Recently in class, we have been discussing women and how they are portrayed in the media. I applied the ideas to one of my favorite shows on NBC, "Heroes." The show centers around people who have special abilities, like levitation and teleportation, because of a certain genetic code they posses.
Many of the characters' powers relate to their personality and how the creators want them to be portrayed, especially for the women. Hayden Panettiere's character, Claire (middle). Her special ability is rapid cellular regeneration. This means when she is hurt, she cannot die or even have a scratch on her. She is shown as the innocent cheerleader. From one season to the next, her sexual image keeps increasing as well as the increase in amount of women throughout the show.
In Season 2, they added a new character Elle. She was played by Kristen Bell (left). She gave the opposing side a good looking girl of their own to rival Claire. They became enemies and competed in a the male fantasy of the ultimate cat fight.
Looking at the show in a different light made me think of what I was watching more carefully.
Speaking of "Heroes," someone else has done an analysis of how the show has gotten whiter over its several seasons: http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/11/30/the-whitening-of-heroes/. It's interesting how it started off as a much more diverse show, but over time the focus has moved towards the white characters, and eliminated many of the non-white characters.
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