Lesson – Gender and
Sexuality in Pop Culture
Robert Wonser
SOC 86 – Fall 2011
Feminism
• Saw pop culture as a construct that was
subservient to the desires of the male psyche—
essentially a male plot to maintain control over
women’s minds and, especially, bodies.
• Representations of women in movies, tv and in
print were degrading to women and help promote
violence against women
• Early archetypes probably were: “sexual
cheerleaders” or “motherly homemakers”
• Father Knows Best vs the Honeymooners or I Love
Lucy
• The sexualization of women’s bodies also
paradoxically played a critical role in liberating
women from the previous constricting roles of
mother and housekeeper
• More controlling of the male psyche than
controlled by it?
– E.g. Madonna
• Is the display of women’s bodies in a sexual manner
exploitative or transgressive?
• Deep Throat’s perceived subversiveness was that
women appeared to like sex as much as men—a threat
to male’s hegemony.
• Pornography continues to be a form of social criticism
against political and religious authoritarianism.
The Male Gaze
• The Male Gaze is the idea that women are
portrayed in art, in advertising, and on
screen from a man’s point of view, as
objects to be looked at.
• Fetishism of commodities
takes on a whole
new meaning
Representations of Women
• This type of representation of modern, liberated
womanhood is somewhat in contrast to the
showcasing of femininity in the broad tradition of
the “sacred feminine” of the “Gaia myth” wherein
the goddess of the earth, Gaia, is purported to
exercise power over Nature and mankind
(literally: mankind).
• Walt Disney (1901-1996) tapped into these
mythic views of femininity, which representations
that have been both controversial among early
feminists and strangely popular among women.
• Using mythology theory: Disney’s popularity is likely due
to his sense of the mythic power of womanhood in
human life.
– Ex: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is so popular,
why?
– According to feminist theory, the movie was broadly embraced
because it portrayed women as passive creatures waiting for
their Prince Charming to come along.
– However, according to post-feminist criticism the power of
women can be seen when probed beneath he textual surface.
– First, the only truly powerful characters are women—Snow White
and the evil queen; men are either dwarfs faithfully serving their
mistress or a perfunctory role (such as providing an anonymous
kiss).
– Snow white is a ruler of nature. All respond to her command
from the animals to the dwarfs and prince who is beckoned by
an implicit natural instinct
– Also evident in Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping Beauty (1959)
• Feminist critics saw the movies as portraying a
patriarchal view of womanhood which revolved around
romance.
• Post-feminist critics rejected this interpretation
• Snow White, Cinderella and Tinkerbell – the emergence
of a powerful form of femininity and a deconstruction of
patriarchy.
– Or is the construction of weak or stupid fathers only to make
patriarchy seem unthreatening?
• The Little Mermaid, modeled after the Shakespearean
story of Ariel, a mischievous spirit.
• Ariel’s departure into the world above her father’s Sea
Kingdom saliently showcases the fading power of the
patriarchal system.
• Beauty and the Beast (1991) entails a clever reversal of
roles, wherein the accursed prince who has to wait for
his rescuer princess to come and save him. Belle has
carved out a place for women to take control of their own
identities.
• Also, in Pocahontas (1995) and Mulan (1998) the
heroines are physically and instinctually superior to any
of the films’ males while also possessing the “feminine
mystique” found in earlier Disney characters (e.g. Snow
White).
• Are Disney women “archetypal female rescue fantasies
with essentially passive fantasies”?
• “Walt Disney wedded art and mass media, revitalizing
fantasy for our times.” – Fishwick
Or…
• Is Ariel the perfect metaphor for the
stereotypical housewife in the making?
• Taking away a woman’s voice? The
handsome price Eric tries to kiss her
anyway (because men don’t like women
who talk anyway).
• Ariel’s happiness is tied to a heterosexual
marriage after renouncing her former life.
• At first glance Belle from Beauty and the Beast
seems to be a rejection of hypermasculinity
(Gaston’s a pompous idiot) but her reformation
of the Beast “Implies that women are
responsible for controlling male anger and
violence. If a woman is only pretty and sweet
long enough, she can transform an abusive man
into a prince—forever.”
• Belle is less the focus of the film than a prop or
“mechanism for solving the Beast’s dilemma”
Disney
• Films seem to assign rigid roles to women and
people of color
• Produce a narrow view of family values coupled
with a nostalgic and conservative view of history
that erases injustices (ex: the Pocahontas movie
bleaches colonialism of its genocidal history).
• Much of its attempts at displaying agency are
through the participation in consumerism (yay
for Hannah Montana clothing at Wal-Mart!).
Doing gender: the case of prime
donne
• Much of pop music culture is about talk,
like gossip and confessions.
• Celebrities give their private lives to the
media. Take for example Jessica
Simpson.
• Media work as pop culture watchdogs,
scrutinizing and enforcing gender and
sexual performances.
• A popular role for female celebrities is
that of emphasized femininity.
• Yet, potentially, multiple ways of doing
femininity and masculinity should be
more available.
• More so the case for female performers,
The Slasher Film: The Killer
• The Killer
– Propelled by psychosexual fury,
– a male in distress,
– usually in their 20s
The Slasher Film: Victims
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Victims:
Usually in their teens
Now both girl and boy but still mostly girl
Usually a sexual transgressor (how did young Jason
die?)
Often die, mid or postcoital.
Boys die because they make mistakes
Girls die because they are girls
Male deaths are quicker and often shot further away with
less detail
The murders of women are filmed at close range, in
more graphic detail and at greater length
The Slasher Film: Final Girl
• The one who did not die: the survivor of
the horrible ordeal
• Has to think the most about the possibility
of death (her seemingly impending and
her friends)
• Often show more courage and levelheadedness than their cringing male
counterparts
Final Girls
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Intelligent
Watchful
Levelheaded
The first character to sense something amiss
Deduce from the pattern the threat facing them
The only one whose perspective approaches our
privileged perspective in the audience.
• We identify with the final girl
Some Observations
• Males are dominant audience
• Cheer for killer until the final girl end
portion where they cheer for her as she
assaults the killer.
• Ostensibly then, the hero is female.
• How misogynistic is this?
• The camera angles represents the killer’s
perspective
• We are forced to identify with the killer
Masculinity
• The killer plunging his knife or blade into women
is unmistakingly phallic.
• The killer’s masculinity is in question—he often
has psychological/mother issues, often a virgin
or sexually inert, sometimes a transvestite or
transsexual.
• Traditional masculinity does not fare well in
slasher films.
• The man who insists on taking charge, who
believes that logic or appeals to authority can
solve the problem, or who tries to act as a hero
ends up dead meat.
Final Thoughts on the Slasher
• Do slasher movies authorize impulse towards
violence in males and victimization in females?
• Or, is it rather than the victimization of females
being exclusively borne of misogyny is it that:
• The destruction of beauty on an aesthetic level
bothers us; and
• The fact that we are more likely to sympathize
with a female victim than a male victim as some
critics contend?
– What do we think of males begging for mercy versus
females begging for mercy?
Dove’s “real beauty” campaign
• Literal text of the ad: “Real women have
real curves” implying that Dove wants to
celebrate those curves. The ploy is
transparent. The real message is
“improve yourself, by Dove products”
“Dove Evolution” commercials
make over ordinary women 
Cinderella subtext
Plastic Surgery
Gender and the Media
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According to the reflection hypothesis the media only give the pubic what it
expects, wants, or demands.
In other words, the media content mirrors the behaviors and relationships, and
values and norms most prevalent in society.
However, far from passively reflecting culture, the media actively shape and
create culture.
– Ex: the nightly news – how much news can fit into 22 minutes?  they set the
agenda for public opinion. “The way the media choose themes, structure the
dialogue, and control the debate—a process which involves crucial omissions—is a
major aspect of their influence.”
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In addition to their role as definers of the important, the media are also the
chief sources of information for most people, as well as the focus of their
leisure activity.
Evidence indicates many media consumers (esp. heavy TV viewers) tend to
uncritically accept media content as fact.
Although there’s always intervening variables (e.g. kinds of shows, and
behavior of real-life role models), the media do influence our worldview,
including personal aspirations and expectations for achievements, as well as
our perceptions of others.
Symbolic annihilation refers to the media’s traditional ignoring, trivializing or
condemning of women.
Gender Differences in Online
Communication
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Internet is nearly evenly divided between women (45%) and men (55%).
Research indicates that online communication mirrors in-person
conversational styles:
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Women’s email messages are longer and more detailed than men.
Women use more emoticons  and more intensive adverbs (e.g. really, very).
They are also more supportive and agreeable.
Men make stronger assertions and use profanity, insults and sarcasm more than
women
Internet for sex?
Men (56.5%) were more likely than women (35.2%) to surf for sexually explicit
materials, men were more likely to look at pornographic sites and masturbate
while women were more likely to engage in cyber-sex with an online partner.
Explanation: women use communication to build social connections and
rapport with others while men use communication more functionally or
instrumentally.
Research also indicates online communication is mitigated by other social
factors: age, sex, income, educational attainment, status and type of message
of both the sender and the receiver.
The Written Word - Gender messages
in newspapers and magazines
• Regular reading of the newspaper in the U.S. has declined since the
mid-1980s.
• More men than women read it; why?
• Male centered stories. Women’s are in the back, “non-news”
section of the paper.
• Trivialization of women in the stories that do focus on them. For
example: “the female attorney”, “the petite blonde”, “Dr. Smith, the
wife of”, or “the feisty grandmother.” Such details were rarely
provided for men.
• Are feminists depicted as a small but vocal radical fringe group that
most members of the general public dislike as portrayed by the
media?
• Most of the staff at major newspapers are men.
• When women are on the staff they tend to have the same definitions
of what ‘experts’ are as men do, thereby seeking people like men to
comment.
Gender and Magazines
• Newspapers seek the masses, magazines are targeted to smaller
populations.
• Traditionally women’s magazines have promoted a ‘cult of femininity’
that is, the definition of femininity as a narcissistic absorption with
oneself—one’s physical appearance, occupational success, and
with success in affairs of the heart.
• Intensified focus on sex in both adult and teen magazines in recent
years. Emphasis on boldness?
• Makeovers  buy stuff, improve you because you are flawed!
• Men’s magazines: finance/business/technology, sports/hobbies, and
sex.
• Sex in women’s magazines is usually discussed in terms of
interpersonal relationships but in men’s magazines objectify and
depersonalize sex.
• Like women’s magazines, men’s magazines only promote normative
masculinity.
Television: The Ubiquitous Gender
Socializer
• Most important media socializer.
• Americans spend 33% of her/his leisure
time watching TV. More than any other
leisure activity (including socializing with
others; 7%!).
• Women watch more TV than men do,
adults more than children (although TV
watching consumes more time than any
other non-school activity).
Prominent Messages in TV
• Women are less important than men.
– Fewer women than men on prime-time TV (39% of all major
characters)
• Characters played by women tend to be younger and
less mature than male characters and therefore less
authoritative.
– 65% of female prime-time characters are in their twenties and
thirites12% are in their forties and 22% of male primetime
characters are in their forties.
• Young female characters are typically thin and physically
attractive.
– In general males are given more leeway in their appearance.
46% of women on TV compared with just 16% of men are thin or
very thin.
Gender Messages on TV
• There have been important changes in the portrayal of men and women
in recent years.
• Female: more likely (than before) to work outside the home, be strong
and independent women who rely on themselves to solve problems.
Shown interacting with other characters in an honest and direct way.
• males: more likely to be shown as ideal husbands and do their share of
housework. Even though they’re less likely to be shown doing it vs
women (1-3% compared to 20-27%).
• Gender stereotypes still persist: Preoccupied with romantic relationships,
shown on the job or not, defined by marital status or occupation, using
romantic charm or force to get what they want.
• Since the 1970s: the incorporation of women’s rights and gender equality
themes, often presented from what could be considered a feminist
perspective.
• Gender stereotypes frequently intersect with racial and ethnic stereotypes
on TV.
• Racial or ethnic people are still underrepresented (male or female) on TV.
• Over 80% of primetime characters are White, 12% are Black, 2% are
Asian American and 1% are Hispanic. [this data is a little dated: 90s]
• Greatest strides towards equality: local newscasts.
Gender Messages in
Advertisements
• Does Sexism sell?
• Ads sell less a product and more a lifestyle,
needs and desires.
• “advertisers portray an image that represents
the interpretation of those cultural values which
are profitable to propagate.”
• For men: the message is to buy a particular
product to get the “sweet young thing”
associated with it, for women: buy the product in
order to be the “sweet young thing.”
Sexism in Advertising
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Sexism in advertising can be very subtle.
What does the way models pose tell us?
– Women in subordinate and men in dominant positions.
Killing Us Softy
Gender stereotyping is also prevalent.
– Ex: Occupation
Sexually exploitative use of women had increased in ads since 1970.
Women used as purely decorative.
Use of men as decorative has also increased.
– Men as either ‘Rambo’ or Himbo.
Evidence that the industry confuses gender equality with sexual
permissiveness or exploitation.
The Lolita syndrome – advertising’s increasing use of children, especially
girls, in sexually exploitative ways.
Emphasis on youth = denigration of the elderly (particularly women)
Rarities in ads: Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans,
gay and lesbians or people with disabilities.
Average American sees more than 37,000 ads just on TV a year!