Sex role stereotyping in the Sunday comics

The present paper analyzes the contents of four family-oriented comics appearing in the Sunday comic section of a local newspaper for a period of six months. In two, the female characters overtly dominate the male; in two, the females play a passive, subordinate role. This study illustrates that even when overt signs of female dominance are found, traditional sex-role stereotyping persists.     

Gender and age displays in ceremonial tokens

The present paper analyzes birthday cards (N=234) in terms of their content and presentation using Goffman's 1979 discussion of gender displays in advertising. It was hypothesized that cards intended for women compared to men, and to children compared to adults, would not only be similar to one another, but would reflect their shared subordinate and disvalued position in the social structure. Birthday cards were randomly selected from fourteen retail outlets and coded in terms of Goffman's display categories: relative weight, the feminine touch, functional rank, ritualization of subordination, and licensed withdrawal. The results are mixed, supporting, in general, the hypotheses. A discussion follows.