New York publication. Carrie and her friends are the embodiment of a more progressive version of Helen Gurley Brown's "single girl," although they are older and more successful in their chosen careers. As successful professionals, they embrace "the intellectual and sexual freedom, and independence that their success has given them." Carrie's sex life, the fodder for her columns, can be seen "as a product of a longer representational history of women, feminist or not, who sought sexual freedom or freer expression of female sexuality." Seen in this postfeminist light, the show can be situated between the feminist struggles of the individual versus the collective, feminism versus femininity, and agency versus victimization. Sports Night (1998 2000) which was created by Aaron Sorkin, centered on the titular show, a Sportscenter like sports news program. In the show, "sports becomes a metaphor for human accomplishment, drive, pain, loss, and disappointment." Much of that accomplishment, drive, pain, loss, and disappointment is driven by the two female leads, Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman) and Natalie Hurley (Sabrina Lloyd) The women ostensibly are in charge of Sports Night. Dana and Natalie run the show within the show, and Sally Sasser (Brenda Strong) produces the sister show West Coast Update. However, Dana is not shown respect by her colleagues. She is not in charge, "and this is made clear throughout the arc of the entire show, despite her obvious intelligence and capability." Further, Dana and Sally are shown in constant competition, both for power and for the affections of lead anchor Casey McCall. This competition is shown as the equivalent of a "sophisticated cat fight." The five female journalists on Sports Night were depicted as acting unprofessionally, displaying motherly qualities, choosing their personal lives over work, being deferential to men for ethical decisions, and showing a lack of sports "His Women Problem" 6 knowledge compared to the male chara