How we portray women on television matters. TV plays a vital role in shaping cultural narratives and has crafted the cultural narrative surrounding women’s role in society for decades. Social media has further complicated this dynamic. Short-form
media platforms – mainly, TikTok and Instagram – provide an additional mode through which people filter what they see on TV. People engage in in-depth online discourse about TV shows, their characters, and themes. The accessibility of such discourse and interactions on social media further embeds these shows in peoples’ everyday lives. Now, not only are TV shows weekly episodic forms of entertainment, but they’re viral trends, memes, and video essays, bringing the characters that much
closer to reality.

However, just as media shapes culture, culture shapes media. In recent years, the U.S. has seen a rise in conservative values and policies. For instance, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization restricted women’s right to access reproductive healthcare for their bodies, and the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, has produced numerous reports on family planning and what constitutes the nuclear family. In many ways, the media has reflected this ideological trend, whether on social media or on television.

In this paper, I explore the connection between the recent “trad wife” trend on social media, the rise in prominence of the Sex and the City character Charlotte York, who embodies a romanticized, traditionally feminine and normatively conservative vision of gender roles, motherhood, and family, and American conservatism. I contend that the rising popularity of conservative-leaning female archetypes on television and social media, as exemplified by Charlotte York and the trad wife trend, indicates a larger cultural shift toward traditional gender roles. Though the portrayal of women with traditional values is not inherently problematic, it creates the risk of perpetuating harmful stereotypes about the role of women in society. To counteract this, I argue that the TV industry must continue to embrace complex female narratives, in part by addressing the continued decline of female showrunners. As a legal solution to this possible consequence, I propose a California state government funded scholarship program to encourage women to enter the television business.

Keep Reading Charlotte York, Trad Wives, and Female Showrunners in Television