15. The film and television presentation of female emotional disorders and its sociological analysis

Abstract Background Female emotional disorders are both a mental health issue and a socio-cultural symptom. As a carrier of popular culture, film and television have a profound impact on public cognition, but their presentation often oscillates between objectivity and exaggeration, debunking and stereotyping, and solidifying prejudice. Therefore, analyzing the gender norms and power relations behind its audiovisual presentation has important academic and practical significance. Methods The study adopts a multi-method design that combines qualitative and quantitative methods. By purposive sampling, 30 film and television works with female emotional disorders as the core from 2010 to 2023 were selected as samples. Firstly, conduct a detailed reading and narrative analysis of the text, deconstructing character settings, symptom presentation, and disease attribution. Subsequently, a coding manual was established to systematically code dimensions such as barrier types, social attribution, and stigmatization tendencies. Finally, quantitative statistics were conducted using SPSS software for frequency analysis and chi-square test to reveal the distribution patterns and correlations between different narrative elements. Results The experiment quantified the specific patterns and significant deviations in the visual representation of female emotional disorders, and the test results are shown in Table 1. As shown in Table 1, there is a significant deviation and pattern tendency in the presentation of female emotional disorders in film and television. Depression has the highest frequency of presentation (43.3%), followed by PTSD (26.7%). Only 36.7% of works attribute obstacles to systemic gender pressure. The narrative ending is highly inclined towards "individualized resolution": 63.3% of works set "complete healing" or "romantic redemption" endings, and only 16.7% accept long-term coexistence. The chi-square test showed that the type of disorder was significantly correlated with social attribution (χ2 = 8.92, p<.05), and PTSD was more likely to be associated with structural factors, but the overall narrative was still dominated by individualized rescue plans. Discussion Research has confirmed that there is a contradiction in the presentation of film and television: although attention has increased, storytelling is still constrained by traditional concepts, which may lead to the neglect of social structural factors and reinforce stereotypes about patients. Future creation needs to seek a more balanced narrative between individual experience and social criticism.