Televisor Emerson

Gender roles

Gender identity

 

Gender and history

Like other forms of mass media in the second half of the 20th century, television was a tool used by the Franco dictatorship to shape public opinion and the way of life of its citizenry. Generally, television programming aimed for entertainment and banalization, but the stereotypification of gender roles pervaded its competitions, magazine programmes and series. And although they did so much less explicitly, sexualities and genders which were considered a crime until 1979 also slipped through.The gender stereotypes accepted by Catholic and Francoist morality, the ideal of a man and the ideal of a woman, were clearly depicted in advertising, as in the case of the well-known commercial for Ruton vacuum cleaners, with its catchy tune ‘Salvada con Ruton’ (‘Saved by Ruton’). However, they also made an appearance on programmes such as the first reality show on Spanish television, Reina por un día (Queen for a Day), which satisfied the stereotypical dreams of comfort of Spanish women of the time. In contrast, homosexuality, bisexuality and genders outside the model of the traditional man and woman, completely unheard-of for the Franco regime, were reflected on television only through ambiguous situations and were left out of the main narrative.