30 Rock

Having won 28 awards in the past two years, 30 Rock is quickly becoming America's new favorite sitcom.  This week I watched the newest episode, A Retreat to Move Forward, and found many nods to femininity and masculinity once again.  First, Jenna learns that she will be playing Janice Joplin in an upcoming film and has vowed as an actress to "become the role".  One of the shows writers suggests to Jenna that she should use Wikipedia as one of her sources to find out just how Janice Joplin would act.  Jenna feels this is a great idea, meanwhile Frank changes the information on Wikipedia to say crazy things about Joplin.  Being the woman that Jenna is, she does exactly what Wikipedia tells her to do to become Janice Joplin, inevitably making a fool of herself.  I believe that 30 Rock is showing feminism by using Jenna as the stereotypical "dumb blonde".  Most people would believe that a woman, especially an actress, would do whatever she was told no matter how crazy it sounded.  Also I believe 30 Rock is showing masculinity by having Frank feel that whatever he says will be listened to by the woman, simply because she will not question.

Jon and Kate Plus Eight

This week I watched Jon and Kate Plus Eight, one of my favorite television shows, on The Learning Channel.  This episode consisted of a yard sale being held by the Gosselin family with the proceeds going to a pediatric cancer foundation.  When Jon and Kate arrive at the church to begin the yard sale they find that the tables they ordered have yet to come.  Kate starts to panic.  Then, they realize that there is another yard sale down the street that is slowing down the traffic to the church; Kate begins to panic even more.  Finally, Jon and Kate have a company make signs for the yard sale; only to receive them and learn that the word "proceeds" is spelled incorrectly.  For Kate, this is the last straw.  I believe that these scenes show feminism because of the way that Kate reacts to the situations.  Most females would have panicked and kept a pessimistic view of the situation; Kate does the same.  In another scene the sextuplets are playing on a jungle gym and Aiden tells Leah that one of the slides is too dangerous and tries to protect her.  I think that this shows masculinity because Aiden does what any boy should do, try to protect a girl.