Paper Title
Decoding Gender Representatio in Taiwanese Idol Drama
Abstract
In the past few decades, gender norms have gone through rapid changes. More and more women have entered the
workforce and challenged the traditional gender division of labor. In addition, the influence and prevlance of the mass media
has also greatly expanded in recent years. The media not only reflects social values but also creates meanings. As viewers,
people abosorb these values and meanings and internalize them. Since the mass media is such an important creator and
transmitor of meaning, we want to investigate how men and women were portrayed and what gender norms are created and
recreated. We chose a new genre in Taiwan, called the Taiwanese idol drama, which is expeically popular among girls and
women. We examined some popular idol dramas to analyze how femininity and masculinity were defined and what kind of
gender expectations were embedded in the scripts.
Keywords- idol drama, mass media, gender representation