Title: Images of the Female Character in Nigerian Christian Television Drama Serial: Lekan Asikhia’s The Gatekeepers in Perspective

Solomon Adedokun Edebor

Department of Languages and Literary Studies

Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

All over the world, controversies regarding the perception and relevance of women in society remain unabated. Prior research on Nigerian literature has largely focused on women’s depictions in written and oral literature, as well as films with little attention paid to Christian television drama serials. This paper, therefore, examines the portrayals of the female character in Nigerian Christian television drama serials to categorise female stereotypes that arise from such representations, even as it interrogates whether such representation reinforces socially constructed feminine notions. The study is significant because it extends the frontiers of knowledge by contributing to the existing body of scholarship on soap operas worldwide. Besides, its usefulness in the portrayal of women in Nigerian Christian television soap operas may provide the stimulus needed by producers of this genre to (re)examine their positions on the portrait of the female character offered to the Nigerian audience. Gerbner’s cultivation theory, Bandura’s social learning theory, and Carroll’s feminist film criticism were used as the theoretical framework, while Lekan Asikhia’s The Gatekeepers was purposively selected owing to how women are portrayed in it. Data from the serial were subjected to content analysis using the descriptive approach. The drama serial differently depicts eight signifiers of stereotypes of women. The persistent stereotypes are those that depict women as the tolerant wife who bears her husband’s promiscuity and assault; the stay-at-home wife; the adulterous wife who engages in sexual immorality due to financial incentives/sexual gratification; the nasty stepmother that hurts her stepchildren and co-wives; the horrible and intrusive mother-in-law; the nonchalant mother whose actions are characterised by inconsiderateness and avarice; the femme fatale that brings calamitous events upon her victims; and the career woman with failed relationships or marriages. The paper concludes that the depictions of the female character in Nigerian Christian television plays are largely infused with a wide range of socio-cultural stereotypes. Thus, socially constructed feminine notions are reinforced by producers of Nigerian Christian television drama serials.

Keywords:

Christian television drama serial, empowerment, oppression, patriarchy, stereotype, The Gatekeepers, women

How to Cite this Paper:

Solomon, A. E. (2023). Images of the Female Character in Nigerian Christian Television Drama Serial: Lekan Asikhia’s The Gatekeepers in Perspective. Atras Journal, 4(1), 67-90

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