Scandal Gender Roles

After binge watching all the seasons of Scandal, I have put thought into how gender roles and gender stereotypes are depicted. At first, I thought very positively about the show because it has an African American female protagonist (ABC Television Network). The fact that she is a female is significant, but that she is African American is even more significant, since 76.3% of speaking characters in media generally are white (Wood 237). However, as soon I got over the excitement of the show having an African American, I noticed that there are stereotypical gender roles depicted in the show. The protagonist, Olivia Pope, is portrayed as an “Iron Maiden” (Wood 213). She is independent, directive, ambitious, tough, and she gets the work done better