culture and media

• how does culture affect gender?

  changes the expectations of behaviour depending on your gender
• example of cultural differences

  Margaret Mead, studied social groups in Papua New Guinea

  • the Arapesh men and women tended to be gentle and co-operative
  • the Mundungumor men and women were violent and aggressive
  • the Tchambuli showed gender role differences: women were dominant and managerial whereas men were more emotionally dependent
• how does media influence gender?

  through:

  • role models
  • vicarious reinforcement
  • counter-sterotypes
• how do role models in the media influence gender?

  portrayals of men as powerful and excercising vs women as dependent, unambitious and sedentry can affect our behaviour

  McGhee et al showed that more exposure to these models means we hold more rigid sex role sterotypes

  • longitudinal study over 15 months of kids 6-12
  • kids who watched 25+ hours or more a week had more sterotypes than those watched less than 10
• how does vicarious reinforcement in media influence gender?

  it shows us the consequences of behaviours

  seeing similar others succeed can reinforce their behaviours as it gives them self belief

  seeing similar others fail can reinforce that certain behaviours are not meant for them
• how do counter-sterotypes in media influence gender?

  Pingree found that when children were shown adverts with women in non-trational roles sterotyping was reduced
• evidence against gender differences from culture

  Eagly and Wood - social role theory

  • argue that because of biological differences eg mens greater speed and strength or deeper voice means they are better fitting to tasks such as sports or commanding a room whereas women are better suited for childrearing and this is why they are more domestic
  • furthermore where biology specific traits are not needed for certain roles, gender roles will be more similar
• criticisms of Mead

  • observers from a western culture into another may record things differently to the indigenous people
  • the indiginous people may also tell the researchers what they want to hear- demand characteristic; Mead was presented evidence of this and subsequently changed her conclusion
• evidence for the influence of TV on gender

  Williams, Notel study

  • Notel is a valley in Canada which has high mountains surrounding it, never before having signal for TV
  • they assessed children in the town with questionaires about their gender sterotypes before and 2 years after the introduction of TV
  • it was found that their views increased in gender-specific ideas/sterotypes
• problems with counter-sterotyping

  Pingree also found that pre-adolescent boys displayed stronger sterotypes after exposure to non traditional models

  As suggested before, gender-inconsistant information is also likely to be forgotten or misremembered and will have no effect
• problems with media effects

  other studies have found no change in gender views after the introduction of TV, this may be because of the stronger pre-existing community values which the later exposure to media cannot overcome