"Sexism in Bob's Burgers"

Student Author(s): Emma Maddex, Chloe Deel, Carter Noell, Maddie Rogers   Faculty Mentor(s): Dr. Pei-Chun Tsai Forum Engagement Gender Studies Showcase   ~ 4:30 to 5:30 pm ~ Heth Lobby

"Our project aims to explore sexism in Bob’s Burgers, a popular animated Sitcom based around a family that owns a small burger restaurant. Sexism is a big problem today. It is even portrayed in popular television shows and movies.  Our group would like to address the issue and find out how sexism has evolved in the show from 2009 to the present. Our group project would review two episodes from the nine seasons of Bobs Burgers and count the amount of times we can see example of sexism per episode. This will give us an idea of whether sexism in the show has changed over time. Tully (2018) described directly about gender inequality throughout Bob’s Burgers. One character in particular, Tina, has a huge fan base and she is who we will mostly base our findings on. Tully believes Tina’s fan base consist of millennial since many millennials feel like they can relate to her as a character. Our group thinks Tina is helping to fight sexism and change the way women are perceived in TV shows and movies. Watson (1997) a general view of sexism in sitcoms, revealed the evolution in the past 50 years of shows. Our project will focus on exploring the past 9 years. In addition, Gywnne (2015) discussed how most females are portrayed as “house wives” and how unfair this is to women because women have done so much more for our society. Research shows how men and women, in sitcoms, are treated differently. In the first three seasons, in just the first and last episode there are over 30 accounts of something being said or acted out that can be classified as sexist."1  Keywords: Sitcom, Sexism, Gender Inequality

1 2019 Annual Student Engagement Forum   Gender Studies Showcase:.Pages 99-103

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