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Bailey Quarters
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== Cultural references and gender roles == Bailey Quarters is cited as an example of how 1970s' sitcoms reflected changing views of gender and women's roles in society and the workplace.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n95kAAAAMAAJ&q=%22bailey+quarters%22|title=Spangler, Lynn C.' ''Television Women from Lucy to Friends: Fifty Years of Sitcoms and Feminism'' |publisher=Praeger |year=2003 |page=140 |isbn=9780313287817 |last=Spangler |first=Lynn C }}</ref> One aspect of this is the expectation that women would be treated equally as men. The character of Bailey joined WKRP with a journalism degree and advanced from creating promotions to writing news copy to news broadcasting. This progression confirmed that hard work and talent would be rewarded, reinforced values of equality and diversity, and provided female viewers with reassurance of seeing a friendly, supportive workplace, and a character that struggled to be assertive and to overcome shyness, succeeding in gaining the respect of her coworkers.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s8ARc_7-NtUC&pg=PA220 |title=The Sitcom Reader: America Viewed and Skewed |publisher=SUNY Press |year=2005 |pages=220β221 |accessdate=2010-01-26|isbn=9780791482636 |last1=Dalton |first1=Mary M |last2=Linder |first2=Laura R }}</ref> Even insecure, shy and chauvinistic newsman Les learns to accept assistance in his job from a woman as he learns to respect Bailey's ability and also respect Bailey as a person.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oc1kAAAAMAAJ&q=%22bailey+quarters%22 |title=Watching TV-Four Decades of American Television |publisher=McGraw-Hill |page=291 |accessdate=2010-01-26|isbn=9780070102682 |last1=Castleman |first1=Harry |last2=Podrazik |first2=Walter J |date=January 1982 }}</ref> Bailey Quarters is contrasted not only with the other principal female character, receptionist Jennifer Marlowe, but also with the male characters. In contrast to Jennifer, Bailey seeks recognition in a "man's" field of journalism for her work in that field.<ref> {{cite web | url = http://thehathorlegacy.com/wkrp-bailey-quarters/ | title ='Baby, if you ever wondered..' WKRP: Bailey Quarters | date = April 4, 2005 | first = Jennifer | last = Kesler | publisher = The Hathor Legacy | accessdate = 2010-01-27 }}</ref> Jennifer and Bailey offer, in a blonde-brunette dyad typical of sitcoms of the era, contrasting portrayals of female sexuality from opposite ends of the spectrum. [[File:Jan Smithers as Bailey Quarters.png|thumb|Bailey Quarters (Jan Smithers)]] In Bailey, male viewers saw a real woman who they could possibly actually have met and developed a relationship with, while Jennifer Marlowe was an idealized woman who did not really exist in the common experience of most male viewers.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0B1y4YV5ji8C&pg=PA167 |last=Levine |first=Elana |title=Wallowing in Sex: The New Sexual Culture of 1970's American Television |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8223-3919-9 |page=167}}</ref> Bailey demonstrated that a woman could be smart and nerdy, but also exceptionally beautiful (Jan Smithers was a teen and fashion model in real life, including an iconic appearance on the cover of ''Newsweek'' in March 1966 representing the mid-60s, pre-hippie youth of America).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kenlevine.typepad.com/blog/2007/11/wkrp-in-cincinn.html |title=Newsweek| date=1966-03-21}} Jan Smithers appeared on the March 21, 1966 cover of Newsweek for Article ''The Teenagers:A Newsweek Survey Of What They're Really Like'', pictured with a young man on a motorcycle in jeans as the idealization of just before the hippie movement broke out mid-60s youth</ref> The methodology with which the contrasts, differences and values between the traditional female character traits of Jennifer Marlowe and the more modern, liberal, feminist character traits of Bailey Quarters were drawn and explored made ''WKRP in Cincinnati'' a uniquely insightful and interesting production, with the character of Bailey Quarters becoming an everywoman feminist icon of the 1970s, expressing a less radical, and more realistic, feminism that many women viewers of the program could relate to.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cm28udLiQlkC&pg=PA298 |title=Television Without Pity: 752 Things We Love to Hate (and Hate to Love) About TV |publisher=Quirk Books |page=298 |accessdate=2010-01-26|isbn=9781594741173 |last1=Ariano |first1=Tara |last2=Bunting |first2=Sarah D |year=2006 }}</ref> Bailey Quarters was one of the first media examples of the popular naming convention of use of a surname as a female first name. For men it was Charles Patrick "Ryan" O'Neal.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OKwvQUXcpM4C&pg=PA21 |title=The Last Word on First Names |publisher=Macmillan |year=1997 |page=21 |accessdate=2010-01-26|isbn=9780312961060 |last1=Rosenkrantz |first1=Linda |last2=Satran |first2=Pamela Redmond }}</ref>
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