Reading Representations of Black, East Asian, and White Women in Magazines for Adolescent Girls

Beginning in the 1970s, there has been a growing body of literature on the depictions of women in advertisements. However, the intersection of race and gender in advertising has rarely been explored. This study was designed to compare how White, Black, and East Asian women were portrayed in advertisements found in fashion magazines directed at adolescent girls. A correlation was found between race and the type of product advertised. Black women were prominent in clothing advertisements, and East Asian women were prominent in advertisements for technology products. A correlation was also found between race and the importance of the model in the advertisement. The results of this study illustrate that older stereotypes may still exist (White beauty ideal, hypersexual Black women), and some new stereotypes are being formed (technologically savvy East Asians).     

The portrayal of women’s images in magazine advertisements: Goffman’s gender analysis revisited

The research objective of this paper was to study the specific behaviors mentioned above and determine what gender behavior patterns have been most prevalent in magazine advertisements in 1979 and 1991. In this research, comparisons were made regarding gender displays between the years of 1979 and 1991 with random samples of print advertisements. The basic and essential starting question of this research project is: What messages about women have been given to society through magazine advertisements? This study was intended to be a conceptual replication of Erving Gofian’s study of Gender Advertisements to see how gender images in print advertisements have changed since Goffman’s study. For this research, advertisements were analyzed the gender behavior portrayed, utilizing Goffman’s categories of decoding behavior: relative size, feminine touch, function ranking, ritualization of subordination, and licensed withdrawal. Body display and IndependencelSelf-assertiveness categories were added. Advertisements that featured human subjects were collected from 1979 and 1991 women’s popular magazines. The random sampling procedure resulted in 252 samples in 1979 magazine advertisements and 252 samples in 1991 counterparts. This research showed that few changes have been made in the images of women in magazine advertisements since Goffman’s 1979 study. The findings indicate that the images of women in 1991 advertisements did not significantly change from the images found in 1979 advertisements. However; distribution or dispersion of stereotypical portrayal of women did change. In the categories of licensed withdrawal and body display, the magazine advertisements from 1991 showed more stereotyping of women than those from 1979. Two of Goffman’s categories-Relative Size and Function Ranking-were not prevalent depictions in magazine advertisements.     

Bias at the intersection of race and gender: Evidence from preschool‐aged children

There is ample evidence of racial and gender bias in young children, but thus far this evidence comes almost exclusively from children's responses to a single social category (either race or gender). Yet we are each simultaneously members of many social categories (including our race and gender). Among adults, racial and gender biases intersect: negative racial biases are expressed more strongly against males than females. Here, we consider the developmental origin of bias at the intersection of race and gender. Relying on both implicit and explicit measures, we assessed 4‐year‐old children's responses to target images of children who varied systematically in both race (Black and White) and gender (male and female). Children revealed a strong and consistent pro‐White bias. This racial bias was expressed more strongly for males than females: children's responses to Black boys were less positive than to Black girls, White boys or White girls. This outcome, which constitutes the earliest evidence of bias at the intersection of race and gender, underscores the importance of addressing bias in the first years of life.     

Gaming magazines and the drive for muscularity in preadolescent boys: a longitudinal examination

The development of a drive for muscularity among boys has been linked to various cultural influences, one of which is exposure to mass media depicting the muscular male body ideal. We sought to determine whether self-reported exposure to four ideal-body magazine genres (health/fitness, fashion, sports, and gaming) predicted an increased drive for muscularity 1 year later. A sample of 104 Black and 77 White preadolescent boys (mean age 8.77) participated in a 2-wave longitudinal panel study. Controlling Wave 1 grade, perceived thinness/adiposity, and drive for muscularity, exposure to video gaming magazines predicted a significant increase in Wave 2 drive for muscularity, but only for White boys. Discussion calls for the inclusion of video gaming magazine exposure measures in future research on print media and male body ideals, along with empirical exploration of racial themes in gaming magazines.     

Images of Women’s Sexuality in Advertisements: A Content Analysis of Black- and White-Oriented Women’s and Men’s Magazines

This article represents an analysis of the sexual images of women in magazine advertisements. I examined advertisements in Black- and White-oriented, mens and womens magazines to compare the images of womens sexuality that are constructed for each specific audience. Over 600 images of women were analyzed based on seven dimensions, including function/role, relative function/authority, physical/body position, relative size/height, character traits, body view, and physical characteristics. The images of womens sexuality vary depending on the race of the intended audience and the race of the women in the advertisements. Advertisements for White audiences portray women in roles and with characteristics that suggest dependency and submissiveness, whereas advertisements for Black audiences portray women as independent and dominant. I also found that White women are objectified much more than Black women are.     

Gender Role Portrayals in American and Korean Advertisements

This article reports on an examination of gender role portrayals in American and Korean magazine advertisements that is based on the work of Erving Goffman (1979). Through a study of advertising images, we explored implied gender roles within and between cultures. Results of an analysis of a random sample of American advertisements are compared to results for comparable Korean magazines and to previous researchers' applications of Goffman's approach to American advertisements. Results indicate that sexism in American magazine advertisements has decreased but not disappeared. Evidence of sexism in Korean magazine advertisements was found as well. We also compared gender depictions in advertisements directed to magazine audiences of relatively different ages. Observations are made about differences in gender role portrayals in American advertisements over time, between cultures, and for different aged magazine readers.     

Magazine exposure,tanned women stereotypes,and tanning attitudes

This study investigated whether magazine exposure is related to stereotypical beliefs about tanned women. A survey of White college women (n = 205) assessed their exposure to beauty/fashion and health/fitness magazines. Outcome variables were the beliefs that tanned women are fashionable, fit, and shallow. Attention to the tanned women's images in health magazines positively predicted the belief that tanned women are fit and that tanned women are shallow; in contrast, attention to the images in beauty magazine negatively predicted the belief that tanned women are fit. Number of beauty magazines women read negatively predicted the belief that tanned women are shallow. The belief that tanned women are fit was unrelated, but the belief that tanned women are shallow was negatively related, with tanning attitudes.     

Boxing Helena and Corseting Eunice: Sexual Rhetoric in Cosmopolitan and Playboy Magazines

This paper analyzes the sexual rhetorics of Cosmopolitan and Playboy magazines to consider how sexuality is constructed in similar ways by sources directed to men and women. We use Goffman's classifications of gender in advertisements to compare how each magazine uses its pictures to provide cues to readers about sexuality and sexual relationships and to trace changes within each magazine over time. We conclude that both magazines converge on a single construction of sexuality for women. Playboy addresses men and Cosmopolitan addresses women, yet the visual rhetorics of both magazines reflect the male gaze and promote the idea that women should primarily concern themselves with attracting and sexually satisfying men.     

Images of Women in General Interest and Fashion Magazine Advertisements from 1955 to 2002

This study was designed to examine the portrayal of women in advertisements in a general interest magazine (i.e., Time) and a women's fashion magazine (i.e., Vogue) over the last 50 years. The coding scheme used for this analysis was based on the one developed by sociologist Erving Goffman in the 1970s, which focuses primarily on the subtle and underlying clues in the picture content of advertisements that contain messages in terms of (stereotypical) gender roles. The results of this study show that, overall, advertisements in Vogue, a magazine geared toward a female audience,depict women more stereotypically than do those in Time, a magazine with the general public as a target audience. In addition, only a slight decrease in the stereotypical depiction of women was found over time, despite the influence of the Women's Movement.     

“Ain’t I a Woman?”: Towards an Intersectional Approach to Person Perception and Group-based Harms

Our research examines whether intersecting racial and gender identities affect person perception. Predominantly White undergraduates (292) from a large northeastern U.S. university categorized and rated pictures (Study 1) and videos (Study 2) of Black and White men and women. We supported three hypotheses: 1) intersectionality affects person perception processes, leading to gender categorization errors for Black women; 2) “Blackness” and “maleness” are highly associated for Black male and female targets; and, 3) women are perceived as unattractive proportionally to their perceived masculinity, leading Black women to be rated as less attractive than other women. We suggest that intersectional approaches are required in order to fully understand person perception. Further, the Black/male association may lead to unique harms for Black women.     

Prototypes of race and gender: The invisibility of Black women

Research on racial and gender stereotyping typically focuses on the role of one of these social categories at a time rather than race/gender combinations. We suggest that the relative non-prototypicality of Black women’s race and gender results in their “invisibility” relative to White women and to Black and White men ( [Fryberg and Townsend, 2008] and [Purdie-Vaughns and Eibach, 2008]). Two studies address whether Black women go “unnoticed” and their voices “unheard,” by examining memory for Black women’s faces and speech contributions. We found that photos of Black women were least likely to be recognized (Study 1), and statements said by a Black woman in a group discussion were least likely to be correctly attributed (Study 2) compared to Black men and White women and White men. The importance and implications of invisibility as a unique form of discrimination are discussed.     

Interactive Effects of Characteristics of Defendant and Mock Juror on U.S. Participants' Judgment and Sentencing Recommendations

Abstract

The authors examined the effects of interactions (a) between defendant attractiveness and juror gender and (b) between defendant race and juror race on judgment and sentencing among 207 Black, Hispanic, and White participants in the United States. After reading a vehicular-homicide vignette in which the defendant's attractiveness and race varied, the participants rated guilt and recommended sentences. The women treated the unattractive female defendant more harshly than they treated the attractive female defendant; the men showed an opposite tendency. The Black participants showed greater leniency when the defendant was described as Black rather than White. The Hispanic participants showed an opposite trend, and the White participants showed no race-based leniency. The findings on racial effects were consistent (a) with in-group favorability bias among the Black participants and (b) with attribution effects unrelated to race among the White participants.     

The Internet and Adolescent Girls’ Weight Satisfaction and Drive for Thinness

The primary aim of the study was to examine the relationship between media exposure and body image in adolescent girls, with a particular focus on the ‘new’ and as yet unstudied medium of the Internet. A sample of 156 Australian female high school students (mean age?=?14.9 years) completed questionnaire measures of media consumption and body image. Internet appearance exposure and magazine reading, but not television exposure, were found to be correlated with greater internalization of thin ideals, appearance comparison, weight dissatisfaction, and drive for thinness. Regression analyses indicated that the effects of magazines and Internet exposure were mediated by internalization and appearance comparison. It was concluded that the Internet represents a powerful sociocultural influence on young women’s lives.     

A qualitative exploration of school racial diversity,friendship choices,and Black women's identity-based experiences in high school

Social integration is a critical component of adolescents' positive school adjustment. Although prior scholars have highlighted how Black women and girls' social identities (e.g., race, gender, social class) influence their academic and social experiences in school, very little work has focused on how school racial diversity shapes Black girls' peer networks throughout K–12 education. To address this gap in the literature, the present qualitative study explored the narratives of 44 Black undergraduate women (M_age = 20 years) who reflected on their friendship choices in high school. We used consensual qualitative research methods to examine how Black women navigated friendships during their time attending predominantly White (less than 20% Black), racially diverse (21%–60% Black), and predominantly Black (61%–100% Black) high schools. Coding analyses revealed five friendship themes: (a) Black female friends, (b) mostly Black friends, (c) mostly interracial friends, (d) mostly White friends, and (e) White friends in academic settings and Black friends in social settings. Our findings highlight how the young women's ongoing negotiation of racialized and gendered school norms influenced their sense of closeness with same-race and interracial peers. Black girls may have challenges with forming lasting and meaningful friendships when they cannot find peers who are affirming and supportive, particularly in predominantly White school contexts. This study underscores the need to look at how racial diversity in the student population offers school psychologists and educators insight into how to better support the social and emotional development of Black girls.     

The Stereotypes of Black and White Women in Fashion Magazine Photographs: The Pose of the Model and the Impression She Creates

We examined the portrayal of women in magazine advertisements and fashion spreads. In Study 1, photographs were selected from Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Vogue (N = 226), and a content analysis showed that the incidence of stereotyping is still prevalent. However, counter to our hypothesis, Black models were portrayed significantly less often in explicitly sexual poses, but significantly more often in submissive poses, than White models were. In Study 2, 64 students gave their impressions of eight models from either advertisements or fashion spreads whose race, immigration status, and stereotypic pose varied. The results showed that the impression of Black models in advertisements was counter to the stereotype of Black women. Within fashion photographs, Black or immigrant models in a submissive pose and White or non-immigrant models in an explicitly sexual pose were judged to be particularly intelligent and achievement-oriented. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Effects of exposure to alcohol‐related cues on racial discrimination

Prior research has shown that exposure to alcohol‐related images exacerbates expression of implicit racial biases, and that brief exposure to alcohol‐related words increases aggressive responses. However, the potential for alcohol cue exposure to elicit differential aggression against a Black (outgroup) relative to a White (ingroup) target—that is, racial discrimination—has never been investigated. Here, we found that White participants (N = 92) exposed to alcohol‐related words made harsher judgments of a Black experimenter who had frustrated them than participants who were exposed to nonalcohol words. These findings suggest that exposure to alcohol cues increases discriminatory behaviors toward Blacks.     

Self-Enhancement Following Exposure to Idealized Body Portrayals in Ethnically Diverse Men: A Fantasy Effect of Advertising

Viewing idealized body portrayals of men and women in advertising is known to have negative effects on men’s self-esteem and body dissatisfaction, but little research investigates these effects across race/ethnicity. Racial minorities tend to idealize larger bodies than Whites and so might respond differently to advertising influences. We investigated whether exposure to idealized portrayals of male and female bodies in TV advertisements has different effects on men of different race/ethnicity. Additionally, we investigated whether implicit methods reveal different results than self-reports. One hundred and sixty Asian, Hispanic, and White American male undergraduates from a university in California (USA) were randomly assigned to watch TV advertisements portraying thin women, muscular men, or watched no ads. Their implicit self-esteem was measured using the Implicit Association Test, and a questionnaire assessed explicit self-esteem, actual-ideal body discrepancy, and perception of weight-related health-risks. Exposure to portrayals of muscular men decreased actual-ideal body discrepancy in all men. Exposure to portrayals of thin women increased men’s implicit but not explicit self-esteem in Asian and Hispanic men only. Both these findings are consistent with a self-enhancing role of exposure to idealized male and female bodies in advertising, which is often referred to as a “fantasy effect”. This study provides evidence that media exposure interacts with culturally local body ideals and so can produce varying effects in different racial/ethnic groups. This result could have important implications for interventions.     

The production of gender among Black and White women and men: The case of household labor

Using the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 13,017; 11.09% Black, 79.99% White), we compare the household labor time of Black and White women and men, and assess the extent to which the time constraint, relative resource, and ideology explanations account for racial and gender differences in housework time. We find that although time constraint, relative resource, and ideology explanations account for some of the variation in housework time, they do not account for all of the gender and racial differences. We also find that paid work and housework trade off differently for Black men than for White men and also for women and men. Finally, a variety of relative resource, time constraint, and ideology factors are associated differently with women’s and men’s housework time. We argue that our findings lend support to the production of gender approach to understanding the division of household labor and that this approach can be used to help us understand racial differences in housework time as well. We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.     

Interactive effects of characteristics of defendant and mock juror on U.S. participants' judgment and sentencing recommendations.

The authors examined the effects of interactions (a) between defendant attractiveness and juror gender and (b) between defendant race and juror race on judgment and sentencing among 207 Black, Hispanic, and White participants in the United States. After reading a vehicular-homicide vignette in which the defendant's attractiveness and race varied, the participants rated guilt and recommended sentences. The women treated the unattractive female defendant more harshly than they treated the attractive female defendant; the men showed an opposite tendency. The Black participants showed greater leniency when the defendant was described as Black rather than White. The Hispanic participants showed an opposite trend, and the White participants showed no race-based leniency. The findings on racial effects were consistent (a) with in-group favorability bias among the Black participants and (b) with attribution effects unrelated to race among the White participants.     

Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Advertisements

This content analysis examined the depiction of women in 1,988 advertisements from 58 popular U.S. magazines. Advertisements were coded with respect to whether women were presented as sex objects and/or as victims using a scheme developed by the researchers. On average across magazines, one of two advertisements that featured women portrayed them as sex objects. Women appeared as victims in just under ten percent of the advertisements. Men’s, women’s fashion, and female adolescent magazines were more likely to portray women as sex objects and as victims than news and business, special interest, or women’s non-fashion magazines. The implications of viewing advertisements depicting women as sex objects and as victims, especially sexualized victims, are discussed.