Research investigation

How are female protagonists represented in niche television programs looking specifically at Lost Girl and Weeds?

Despite women making up 51% of the population they are not accurately represented as this is television. According to the 2012/13 'Boxed In Report' by Women in TV (1) and Film only 43% of speaking characters and 43% of all major characters in television are female, which shows the lack of balance in representation. However, I am going to investigate how female protagonists and male protagonists are represented differently focusing on the characters in Lost Girl and Weeds which both contain strong female roles. 

Sexualisation is much more of a common asset attributed to a female character as stated formerly by Laura Mulvey in her Male Gaze theory

Programs airing on the CW featured the highest percentage of female characters (51%), followed by Fox and ABC (44%), NBC (41%), and CBS (39%). The CW was the only network featuring female characters in accurate numerical proportion to their representation in the U.S. population. 



1. http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/2012-13_Boxed_In_Report.pdf


Females tend to be underrepresented in mainstream media today, however I am going to be investigating the extent that traditional roles of females are withheld in more niche television shows. Women in media are commonly represented in a household as the carer for their families and usually rely on a male character. Also, women can also have be sexualised which has been introduced by 

Both female protagonists are portrayed as strong independent characters in both television programs. The opening of Lost Girl (Series 1 Episode 1) shows the female protagonist Bo living alone on little income and still presenting her in a strong manner which we can see by the use of upward facing camera angles, showing her as the superior character whereas other cast members are looked down on. In Weeds, the lead female role of Nancy Botwin shows her from the start as the only source of income for her family and many other characters are shown to be dependent on her. Both these programs show women in a positive and dependable manner.