88 | 29, pp. 75-95 | doxa.comunicación

July-December of 2019

Survival in the TV series “La que se avecina” of the stereotypes against women denounced by Simone de Beauvoir

ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978

On the other hand, there is an example of female empowerment in the role of the lawyer who shows her professionalism in the face of the characters who represent the machismo personified. However, in several scenes she appears in a situation of inequality in front of her neighbours when she appears in a robe and underwear revealing a bit of her boobs. In this scene, she is believed to have just come out of the shower, but she is wearing heels. With all the answers she offers to keep her neighbours at bay, she stays quiet at the neighbour’s sexist comment when she opens the door to them in a robe.

Chapter 8 also shows the stereotype 5, (submission to the man) when the woman of the xenophobic sexist abides by her husband’s orders when he asks her, with no manners, to bring the bread and napkins to the table. Her lack of diligence to serve him food is summed up by her husband when he tells her “you’re not there.” In this same scene a variant of stereotype 8 appears (erotic transcendence is to get used to preying on) by offering the husband sex in order to ensure that he will not go to the neighbour. Stereotype 4 (little self-esteem) appears when the father of the four children, now living as a homeless man, meets another homeless man who tries to give him a blow job within a minute of knowing him “just because he fancied him”.

The psychologist, trying to hook up with a young man who also has a young daughter like her and whose wife lives outside, says, “I miss a man by my side because I need to keep feeling like a woman”, a sentence that highlights stereotypes 1 and 2 (inability to be self-sufficient and little self-esteem, respectively).

In chapter 9, stereotypes do not explicitly appear except in the attitude of the father of four who decides to demonstrate his supposed “superiority” (stereotype 2), by going to a nightclub to flirt. There he despises and insults women who are not fit or pretty. One of the neighbours tries to make fun of the psychologist’s work by referring to her as a “man eater”. 4,996.000 viewers saw the start of the ninth season and this represents a public share of 27.2%, “the second best share in its history, only surpassed by the share of chapter 1” (28.8% and 4,161,000)”.

Chapter 1 of the tenth season begins with the embodiment of stereotypes 5 and 8 (feeling of inferiority when considering men to be better than women and erotic transcendence in getting used to become a prisoner) as one of the protagonists, young and very beautiful, even though she has no idea of it, is working as an Iberian ham cutter because she is “sleeping with the boss”.

On the other hand, a comment from the dressmaker who has the workshop in her flat openly tells her neighbour’s husband who she wants to take part in the catwalk presenting her collection that “they are useless and do nothing but disturb”. Another stereotype is the 1 (inability to be self-sufficient), when the son of the “peculiar” older woman who makes life impossible for neighbours, decides on his mother’s situation and is going to determine if she needs a carer or if he puts her in a nursing home, despite his mother being healthy. This chapter topped up the audience for all Spanish TV networks and also got the golden minute with 4,496,000 viewers with a 29.2% share.

In this chapter analysis, stereotypes 1, 2, 4 and 6 (Inability to be self-sufficient, feeling of inferiority when considering men to be better than women, little self-esteem, to be feminine is to be impotent, futile, passive and docile.) show in two female characters, in the woman who plays the role of the “saint”, wife of the fish wholesaler and in the housekeeper. Stereotype 3 (only men can be successful) is reflected in the character of the shop assistant and the mother of four.