Blanca Gonzalez

Sociology 4

April 22 2015

Race, Gender, and Status

In chapter 6 the researchers used content analysis which is an approach that examines visual or spoken text. The choices on what can be analyzed can be diverse such as text books, to television shows, conversations to song lyrics, and including visual images of all kinds such as wedding photos , cartoons , advertisements and campaign posters. In race, gender and status researchers Melvin Thomas and Linda Treiber use magazine advertisements and searched for evidence of racial and sexual stereo typing. They researched advertising images by way of product’s suggestive messages, specifically, connotations of higher and lower social status and promises of unreal social rewards such as friendship, appearance, and romance.

The researchers examined 1,709 full page advertisements in magazines using 1988-1990 issues for the months of February, July, September, and December. They surveyed only ads portraying Black or White human modelswhich vary by race and/or gender like Life, Cosmopolitan, Ebony and Essence. Their choice of the four months reflected of period themes in the popular culture that are incorporated in the advertising campaigns for example February, Black History month and Valentine’s day; July, the height of summer; September, back to school, and December, holiday season.For the analysis they created three categories of status; affluent, trendy, and every day. To indentify the three status images they created categories they would fall under based on the model’s appearance. They associated theAffluent images with wealth, elite, style, and taste. They also included power and conservatism to affluent images. The trendy models presented a more fashionable “in-crowd” appearance. Everyday status was referred to women and men that dressed and posed to evoke the “average’ person. Clothing being casual rather than elegant or cutting edge.

Thomas and Treiber also assessed “product promises” in the advertisements. They created five popular subtexts: good time, appearance, sex-romance, family and marriage, and celebrity identification. Good times were portrayed by three or more models involved with one another and noticeably having fun. Appearance promised that product will make its user more attractive, younger, sexier and more beautiful or powerful.Sex-romance was portrayed by male and female model adoring one another and usually situated in a romantic atmosphere. Family-marriage represented by traditional recognized “family behaviors” such as recording a ballet recital, supervising little league or having family meals. Last Celebrity identification messages build on the identification with and trust in a famous person.

Their findings showed White women modeled the high status image most frequently (35%), followed by trendy (34%) and every day (31%). Black women portrayed everyday status most frequently at (38%), followed by affluent and trendy (both at 31%) they are most likely than white women to model lower status. Both racial groups for men portrayed everyday status most frequently, followed by affluent, then trendy. Black men were more likely to appear in trendy magazines (21% for Black men vs 17% for white men). Black men were less likely than White men to model affluent (34% Black men vs 36 % for white men). They confirmed that female models of both races more frequently represented the trendy status than their male peers. The everyday status was more commonly portrayed by men. They also learned that the four magazines “flattered” their readers with high status presentations. Life magazine which aims at Whites used the affluent image 50% of the time while trendy image were used less. In Cosmopolitan, the images were nearly evenly divided between status groups. In Ebony and Essence which target Blacks, images representing the everyday status were powerful. The researchers suggest that Advertisers found certain images more appropriate or effective for specific race-gender audiences; Black women are more likely to respond to everyday images than White women and Black readers are less likely to respond to affluent images compared to White readers.

Researchers did not find any heavy stereotypes that support ideologies of patriarchy and White supremacy in this research. Nonetheless they did indentify patterns that support the idea of the continuation of gender and racial stereotypes in media images. The status-images they created showed the men are rugged “real,” average and normal (everyday), while women are fashionable, glamorous, young and perhaps frivolous (trendy). Beauty–glamour messages were targeted at women, more so for White women than Black women. The four magazines they selected targeted a high status and promise of vague rewards such as appearance and sex-romance.They learned that sex –romance product seemed to be more appropriate and effective for Black audience. Their findings suggested the stereotypical thinking about Black sexuality. They also found that women models were “empowered” even everyday models were not displayed as your typical homemakers. Whether selling lipstick pickup trucks, advertising aimed at women suggesting youth and fashion instead of real life or business savvy. They saw that Men, in contrast, were most often portrayed as real-life characters. Thomas and Treiber decided that most images in all four magazines were high status only by comparing Life and Ebony that a there was an unequal selling of sex-romance to blacks and the profound overuse of affluent images in whites. In conclusion researchers stated that given the legacy of structural racism and sexism, the media is still largely controlled by Whites, especially men, it is not surprising that stereotyping persist.

Discussion Questions

  1. According to Researcher’s there’s a stereotypical thinking about Black sexuality, and they found that indeed Black models were used to sell sex-romance, what is your opinion or take on this matter? Do you agree or disagree?
  2. If other magazines like People, InStyle, Vogue, Time etc would have been used, do you think that would have changed the results?
  3. Magazines from 1988-1990 were used , do you think the results would look different with magazines of this time 2015?