Lack of Strong female characters in TV

   While we have certainly came a long way since the beginning of TV and radio shows there are still many problems still alive in Hollywood today. One major problem that many girls see over and over again is the lack of strong female role characters in TV. While some TV have attempted to have more “masculine” female characters they continue to stereotype more feminine female characters and make them seem wimpy and demanding.

                My favorite show in the world from when I was 12-16 was NCIS. I loved seeing characters like Kate Todd and Ziva David that were smart, but they could also fight and solve the cases just as well (if not better than) as the male characters on the show. **SPOILERS** since then both characters have left the show. (Well, Kate died and Ziva left to do who knows what in Israel even though her entire family is dead and she had no real reason to be there.) I was devastated when I found out that Cote de Pablo (Ziva) was leaving NCIS. She had been my role model for the past 4 years and had been half of the couple that I was waiting to get together since the minute she enter the show. It also symbolized the last female role model leaving the show. While Jenny may not have been as tough and ninja like as Ziva, she was the head director of NCIS and was definitely a brilliant role model for girls.

                After Ziva left I felt like there was no reason for me to continue watching the show and I didn’t really care if the show ended or not. Now the show as a “New Girl”, Ellie Bishop, who does seem to be intelligent, but lacks the confidence and diversity that Ziva was able to bring to the team. She also is married which means that I can’t ship her with Tony (not that I would ship him with anyone but Ziva, obviously) or anyone else on the team, which makes her really boring. She also bring less excitement to the show because although Ellie is extremely smart, she can’t fight or kill someone eight different ways with just a paperclip.

                Aside from NCIS, another show that attempts to bring strong female character but doesn’t quite get there is the Big Bang Theory. While Amy and Bernadette both are supposed to be seen as more intelligent women in the science field that seem to come across as petty and unintelligente compared to their male counterparts. While Sheldon is shown to have quirks and social skill problems, most of his obstacles are “justified” by the other characters while if a female character such as Penny or Amy do something crazy and say something weird its usually said that its because they are women and that women are crazy. Saying these things on a show where the characters are supposed to be extremely intelligent doesn’t make sense.

                Overall, I feel that sexism in the media leads to a lot of lack of strong female characters in TV and make the average American have the opinions that they do. If we were able to put strong female characters in the most watched shows then it would be easier for girls to have better femaile role models in the media and could help shape people’s opinion on gender in the United States and in other parts of the world.     

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