Sex-role imagery in modern art: An empirical examination

Conclusion It is not clear to what degree the sex-role images in modern art reinforce or encourage traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity. Since many fewer people are exposed to the fine arts than to mass media such as television, the effects of fine art on people's sex-role conceptions are probably negligible. But fine art is one more link in a vast and complex network of sex-role images and standards. At the very least, the sex-role stereotypes we find in fine art provide us with another index of the degree to which sexism pervades our society and culture.