On Saturday night, as part of Crozier’s 30th-anniversary celebration, Professor of Psychology Sarah Murnen spoke to the Kenyon community about gender stereotypes in popular culture. As with most things psychological, the research presented seemed to confirm what might have already intuitively suspected.
After examining 443 images from popular culture, including toys, Halloween costumes, and even Valentine’s Day cards, a clear polarized gender stereotype was defined. In images of hyperfemininity, girls would be depicted with decorative and revealing clothing, a curved spine that indicates sexual availability, and a head tilt that suggests this girl is not to be taken seriously. In the images of hypermasculinity, however, the boys are depicted with functional clothing, a body in motion, holding a weapon, and hands closed in fists.
What this means in terms of gendered stereotyping is that women are seen as sexual objects, whereas men are sexual actors. In even more familiar terms, men want sex, women want relationships. What is particularly troublesome about these stereotypes is that they are now more than ever prevalent in the lives of young boys and especially girls. This ranges from media like Seventeen Magazine to the clothes available for preteen girls to the big chain stores toy aisles.
In her talk, Professor Murnen identified a number of consequences for these polarized gender stereotypes. First of all, viewing women and girls as sex objects encourages self-objectification. This on its own produces many negative effects like body shame, a need to constantly think about and maintain one’s body, eating disorders, and depression. In addition, the sexualized role of females is viewed as incompatible with other roles. This means that women who are sexualized are often seen as less moral and less intelligent.
Perhaps the most poignant part of Professor Murnen’s talk was her call to action. She emphasized that for our culture to see any change away from these polarized gender stereotypes, they must be constantly critiqued and resisted. One thing she suggests is to recognize our similarities and proliferate gender and sexuality categories. They are, after all, just that—arbitrary categories. There is also a need to promote alternative self-definitions. The categories that we have created and are living by are unnecessarily narrow, and all the more reason they should be dismantled. During the Q&A session after the lecture, Professor Murnen noted how useful social media has been to spread these ideas. There is hope, then, that by taking the media into our own hands we can combat the gender binary.
What stuck me the most was that Kenyon students, a group of people I like to think of as open minded and critical of stereotyping, produced some of this data showing that these stereotypes are real not only in the community at large, but our own Kenyon bubble. Maybe it’s time, then, to turn the focus not toward the media and how it influences us, but toward challenging ourselves to apply critical thinking skills to critique and resist our own acts of stereotyping.
Note: All information is taken from Dr. Sarah Murnen’s talk “Boys Act and Girls Appear: Gender Stereotypes in Popular Culture” as part the Kenyon Unique lecture series.
Image Credit: Kenyon College, The Art Crime