Gender on Bulgarian Television

Abstract

Gender ideologies were essential elements of the socialist project and provided important mechanisms to support the ideal of women's emancipation and equality between the sexes. Television content was seen as a critical tool to promote the new social order and was strategically used for its educational and cultural potential to mobilize and propagate an image of the woman as a producer of goods and reproducer of the labor force. In the West, TV has also been shown to support gender stereotypes aligned with the social expectations of men and women in a given period. A historical overview of the gender stereotypes on Bulgarian television during socialism and in the postsocialist transition illustrates that while portrayals of women in the early days of socialism focused on the “tough girl” female heroine who successfully manages the double burden of motherhood and work, as socialism began to falter, the image of the TV woman began to change, although never directly challenging the ideology of gender equality. Analysis of current Bulgarian female TV characters demonstrates that in the postsocialist period, a new heroine has emerged, stripped of socialist consciousness and fully immersed in the realities of the market, using her sexuality as a currency and actively retrenching from public life and political participation.

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“…The media have the power to shape a new culture and perspective in society. People who are submissive and passive to the information presented by the media will perceive stereotypes as something common that does not deviate (Buriro and Syed, 2020;Ibroscheva and Stover 2020;Rasool 2020;Wahid, Muhammad, and Burfat, n.d.). In Foucault's framework, power is important because it determines and constructs the existence of subjectively created realities for the interests and purposes of domination or dominating power (Allen 2000;McHoul and Grace 1993;McLaren 2002).…”

“…Television content is seen as an essential tool for promoting the new social order and is strategically used for its educational and cultural potential to mobilize and spread the image of women as producers of goods and a reproduction of the workforce. In the West, TV has also been shown to support gender stereotypes that align with the social expectations of men and women in specific periods (Ibroscheva and Stover, 2020).…”