Status of Women 2001 Abstracts
Commission on the Status of Women
Emma Says: A Case Study of the Use of Comics for Health Education Among Women in the AIDS Heartland • Barbara Barnett, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Since AIDS was first diagnosed more than twenty years ago, international health organizations have designed numerous education and prevention programs using mass media. Many of these health programs have targeted women, hoping to empower them to gain some measure of control over their sexual lives. This paper examines Emma Says, a comic series, designed to educate and empower women in rural Africa. It proposes a new women-centered model for examining the impact of health messages.
HBO’s Sex and the City and the Perpetuation of Myths About Women: A Feminist Cultural Criticism • Tina Carroll, University of Miami, and Ukaiko Bitrus, Beverly Pike, Summer Powell, Mona Moore and Aimee Ivas, University of South Alabama • Sex and the City is a 30-minute cable show depicting the lives of four, single women in Manhattan. The show received a Lucy Award for Innovation by Women in Film for “excellence and innovations that has enhanced the perception of women in television.” Given this, we analyzed the show and determined it perpetuates common societal myths concerning women. Since myths shape our beliefs and perceptions of the world, this question is important to the field of feminist research.
Televised Reproductive Health News Reports as a Public Panoptican Policing the Plagued, Passive, and Perverse Female Patient: A Content Analysis • Marie Dick, Southwest State University • This content analysis of televised reproductive health reports, describes differences in body visibility, invasions and positioning between male and female patients. Based on medical history, post-structuralist and feminist theories, the analysis posits that these images may function as a public panoptican placing women’s bodies in positions that transfer detriments of the medical gaze to a public gaze, and maintain socio-scientific social positioning of women defined as passive, reproductively sick, and as sexual/fetish objects.
The Representation of Women in Prime-Time Television: An Examination of Genre and Stereotypes • Jennifer Jacobs Henderson and Gerald J. Baldasty, University of Washington • This study examines the image of women in TV drama shows and situation comedies in an effort to gauge the impact of genre on TV images. On sitcoms, women were defined primarily by traditional female stereotypes, while women in dramas had more diverse roles and images. In many areas, however, few differences appeared between genres. Women in both genres were often defined according to their beauty and sexuality, and more by emotions, affection and nurturing than men.
Home Court Disadvantage?: Examining the Coverage of Female Athletes on Leading Sports Websites – A Pilot Study • Tara M. Kachgal, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This exploratory content analysis study examined gender representation of female athletes on three leading sports websites (CBSSportsLine, CNNSI, and ESPN) using descriptive indicators and framing analysis. Results show that female athletes received less coverage (i.e., number of news items and images) than male athletes but were not framed any more ambivalently than male athletes. These findings suggest that sports websites may marginalize athletes in the same way that traditional sports media do but may differ in gender stereotyping.
NAMING RAPE VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS: A U.S. NEWSROOM POLICY STUDY, 2000 • Kim E. Karloff, California State University-Northridge • Traditionally, editors of U.S. newspapers have withheld the identification of rape victims, unless the victim was well-known or unless the victim was murdered. This newsroom policy study, conducted in November 2000, focuses on whether or not the major newspaper in each state has a policy regarding the naming of rape victims, and what that policy says and/or what that policy allows its newspaper editors and reporters to cover in reporting on the crime of rape. Based on this study’s findings, most daily newspaper editors support employing and maintaining policies to withhold the names of rape/sexual assault victims. What is new: At least 50 percent of the daily newspaper editors said they would make an exception and name the victim if she or he asked for or consented to identification.
TITLE IX BABIES, SPORTS MEDIA AND ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN IN SPORTS AND SOCIETY • Paula Whatley Matabane and Bishetta D. Merritt, Howard University • The 1990’s are a watershed decade reflecting the impact of Title Ix on American sports with unprecedented numbers of females participating. A study of 189 college students’ use of sports media and participation showed females’ positive attitudes toward women in sports and society were related to watching women sports on television; males negative attitudes were related to watching male sports on television and sports news.
The Olympic Ideal: A Content Analysis of the Coverage of Olympic Women’s Sports in San Francisco Bay Area Newspapers • Greg Mellen and Patricia Coleman, University of Missouri • This study extends previous research on coverage of women’s Olympic sports in selected newspapers. A content analysis was conducted on sports sections from large, medium and small newspapers from the San Francisco Bay Area. 513 stories and nearly 18,000 inches of text, photos and graphics were coded. The study supports Kinnick’s findings of equitable and proportional coverage, but finds a bias in favor of “gender appropriate” sports.
VIRTUAL WOMEN: REPLACING THE REAL • Nnedi Okorafor, The Star Newspapers and Africana.com Chicago, and Lucinda D. Davenport, Michigan State University • This is the first study to examine only female characters in video games. Researchers reviewed documented game character profiles, did content analysis of female characters’ appearance in the games, and qualitatively examined a game series within action/adventure, role-playing and fighting types of games. Findings showed that female characters possessed highly exaggerated and negative stereotypes in appearance and behavior that increased over time. These stereotypes may influence boys and girls to adopt the roles and values they see in video games (cultivation theory), but also may affect girls in developing cognitive proficiency and computer skills.
Resuscitating Feminist Audience Studies: Colonialism, Occidentalism, and the Control of Women • Radhika E. Parameswaran, Indiana University • In this essay, I critique recent arguments in cultural studies that advocate for a radical shift from audience studies to textual analyses and political economy. I suggest that instead of abandoning the audience, feminist scholars must instead acknowledge the racial politics of critiques, which imply that cultural studies has finished the project of gathering knowledge on audiences. The paper urges feminist scholars to resuscitate audience studies by paying attention to historical and ideological contexts that frame audience activity. Analyzing a sample of the contexts that determined and shaped the contours of my ethnographic research among young middle-class women in India, I show that feminist audience studies can contribute rich insights into the multi-layered and intricate qualities of women’s resistance against patriarchy. In conclusion, I argue that far from disbanding the study of women audiences, feminist audience ethnographers must enrich their studies by carefully accounting for contexts.
Portrayals of Wife Abuse in the New York Times 1915 & 1925 • Ginger L. Park, Kansas State University • This study seeks to examine how the media has portrayed wife abuse historically. It offers insight into coverage of intimate relationships during the period surrounding the Nineteenth Amendment and of the importance of women’s rights and safety to society. Issues of the 1915 and 1925 New York Times were studied to determine how it portrayed victims, perpetrators and wife abuse in general before and after a major turning point in women’s history.
A Descriptive Analysis of NBC’s Coverage of the 2000 Summer Olympics • C.A. Tuggle, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Suzanne Huffman, Texas Christian University and Dana Scott Rosengard, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study examines the amount of NBC’s 2000 Olympics coverage devoted to women’s athletics. Analysis showed that women received proportionately less coverage in 2000 than they did in 1996 on the U.S. network, and that coverage focused on individual events, with women competing in team sports receiving relatively little coverage. As was the case in 1996, women who competed in 2000 in sports involving power or hard physical contact received almost no attention.
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