WGSS 3998 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Polyaryletherketone, Undressed, Gender Role
7 Oct 2020
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When people use language to communicate with others, they make choices that are not only
practical but also political. The term linguistic sexism refers to inequitable treatment of women
and men that is built into the language. Feminists have worked to draw attention to sexist
language and to change it (Crawford, 2001).
In general, women are underrepresented in the media. About 51% of the population is female,
yet females appear in media less often than males. They are outnumbered 2 to 1 in leading
roles in the movies, cable TV shows, network TV, and reality show leads. (See Box 3.2) Every
year since 2007, when monitoring began, women have averaged only about 30% of speaking
roles in the 100 top earning movies each year (Women’s Media Center, 2015). And it’s not just
the shows; women are underrepresented in commercials for all types of goods except health
and beauty products, and this gap has not changed since first measured in the 1980s (Ganahl
et al., 2003). Similar patterns of underrepresentation have been shown in other countries,
including Great Britain and Saudi Arabia (Nassif & Gunter, 2008), Kenya (Mwangi, 1996),
Portugal (Neto & Pinto, 1998), and Japan, where the ratio of males to females on TV is 2:1
(Suzuki, 1995). No form of media is immune to the underrepresentation bias, not even
psychology textbooks. (See Figure 3.1a and b.) Women and girls are even underrepresented in
the comics (LaRossa et al., 2001), in children’s picture books (Hamilton et al., 2006), and on
cereal boxes (Black et al., 2009).
Some differences in how the media represent men and women are less obvious than others.
Although most people do not notice, the composition of images of men and women is quite
different. This phenomenon has been termed face-ism (Archer et al., 1983). Face-ism is
measured as the proportion of the overall image devoted to the face.
Women’s bodies are not just pictured more than men’s, they are also sexualized more than
men’s. Overall, one of every four White women and one in 10 Black women in U.S. television
commercials is dressed or posed in a sexually provocative way, compared with one in 14 men
(Coltrane & Messineo, 2000). In ads, women are often shown partially undressed or completely
nude, even when revealing the body has nothing to do with using the product. Content analyses
of international television and magazine advertising suggest that although levels of female
nudity vary across cultures, more female than male nudity is cross-culturally universal (Nelson &
Paek, 2005, 2008).
Stereotypes can be thought of as theories that people carry around in their heads about how
members of a particular group think, look, and behave, and how these attributes are linked. An
individual may be unaware that he or she holds stereotypical beliefs or behaves in accordance
with them. Still, the network of associations around a group forms a schema, or mental
framework, that guides people as they experience the world around them (von Hippel et al.,
1995). For a particular schema to be considered a stereotype, the content of the schema must
be similar to others’ schemas for the same group. For example, Charlotte may believe that short
people are grumpy, but this belief is idiosyncratic, not stereotypical. On the other hand, if
Charlotte believes that women are more likely than men to become emotional in a crisis, her
Document Summary
When people use language to communicate with others, they make choices that are not only practical but also political. The term linguistic sexism refers to inequitable treatment of women and men that is built into the language. Feminists have worked to draw attention to sexist language and to change it (crawford, 2001). In general, women are underrepresented in the media. About 51% of the population is female, yet females appear in media less often than males. And it"s not just the shows; women are underrepresented in commercials for all types of goods except health and beauty products, and this gap has not changed since first measured in the 1980s (ganahl et al. , 2003). Similar patterns of underrepresentation have been shown in other countries, including great britain and saudi arabia (nassif & gunter, 2008), kenya (mwangi, 1996), Portugal (neto & pinto, 1998), and japan, where the ratio of males to females on tv is 2:1 (suzuki, 1995).
