Role portrayals of men and women in print ads

The study examines role portrayals of men and women in Indian magazine ads. Fourteen hundred ads of 2006–2007 were collected from men’s, women’s, and general interest magazines and were content-analyzed. Results reveal that women in Indian magazine ads are primarily portrayed in traditional roles such as concerned with physical attractiveness, housewives and sex objects. Contrarily, men are portrayed in sex appeal, authority figures, career-oriented, and outdoor roles. Men and women are also portrayed in egalitarian roles. While in most product categories, men are portrayed as sexually appealing, authority figures, in activities outside home, and as career-oriented, women are depicted as concerned with physical attractiveness, as housewives, and sex objects. Some product categories also depict women in egalitarian roles and as outdoor and adventurous. Men’s magazines portray men and women in highly traditional roles. Contrarily, women’s and general interest magazines portray women in more modern roles. Findings support an incremental change in contemporary role portrayals compared to past.     

Sex-role messages vis-à-vis microcomputer use: A look at the pictures

This study explored the pictoral representation of men, women, boys, and girls in popular computer magazines through content analysis. Issues of three mass market computer magazines (total pages =2,637) were analyzed to determine numbers of men, women, boys, and girls illustrated; roles in which they were portrayed; and whether they were shown using the computer actively, standing by while others used the computer, or rejecting the computer. Many stereotypic portrayals were found: Men appeared in illustrations almost twice as often as women; women were overrepresented as clerical workers and sex objects, while men were overrepresented as managers, experts, and repair technicians. Women were shown significantly more often in a passive role vis-à-vis computers. In mixed-sex illustrations, men were most often shown in the position of authority. Only women were shown rejecting the computer or portrayed as sex objects. Also included are observations regarding the effects of stereotypic portrayals on women/girls and suggestions for further research.     

Cognitive accessibility of sex role concepts and attitudes toward political participation: The impact of sexist advertisements

Women who were exposed to advertisements that portrayed women in their traditional role as homemakers reported less favorable attitudes toward political participation than women who were not exposed to advertisements. Exposure to portrayals of women as sex objects, on the other hand, did not affect women's attitudes. In contrast, men reported less favorable attitudes toward political participation after exposure to advertisements that portrayed women as sex objects, but were not affected by portrayals of women as homemakers. Implications for the influence of sex roles on political participation and the impact of sexist advertisements are discussed.     

Men and Women in Indian Magazine Advertisements: A Preliminary Report

Studies from developed nations indicate that women are generally portrayed in advertisements as homemakers, dependent on men, and sex objects while men are portrayed as dominant, authoritative figures. However, very few researchers have examined role portrayals in ads from developing countries. This study examined the portrayal of women and men in Indian magazine ads. Over 1,100 magazine ads from a wide range of magazines in 1987, 1990, and 1994 were examined. Results indicate that although the portrayals of women and men in Indian magazine ads have changed over the period, they are still portrayed in stereotypical ways. Role portrayals in Indian magazine ads seem to be influenced by the nature of the product being advertised. Similarities and differences between role portrayals in Indian magazine ads and those from other nations are also discussed.

     

The role of the mass media in promoting a thin standard of bodily attractiveness for women

Eating disorders appear to be more common among women than among men and more common now than they were in the past. Recent speculation has focused upon the role played by an unrealistically thin standard of bodily attractiveness for women in the promotion of these disorders. To demonstrate that this standard does play such a role, and to implicate the mass media in the promotion of this standard, it is first necessary to demonstrate that the current standard of attractiveness for women portrayed in the media is slimmer than that for men, that the portrayed standard is slimmer now than it has been in the past, and that these findings apply to many of the major media. The four studies presented here demonstrate that the current standard of attractiveness portrayed on television and in magazines is slimmer for women than for men and that the recent standard for women portrayed in magazines and in movies is slimmer than it was in the past.     

Am I the Right Candidate? Self-Ascribed Fit of Women and Men to a Leadership Position

Women are assumed to show a self-ascribed lack-of-fit to leadership positions compared to men (Heilman Research in Organizational Behavior 5:269–298, 1983). The present study examined whether this gender difference would diminish when agency is accounted for and whether a stimulus person’s gender would alter women’s self-ascribed fit. German management students (91 women, 95 men) received a fictitious recruitment advertisement for a leadership position that portrayed a man, a woman, or both a man and a woman. Participants indicated their perceptions of agency and suitability to the advertised position. As predicted, women judged themselves as less suitable for the leadership position than men and participants’ self-reported agency mediated this effect. Furthermore, all participants felt most suitable if a male and a female stimulus person were portrayed.     

The Portrayal of Men's Family Roles in Television Commercials

This study examines the portrayal of men infamily roles, as fathers and husbands, on televisioncommercials. A content analysis of commercials airedduring football, daytime, and prime time is carried out. The sample size of characters is 944, mostof whom are middle-class, non-Hispanic whites. Men withchildren but no spouse are more likely to be shownduring football than are women with children but no spouse. Advertisements for computers andelectronics are more likely to include men with childrenbut no spouse than women with children but no spouse.Men appearing alone with children are more likely to be shown outside than women alone withchildren. Men are less likely to be portrayed cooking,cleaning, washing dishes, and shopping than women. Menwithout spouses are more likely to be shown with boys and less likely to be shown with infants thanwomen without spouses. Men are infrequently shown takingcare of a child and are never shown caring for girls.However, men are often shown teaching, reading, talking, eating, and playing with children. Tothe extent that men are shown as more involved in familylife, they still tend to depend largely on knowledge andactivities that are stereotypically male.     

Pressures and pretense: Living with gender stereotypes

This study examines how people live with two gender stereotypes: (1) masculine/active and feminine/passive roles; and (2) masculine/emotional inexpressiveness and feminine/emotional expressiveness. Given the contrast between traditional gender stereotypes and the emergent feminist perspective, we expected that both men and women would experience pressures both to conform to and to deviate from the traditional stereotypes, although the pressures would be greater for women. A study of active/passive roles and specific emotions, with a sample of 141 men and women, revealed that both sexes felt such contradictory pressures, and that they actually were greater for women. Moreover, pressures were magnified in cross-sex interaction. Pretense was one way people consciously monitor feelings and manage interactions. A number of paradoxes emerged. The most dramatic is that both men and women experienced each other as demanding stereotypical behavior, yet both claimed self-motivation for change.The author thanks Lucile Duberman for her incisive suggestions, Nancy Leff for her valuable editorial assistance, and Anne Marie Fodera and Laura Mestress for their competent work as research assistants.     

“Master your Johnson”: Sexual rhetoric in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Maxim</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Stuff</Emphasis> magazines

This article reports the results of a content analysis of sexual rhetoric in editorial photographs (N=994) in 2001 issues of Maxim and Stuff magazines. Goffman’s (1979) classifications of gender in advertisements were used to examine how this new generation of “lad” magazines uses images to provide readers with cues about sexuality and sexual practice. The findings reveal that both magazines construct sexuality in similar ways. However, as expected, the overall message about sexuality in the photos is different for men than for women. Women are more likely than men to be portrayed as sex objects, such as the common practice of photographing them in contorting or demeaning positions. Both magazines also depict white people as sexier than other races and assume heterosexuality.     

The effect of television day part on gender portrayals in television commercials: A content analysis

Gender portrayals in 2,209 network television commercials were content analyzed. To compare differences between three day parts, the sample was chosen from three time periods: daytime, when the audience is mostly women; evening prime time, when the sex of the audience is more evenly distributed; and weekend afternoon sportscasts, when men are a large percentage of the audience. The results indicate large and consistent differences in the way men and women are portrayed in these three day parts, with almost all comparisons reaching significance at the .05 level. Although ads in all day parts tended to portray men in stereotypical roles of authority and dominance, those on weekends tended to emphasize escape from home and family. The findings of earlier studies which did not consider day part differences may now have to be reevaluated.     

The Construction of Masculinity: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Men’s Lifestyle Magazine Advertisements

The increasing global popularity of men’s lifestyle magazines offers a unique opportunity to study how advertising constructs masculinity across cultures. This study conducted a content analysis of 636 ads from the three most popular men’s lifestyle magazines in Taiwan, China, and the United States to examine the representations of masculinity in their advertisements between 2008 and 2010. The objectives were to determine how masculinities are currently portrayed in terms of types and roles. The study found that the magazines from all three countries typically portrayed men as refined and sophisticated. The defining characteristic of global hegemonic masculinity is commodity consumption, with a particular emphasis on a trendy and refined appearance. We found no significant cross-cultural differences in the types of masculinity, namely, “Vigorous and Macho”, “Refined and Sophisticated”, and “Trendy and Cool”. The traditional preference for “Refined and Sophisticated” in Chinese and Taiwanese ads and a preference for “Vigorous and Macho” in the U.S. ads have largely disappeared. Instead, the global consumption market and its associated consumer culture are the primary determinants regarding representations of masculinity in men’s lifestyle magazine ads. This global culture may underlie the lack of differences found.     

Sex vs. status in sex-associated stereotypes

The trait content of sex stereotypes can be created by social role status alone, without reference to sex. In contemporary culture sex and role status are confounded: Authority roles are played by men; women occupy subordinate positions. TV commercials encode the unequal status as tacit assumptions in brief scenarios. Videotaped reenactments of three such commercials served as stimuli. One reenactment of each duplicated the original network versions. In a second reenactment of the same commercials, the male and female actors switched roles. Subjects (n=128 men and women) viewed the commercials and made personality attributions to each character on five sex-stereotypic dimensions, e.g., “dominant—submissive.” Stereotypic trait patterns commonly attributed to sex were determined more by the actor's implicit role status in the portrayed relationship than by the actor's sex. Showing women in high-status roles with the social support of coparticipants may be a means of breaking the stereotypes.     

Lonelier, lazier, and teased: the stigmatizing effect of body size

The authors conducted 2 studies to examine the stigmatization of the female and male body using photographic stimuli of real people. In the first study, 75 female and 55 male undergraduates rated a series of 50 photographs of women ranging in body mass index (BMI) on 3 items: gets teased, lonely, and lazy. Both male and female observers rated bodies on either side of BMI 19-20 kg/m2 higher for the gets teased and lonely items. For the lazy item, there was a clear pattern of greater stigmatization with increasing BMI. In the second study, 40 male and 40 female observers rated a series of photographs of the male body that varied in BMI and waist-to-chest ratio on the same items. Results showed that men and women judged overweight and more tubular men to be lazier, lonelier, and teased. These findings suggest that body size is an important characteristic to consider when examining body stigmatization among men and women. These results also show support for the beautiful-is-good bias.     

Gender and Race Portrayals on Spanish-Language Television

318 randomly selected television ads from India (from 2004) in three different languages (English, Hindi, and Tamil) were content analyzed to examine both the frequency of appearance and prevalence of gender stereotypes. Results indicate that there are more male than female central characters and voiceovers in Indian ads; stereotypical differences were also found in the type of credibility used by men and women, and the nature of the products they advertised and settings that males and females appeared in. Female central characters tended to be younger than their male counterparts and were more likely to be portrayed in relationship roles. Similarities and differences in gender role portrayals found in Indian television ads and those from other nations are also discussed.     

An exploratory study of early childhood teachers’ attitudes toward gender roles

This study explored the relationship between early childhood teachers’ adult gender role beliefs and their attitudes about children’s gender role behavior. The teachers, most of whom were women, expressed nontraditional beliefs regarding gender roles for adults. This feminist orientation appeared to be related to perceptions about child rearing in that teachers who espoused nontraditional gender role beliefs for adults also did for children. In addition, it was found that teachers were more accepting of cross-gender role behaviors and aspirations from girls than boys, and that this difference was related to homophobia. There were strong relationships found between child rearing gender role beliefs and attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. This study is based on a doctoral dissertation completed by the first author under the direction of Nancy Barbour and Beth Swadener. We wish to thank them for their support, comments, and suggestions.     

Does Thor ask Iron Man for Help? Examining Help-Seeking Behaviors in Marvel Superheroes

Men seek help for problems less often and more hesitantly than women across a wide range of contexts. While there are many potential sources for this gender discrepancy, one possibility is that masculine attitudes and behaviors discourage help-seeking behaviors and create help-seeking barriers. As the superhero genre often changes over time to reflect current social attitudes, the current study explores patterns, contexts, and rewards of help-seeking behaviors portrayed by men in a genre of media frequently consumed by men: superhero films. Twenty-three Marvel Cinematic Universe films were coded for superhero men’s help-seeking behaviors, as well as patterns in context and outcomes around help seeking. Overall, we found that superhero men displayed the help-seeking behaviors of approaching problems and collaboration with others most often, followed by the maladaptive coping strategy violence. In addition, help-seeking behaviors were most often displayed when the superhero was acting in his personal/self, capacity and superhero men were most often confronted with physical problems. Furthermore, we found that most of the help-seeking behaviors coded were rewarded only about half of the time. Finally, we found several differences in patterns of help-seeking displayed by various specific heroes. Other patterns and implications are discussed.

     

Gender at Work and at Home in Britain: Continuities and Changes

This paper discusses the views that British men and women hold about gender roles. Drawing on a survey with over 4,000 university students and interviews with professional men and women, it is suggested that, while the majority of both genders are moving toward an egalitarian model of gender roles, men's views are more likely than women's to be constrained by an essentialist mode] of gender. The data presented indicate that men were more likely than were women to endorse traditional gender roles, to regard women as better equipped for child care than men, to believe that women's advances necessarily disadvantage men, and to believe that men's work opportunities have worsened in comparison to women's. Drawing on both the interviews and the survey, it is also argued that beliefs about gender roles tend to be mediated by individualist discourses, which exempt exceptional individuals from normative gender roles.     

The effects of television on children's stereotyping of women's work roles

Sixty-seven elementary school students, ages 5 through 10 years, from three ethnic groups were systematically exposed, over a 1-month period, to specially produced television commercials. One treatment group viewed prevideotaped cartoons interspersed with commercials of women in “traditional” roles, while a second group viewed the same cartoons but with commercials which portrayed women in traditionally male or “reversed” roles. Children were measured on pre-and post-tests on (1) their occupational knowledge, (2) the extent to which they stereotyped occupations, and (3) their own preferences for traditionally male and female jobs. Results indicate that children do learn about occupations from television content, that they also learn to stereotype or nonstereotype various occupations based on the sex of the TV model, and, finally, that girls will change their preferences for various occupations based on the particular roles they view women portrayed in.     

CHANGES IN THE FACIAL PROMINENCE OF WOMEN AND MEN OVER THE LAST DECADE

Two studies measured the facial prominence of women and men in popular images over the last decade. The first study used 1,200 photo-graphs from Time and Newsweek for the years 1970 and 1980. The results indicate that overall, men have received greater facial prominence than women, and facial prominence has increased over the decade. Only for Newsweek did women show a significantly greater increase in facial prominence than men. The second study used 640 photographs from Good Housekeeping and Ms. for the years 1974 and 1984. The results show that overall, men have received greater facial prominence than women, and facial prominence has risen over the decade, although not by much. In Ms. , women but not men gained; in Good Housekeeping , women gained slightly, but not as much as men. The results are consistent with earlier reports of an asymmetry in representation of men's and women's faces and suggest that this asymmetry is slowly diminishing.     

Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Media: Where Are We Now and Where Should We Go?

This paper provides a commentary regarding the quantitative content analyses of gender roles in media published in the two special issues of Sex Roles (Rudy et al. 2010a, 2011). A few themes and some overarching lessons emerge from the wide variety of data presented. First, it is clear that women are under-represented across a range of media and settings. Second, when women are portrayed, it is often in a circumscribed and negative manner. Women are often sexualized??typically by showing them in scanty or provocative clothing. Women are also subordinated in various ways, as indicated by their facial expressions, body positions, and other factors. Finally, they are shown in traditionally feminine (i.e., stereotyped) roles. Women are portrayed as nonprofessionals, homemakers, wives or parents, and sexual gatekeepers. Although the studies generally support these conclusions, some interesting moderating factors are identified, such as race. It is suggested that next steps involve the development of theory and a body of empirical evidence regarding the effects of exposure to under-representation of women. Data concerning the effects of exposure to sexualized or stereotypical portrayals on young audiences is also lacking. Finally, content analyses of new media, including those created and distributed by users, are recommended as a next step. It is concluded that, while increasing the representation of women in media may be valuable, it is also critical that the manner in which they are portrayed be simultaneously considered to avoid increasing negative or stereotypical depictions that may be particularly harmful to viewers.