For my historical analysis, I chose the I Love Lucy show franchise. This show, starring Lucile Ball, premiered in 1951 and had several successful years, ending in 1957. The show's premise is that Lucile Ball’s character, Lucy, a domesticated, stereotypical 1950s housewife, wants to become a star and gets into quirky predicaments as she pursues that dream. (IMDb) I Love Lucy was extremely popular, with it ranking as “the most popular show in America for four of its six prime-time seasons.” (Britannica) However, today, I Love Lucy is criticized for its harmful stereotypes of gender and race. In this literary critique of the sitcom, I will examine the good and the bad that the show did for the country during a time of outwardly racist and misogynistic cultural norms.

To begin, I will examine the show’s portrayal of race. One of Ball’s costars, Desi Arnaz, plays Ricky Ricardo, Lucy’s Cuban nightclub owner husband. Although the show was rightfully praised for being the first sitcom to portray a mixed-race marriage on television, it is not exempt from the dangerous racial stereotypes that were the norm at the time. Ricky, represented as a “male buffoon” with a “hot temper,” was the complete opposite of a stereotypical white male and, therefore, a common Latino stereotype. His constant screaming outbursts and broken English were the comedic relief of the episodes but were also reinforcements of racist stereotypes toward Latino men. (“Is Ricky Ricardo Simply a Stereotype”)

Furthermore, Ricky’s position as a singer at a nightclub was a unique occupation for a sitcom star. Because Ricky is Latino, he seems to have “extra passion and flavor,” making it plausible for him to hold this position. Although Ricky’s animated character made the show unique from the other shows at the time (which portrayed the husband as “loving and understanding”), it also made the show's messaging incredibly harmful. (“Is Ricky Ricardo Simply a Stereotype?”)

When asked about the portrayal of race in I Love Lucy, my grandmother, Sheri Hicks, born in 1958, said she “didn’t even notice a problem” until she recently went back and watched the show. Although she was just a child when the show aired, its legacy continued for generations after it ended in 1957. She remembers her father “cracking her [and her brother] up” by doing a “spot-on” impression of Arazz’s character. 

Although the show's racist tendencies were a problem, the root of the stereotypical reinforcements was its portrayal of women. Because “the roots of comedy are gender prejudicial,” women are often not seen as actual players to be taken seriously in comedy. Lucille Ball, along with a few other women in comedy during the time, used the emergence of situational comedies in television to her advantage and became a well-known comedian through the medium. Instead of submitting to the restrictions comedian culture had placed on her as a woman, Ball used them to her advantage on the show. Moreover, “Ball frequently tried to deemphasize the sexual aspects of her slapstick performances as Lucy by having Lucy make herself up as an ugly hag, usually with a fright wig and a few blackened-out teeth to distract from the otherwise fetishized hair and mouth.” (Knoll) 

My grandmother looks back on Ball’s most influential moments with admiration. She remembers that “every little girl wanted to be her.” As a side anecdote, she remembers when she begged her mother to let her dye her hair at around nine years old. She now thanks her mother for not allowing that “catastrophe” to occur. Although my grandmother now realizes the problematic interpretations layered within the show’s depiction of women, she says that during the time, she felt empowered by Ball’s stardom and her understanding of Lucy in the show. “When I was a kid, my mom and everyone else around me expected me and my friends to become perfect little wives,” she remembers, followed by an eye-roll. “But Lucy was loud and crazy. It made me want to be heard.” 

The show’s display of and, in turn, reinforcement of both racial and gender stereotypes can be linked back to a few concepts discussed in class. One concept that the I Love Lucy franchise has contributed to is the Cultivation Analysis Theory. The show portrayed the “normal” way of life for the time, the women stay at home and cook and clean while the man goes to work and “provides for his family.” Because of this portrayal, people who were fans of the show would be more likely to believe that this display of gender roles is how everyone around them acts, and, to lean into the Social Learning Theory, is how they should act. 

To conclude, I Love Lucy, but she and her show were filled with harmful stereotypes that both reflected and influenced the societal norms during the time. The show made groundbreaking advances representation in comedy by featuring the first display of pregnancy and the first mixed race couple in a TV show. However, these influential steps cannot overshadow the destructive schemas reinforced within the plotlines of the show.







Works Cited (MLA)

“I Love Lucy.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 15 Oct. 1951, www.imdb.com/title/tt0043208/.... Love Lucy.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 17 Aug. 2023, www.britannica.com/topic/I-Love-Lucy. 

Unknown. “Is Ricky Ricardo Simply a Stereotype?” Discrimination and Stereotypes, University of Michigan, websites.umich.edu/~ac213/student_projects06/student_projects/da/Discrimination.html. Accessed 23 Sept. 2023. 

Knoll, Brianna. “I Love Lucy Gender Analysis and Its ... - Dominican Scholar.” Dominican University, 23 Apr. 2020, scholar.dominican.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1113&context=scw. 

I Love Lucy Sample:

“The 5 Funniest Moments form I Love Lucy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR-xUWQWTEI 

I Love Lucy on Amazon Prime:

https://www.amazon.com/I-Love-Lucy-Season-1/dp/B000I0F82W

Ryann Armstrong

Asha Doddy

Nolan Wilkinson

Introduction

The Mercury is the University of Texas at Dallas’s student publication. It began publishing monthly newspapers in 1980, making up a fourth of UT Dallas’ student media. The publication has received many awards throughout its run, including being nationally recognized as the “best collegiate newspaper in the US'' in 2021 by the College Media Association awards program. We chose to do our content analysis on The Mercury because of its proximity and its reporters being close to our age. Our weeklong analysis was of The Mercury's paper published in October 2023. The following analysis examines how the articles in The Mercury address race and gender to their diverse audience. To understand the context of the publication’s portrayal of these topics, we must first understand the audience at UT Dallas. 

Breakdown of the University of Texas at Dallas Students

UT Dallas had 31,570 students enrolled in its undergraduate and graduate programs as of fall 2022. Its undergraduate enrollment is primarily male, with 57% identifying as male and 43% identifying as female. The majority of the students are Asian and white, with those two ethnicities making up 54% of the total population. Furthermore, 22% are international students. Also, students' ages mostly fall between 20 and 29 years. Finally, the top two most popular majors at UT Dallas are computer science and data analytics. With this information to understand the audience in mind, we discovered The Mercury to be effectively writing for its audience. However, we also found some possible improvements to be made. 

The Analysis:

Opinion

The first piece featured in the publication is an opinion piece archive written in 2000. The article discusses the conflict in Palestine and aligns almost perfectly with the conflict happening now. This theme continues in the publication by featuring a current opinion piece about the conflict. However, this author criticizes UT Dallas's response to the situation instead of explaining the conflict with a sarcastic tone like the first one. One thing to note about both pieces is the authors' depiction of their opinions. Both writers clearly illustrate their views on the war without ignorance of its impact or using offensive remarks. This depiction is especially noteworthy due to the highly controversial subject matter. 

News

The Mercury ran two articles in its news section pertaining to the campus reaction to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Both publications concerned student reactions to a statement of UTD President Richard Benson. Considering that 32% of students identify as Asian-American, there is a high proportion of students who are more likely to have some tie to the conflict, whether it be religious, familial, or cultural. The first article featured two writers who identify as women, the editor-in-chief Fatimah Azeem and copyeditor Maria Shaikh.  Sources for this article included people with direct familial ties to the conflict in Palestine. The second article concerning Palestine was written by Jack Sierputowski, the news editor, who identifies as a man. It included the words of several student government members, who seemed diverse in background and gender. 

Diversity in sources and writers is a  common trend throughout the news section of The Mercury. There are relevant sources to just about every story in the issue. Sources are a seemingly diverse mix of students and faculty with gender and ethnicities mostly well represented. There is one noticeable exception, however: the article “Sex offenders on campus: what do students need to know,” all of the sources are men. The story could use a woman’s perspective in some fashion, especially considering the majority of sexual offenses happen to women.

Life and Arts 

        The life and arts portion of the newspaper focused mainly on Halloween, as it was published just one day before, but also included articles on music. One of these articles, titled “Feminine Rage and Femme Fatales,” focused on female villain protagonists in Horror Films and was written by Jack Sierputowski, the news editor who identifies as a man, and Mia Nguyen, who identifies as a woman. The article features six movies in the horror category, five of which have leading white actresses as the main characters, and the remaining actress is of mixed race (black and white).  Three articles ran about different musicians, including Taylor Swift, Claire Rosinkranz, and the band Cigarettes After Sex. The artists mentioned are white and Latino and identify as women or men.  These articles were written by Sofia Meinardus, Sai Ardra Trivedi, and Sarosh Ismail, who all identify as women.  

    The life and arts portion of The Mercury seems diverse in both content and its writers' ethnic backgrounds. The featured stories emphasized female characters in film, musicians in different genres, and an article on a Latin American art exhibition with various artist mediums. 

Summary of Findings

To conclude, the Mercury features diverse topics and the writers are ethnically diverse as well. The staff seems to be mostly women, and the articles represented that majority. The staff are up to date with current events and they do a great job showcasing that in the news section. One thing we noted is that male stories seem to be disproportionate to the male demographic at UTD, however we think the paper works well with their demographic of readers. Overall, The Mercury was an enjoyable read that can be interesting for all. 

References

https://archive.org/details/the-mercury-10-30-23/page/n1/mode/2up 

https://utdmercury.com/student-media-a-brief-history/ 

https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/the-university-of-texas-at-dallas/student-life/diversity/