1990 Sitcom

Unlike the previous two weeks, this week will be mostly focused on one sitcom that took place through out all of the 1990s. Full House is a sitcom that aired in the late 80s and ended in the late 90s. This show is a perfect example of a sitcom that is close to completely evening out gender roles. The show tells the story of a widower who has to raise three daughters after the death of his wife and enlists the help of his brother-in-law and a close family friend, both of which are males and have little family experience, to help him.  The show takes you through the lives of every member of the family living in one house in San Francisco. One of the main characters Jesse Katsopolis, played by John Stamos, has the mindset of some earlier beliefs we’ve seen in sitcoms, believing that men do the work and women raise the family and do the house work. As the show progresses, however, we see a significant change in his character. He soon realizes that being a parent to these three girls is what’s most important and that stereotypical gender roles shouldn’t be taken into consideration. We can also see this in his character in later seasons when he has children of his own. He tries to argue that his sons shouldn’t play with a doll one of his nieces gave them but his wife shows him that boys can play with dolls just like girls can play with trucks. Not only do we see a progression of gender roles in the adults of the sitcom but we also see them being influenced on the younger generation of children. In another episode the youngest of the three daughters is told by a classmate that she can’t race in a downhill derby because she’s a girl. Later in the episode they explain to her that girls can do whatever boys can do and vice versa. This is a perfect example of gender roles being equaled out and shown through television. The three men that volunteer to raise these three girls show that men can be just as loving and caring and supportive as mothers can and have the ability to raise girls just as well.