Sex generalisations and stereotypes.

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English Language Coursework Investigation

Introduction

As early as 1847, women were described in terms of appearance rather than character traits or achievements, and this can be seen in Mr. Rochester's description of Blanche Ingram in 'Jane Eyre' (1847); "a strapper, a real strapper, Jane: big, brown, and buxom." This is a frequently used stereotypical view of women, and in my project I aim to discover whether this aspect of representation is still prevalent in the media of today.

This subject appealed to me, especially the research by Jennifer Coates and Angela Goddard, which, although based on speech, provided some explanation for the widespread inference that women are subordinate to men. For example, it was found by Beiley and Time in 1976 that women use expletives far less in conversation than men, with the connotation that this trend is a result of women being gentler, and less aggressive than men, and therefore less powerful.

However, this research was completed by Coates in 1982 and, since then, there have been few extensive studies of gender representation in the media. However, at present there is pressure on most aspects of society to be politically correct and