Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 75

Race, Class and Gender on "The Cosby Show”

73

consider the role the character plays in our culture—what purpose
does Cliff Huxtable serve in our culture? I would like to conclude by
returning to Fiske and Hartley. What can "The Cosby Show" teach us
about contemporary social values in America? In the area of race, the
program indicates that dignity and respect for heritage and
community are the goals we esteem and strive to achieve. There are
issues that transcend race and unite people, and foremost among them
are the family and the values and affection which define it. In the
region of class, "The Cosby Show" is a blatant advertisement for
American consumerism and materialism, yet not for greed or
wastefulness. Money doesn't always have to corrupt, the series
implies; in fact, it can be used to express love for others and respect for
one's self. In issues of gender, the show encounters its most serious
criticism. Yes, the program is explicitly anti-sexist, but it implicitly
perpetuates some of the most powerful and trenchant stereotypes of
women and of the roles of men and women. We can only conclude that
while our society may appear to have achieved an equality of the
sexes, we are actually still enacting and prolonging gender prejudice
and stereotypes, often without realizing it ourselves.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Roxanna Pisiak

Works Cited
Cummings, Melbourne S. ’The Changing Image of the Black Family on
Television." Journal of Popular Culture 22 (Fall 1988), 75-85.
Downing, John D. H. 'The Cosby Show and American Racial Discourse."
Geneva Smitherman-Donaldson and Teun A. van Dijk, eds. Discourse
and Discrimination. Detroit MI: Wayne State UP, 1988. 46-73.
Ellison, Mary. 'The Manipulating Eye: Black Images in Non-Documentary
T.V." Journal of Popular Culture 18 (1985), 73-79.
Edmundson, Mark. "Father Still Knows Best." Channels 6 (June 1986), 71-2.
Fiske, John and John Hartley. Reading Television. NYC: Methuen, 1978.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. "TV's Black World Turns-But Stays Unreal." New
York Times (Nov. 12,1989), 11:1, 40.
Gray, Herman. 'Television and the new black man: black male images in
prime-time situation comedy." Media, Culture, and Society 8 (1986), 22342.
MacDonald, J. Fred. Blacks and White TV: Afro-Americans in TV Since
1948. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall, 1988.