Our attitude towards sexuality is related to its representation; therefore if we study the representation we can understand people’s attitudes. Sexuality can be understood through objectification, for example, how it is portrayed in the media. Therefore it is appropriate to use a content analysis to explore an abstract notion such as sexuality, as it can be ontologised (interpreted as a material phenomenon) from such objectifications, for example, how advertisements show the roles in which women and men are portrayed, the activities they are depicted in partaking or the amount of body exposure.
Previous research has shown that portrayals of women in magazine advertisements reflect gender stereotypes (for example, dependency on men or being shown merely for decorative purposes). Courtney and Lockeretz (1971) studied 729 advertisements in total, categorising them in terms of product type, number of adults shown, sexes of adults and occupations and activities depicted. They found that women were rarely portrayed in working roles (9%) compared to 45% of men, with women hardly ever being co-workers to men. Most of the women partaking in activities such as smoking, drinking and travelling were accompanied by men; the majority of those who were shown without men in the real world were only being used for decorative purposes (70%). Although few of these advertisements were offensive to women, the picture presented did reflect clichés about women’s roles in society – primarily as “sexual objects”.
This view was reinforced by the conclusions of Plous and Neptune (1997) who investigated six fashion-orientated fashion magazines from 1985-1994 depicting 1800 advertisements. They measured the body exposure of male and female models, focusing on body areas commonly associated with sexual display, for example: buttocks, cleavage, stomach, back and upper leg. They found that women were approximately four times more common than those with exposed men (9.2% of female models were presented with undergarments/bikini style swimsuit compared to 2.0% of male models). This was consistent with previous content analyses showing an increase in the sexual portrayal of women in magazine advertisements. They concluded that there was a ‘trend toward sexualizing female models in magazine advertisements’, which reflected Courtney and Lockeretz’s conclusion that women were being regarded as sexual objects and that there was an increase in their sexual portrayal: the advertisements with exposed women were approximately four times more common than those with exposed men (9.2% of female models were presented with undergarments/bikini style swimsuit compared to 2.0% of male models).
Plous and Neptune focused exclusively on fashion-orientated magazines. We will be replicating this study, however, this investigation will focus on FHM magazine, a “lads mag” created for a particular gender (male) and age group (18-25). The aim of the research is to investigate social representations of sexuality in terms of body exposure through the media of FHM magazine.
Null Hypothesis
The null hypothesis is that there will be no difference in body exposure between men and women featured in FHM magazine.
Directional Hypothesis
My directional hypothesis is that the greater proportion of those partially clothed in FHM magazine will be women, and the greater proportion of those fully clothed in the magazine will be men.
Methods
Nature of investigation
The investigation is a content analysis.
Experimenters
The experimenters were a group of four female students in Year 13 of a sixth-form college in Chertsey, Surrey. Each experimenter examined two magazines in order to form a sufficient sample size for reliable results. However, although the raw results were culminated together to save time, each experimenter worked out all statistical calculations independently.
Stimulus material
All the images (including advertisements, features, or photographs to illustrate articles) from FHM magazines were examined. The issues from July 2004, February 2006, July 2006, September 2006, November 2006, December 2006, August 2007 and November 2007 were used. See Appendix 1 for examples.
Procedures
Every person displayed in all eight magazines, whether they were female or male from an advertisement, feature or a photograph with an article was counted, on the condition that their bodies occupied a larger space than an eighth of an A4 size sheet of paper. The small advertisements at the back of the magazine were discounted for practical reasons.
The men and women were classified separately into two categories: partially clothed or fully clothed. To operationalise our findings precisely and increase inter-rater reliability, it was agreed that a ‘fully clothed’ person would have to be wearing enough to be considered presentable in public. That is to say a ‘partially clothed’ person would have areas of the body exposed that would be inappropriate for public display, for example the torso (and breasts in females), buttocks and upper thigh.
Pilot Study
Our pilot study helped us to ensure our methods were practical, for example, to determine which images should be included in the study. We realised that it would be painstakingly difficult to count every single small advertisement at the back of each magazine, therefore it was decided that they would be discounted. To ensure there was a specific boundary for this rule, it was settled that only the bodies larger than an eighth of an A4 sheet of paper would be included. There was already a sufficient sample size in order to gain reliable results, as the group studied eight magazines in total.
Results
Summary
This table shows a summarised version of the raw results (see Appendix 2). The numbers in brackets refer to the frequency. From this we can deduce that women were displayed partially clothed 30% more than men (303 times more), and that they were displayed fully clothed 30% less than men (283 times less) in the eight magazines studied. Therefore we can infer that there were significantly more partially clothed women than men, and significantly more fully clothed men than women.
These summarised results are illustrated in the graph.
Bar Graph
Discussion
Findings
We observed that out of all of those partially clothed, there were indeed more women than men, approximately four times as many, supporting the directional hypothesis that there would be more partially clothed women than men featured in FHM magazine. We also found that out of all of those fully clothed, there were indeed more men than women, approximately a third more, supporting the hypothesis that there the majority of fully clothed people displayed in FHM magazine would be men. Therefore I can reject the null hypothesis, as it is clear that the findings support the experimental hypothesis.
Although it is true that these percentages account for different totals (many more women were featured than men), the Chi Square test proves that there is a statistical significance of over P = 0.05, thus the effect is real and not due to chance.
Therefore I conclude that women the portrayal of women is highly sexualised compared to that of men, with women being depicted as sexual objects more than men, manifested in the increased body exposure.
The fact that the effect is real is reinforced by their concurrence with previous research investigating the sexuality of women and men. For example, the study by Plous and Neptune (1997), used similar methods – they examined body exposure in specifically gendered magazines in much the same way as was conducted in this study, and found that ‘advertisements with exposed women were approximately four times more common than those with exposed men’ – an exact parallel to my results. They concluded that there was a trend toward sexualising female models in magazine advertisements, mirroring our conclusion that women are depicted as sexual objects. The fact that this study was conducted over a decade ago suggests that this has been a trend for some time - women have continued to be portrayed as sexual objects more than men.
The robust effect of the results is eminent to an even greater extent as the methods of Courtney and Lockeretz (1971) where they measured the role of women portrayed in advertisements in non-gendered magazines, are different from the procedure used in this study, yet they found that women were used for decorative purposes with few in working roles and drew a similar conclusion. They deduced that women are portrayed as sexual objects rather than women as people, further reinforcing the results’ robust effect. The fact that it was carried out over thirty years ago could suggest that even with the many developments in favour of women, such as their increased independence and influence, the media still continues to portray them as sexual objects.
Limitations and modifications
The fact that we only studied one magazine is a limitation. FHM may be biased in its attitude towards sexuality, as it specifically targets a predominantly male group aged 18 to 25, and therefore is unrepresentative of society’s attitude as a whole. If we redid the study we could analyse magazines aimed at different sectors of society, such as young women or housewives, to gain a more rounded view of sexuality in men and women.
However, even if we investigate magazines targeted at different sectors of society, it may still not produce a true picture of the general attitude of society. We have to address the notion that magazines may not be a valid reflection of what people perceive – it may be merely a fantasy or form of escapism from reality. Although we could not amend this directly if we carried out the study again, we can still acknowledge this concept.
Implications and suggestions for further research
In this investigation we have studied merely one aspect of sexuality (the degree of body exposure) that although provides us with a useful conclusion, fails to explore the whole concept. There are many other aspects of sexuality that we could analyse to create a more accurate picture of social representations. For example, we could investigate where women and men were placed in the magazine in reference to status, which positions different men and women were placed in (e.g. inferior positions on the floor or superior positions on a chair) or how men and women posed differently (animalistic poses perhaps suggesting submission and inferiority compared to bold, strong, upright poses).
If we perceive these results to be an accurate depiction of sexuality in society’s view, they are useful in determining certain social representations of men and women. Sexuality was operationalised by the amount of body exposure, and from finding that women were displayed as partially clothed much more than men, we could suggest that this illustrates how women are thought of as sexual objects of desire, supported by Courtney and Lockeretz’s (1971) findings (70% of women in the advertisements studied were used for decorative purposes), rather than independent people on a level of equality with men. The equality between the sexes perpetuates against the common sense theory, and therefore is much harder to overcome.
Our research could be extended by investigating other magazines that are geared towards different sectors of society, such as teenagers, young women, older women, older men and non-gender magazines – this magazine may be biased towards young men because exposure of women is in their interest. We could use the same method that was applied in this study and compare it to these findings to create a more accurate picture of the general opinion of sexuality in men and women.
References
Cardwell, M., Clark, L. & Meldrum, C. (2004) Psychology for A2 Level: Third Edition. London, Collins.
Courtney, A. E. and Lockeretz, S.W. (1971) “A Woman’s Place: An analysis of the roles portrayed by women in magazine advertisements”, Journal of Marketing Research, 8, pp 92-95.
Plous, S. and Neptune, D. (1997) “Racial and Gender Biases in Magazine Advertising: A Content-Analytic Study”, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, pp 627-644.
Appendix 1: Examples of magazine images
Appendix 2: Raw Results
Appendix 3: Chi Square Test
