CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
CLASS PROJECTS
I. Gender Reversal
One way of having students discover the content and pervasiveness of nonconscious ideologies of gender roles
(Bem & Bem, 1970) is to do a gender reversal exercise. They should take a story or advertisement from a
newspaper or magazine, and reverse the genders--that is, every time it says he, change it to she, if it says Mary,
change it to Bob, and so on. In class they can read the original and changed versions and discuss the
nonconscious ideologies that go unnoticed but become blatant when the genders are reversed. This can be done
well with photographs from ads, reversing the positions of men and women to highlight how we are used to
seeing the man's head higher than the woman's, the man in the position of leadership, and so on. Some of the
historical themes (such as male as normative) discussed in Chapter 1 of the text may also be identified. We find
that it is important to do an exercise such as this early in the course in order to counteract the common
misconception among students that gender roles are all equalized now.
Reference:
Bem, Sandra L., & Bem, D. J. (1970). Case study of nonconscious ideology: Training the woman to know her
place. In D. J. Bem (Ed.), Beliefs, attitudes, and human affairs. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
,II. Images of Women in Popular Magazines
Have students collect several issues each of Woman's Day, Ms., Cosmopolitan, and Playboy. Compare and
contrast the images of women presented in them. (If you want to give students some training in doing science,
you can show them how to derive categories for content analysis, and then actually do a content analysis, either of
photographs or stories.)
FILMS AND VIDEOS
A GENERAL NOTE: Our approach to films and videos for this course has changed considerably in the last 10
years. There are many wonderful, thought-provoking special reports on women on TV, and you can tape them
and use them for my class. Some of these special reports are terrible and very antifeminist, but they can be great
for analysis by a class, too, to encourage critical thinking. As a result, we rent fewer videos today. For this
reason, the film and video list here is briefer than it has been before, and we have restricted it, for the most part, to
films that video material that is unlikely to appear on TV.
A listing of the names, addresses, websites, and phone numbers of the suppliers of the videos listed in these
chapters is contained at the end of this manual.
Women's portrayal in advertising can be analyzed for some of the themes discussed in this chapter and for gender-
role stereotypes. Favorites of many instructors are:
Killing Us Softly (Cambridge Documentary Films, 1979, 30 min.), a thought-provoking feminist analysis of
women's image in the media. (See end of manual for complete information on Cambridge and other film
distributors. Cambridge definitely has some of the best videos on women and gender.).
Still Killing Us Softly (Cambridge Documentary Films, 1987, 32 min.), an update of the above movie, although
I've heard many opinions that the original is the better of the two.
Killing Us Softly 4 (Media Education Foundation, 2010, 45 min.) is the most recent update in the series. Media
Education Foundation is another one of the best sources of films on women and gender.
,MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Your text uses the term "gender" to refer to
a. the culturally imposed roles of males and females.
b. males and females.
c. people who are the candidates for the sex-change operation.
d. sexual behavior.
ANS: b
2. Your text uses the term “gender” to refer to
a. males and females.
b. qualities of males and females that are created by society.
, c. social construction.
d. biological aspects of masculinity and femininity.
e. areas of similarity between males and females.
ANS: a
3. In discussing psychology of women in terms of gender differences, there is an inherent paradox because
a. women want to have their cake and eat it too.
b. women both love men and hate them.
c. women are both different from men and very similar to them.
d. there is considerable overlap in the distributions for females and males on most psychological
characteristics.
ANS: C
4. "Gender similarities" refers to
a. the phenomenon that people are sexually attracted to people who are similar to them in attitudes,
personality, and so on.
b. the fact that there is great within-gender variability.
c. the similar path of male and female development prenatally.
d. ways in which males and females are similar rather than different.
ANS: d
INTRODUCTION
CLASS PROJECTS
I. Gender Reversal
One way of having students discover the content and pervasiveness of nonconscious ideologies of gender roles
(Bem & Bem, 1970) is to do a gender reversal exercise. They should take a story or advertisement from a
newspaper or magazine, and reverse the genders--that is, every time it says he, change it to she, if it says Mary,
change it to Bob, and so on. In class they can read the original and changed versions and discuss the
nonconscious ideologies that go unnoticed but become blatant when the genders are reversed. This can be done
well with photographs from ads, reversing the positions of men and women to highlight how we are used to
seeing the man's head higher than the woman's, the man in the position of leadership, and so on. Some of the
historical themes (such as male as normative) discussed in Chapter 1 of the text may also be identified. We find
that it is important to do an exercise such as this early in the course in order to counteract the common
misconception among students that gender roles are all equalized now.
Reference:
Bem, Sandra L., & Bem, D. J. (1970). Case study of nonconscious ideology: Training the woman to know her
place. In D. J. Bem (Ed.), Beliefs, attitudes, and human affairs. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
,II. Images of Women in Popular Magazines
Have students collect several issues each of Woman's Day, Ms., Cosmopolitan, and Playboy. Compare and
contrast the images of women presented in them. (If you want to give students some training in doing science,
you can show them how to derive categories for content analysis, and then actually do a content analysis, either of
photographs or stories.)
FILMS AND VIDEOS
A GENERAL NOTE: Our approach to films and videos for this course has changed considerably in the last 10
years. There are many wonderful, thought-provoking special reports on women on TV, and you can tape them
and use them for my class. Some of these special reports are terrible and very antifeminist, but they can be great
for analysis by a class, too, to encourage critical thinking. As a result, we rent fewer videos today. For this
reason, the film and video list here is briefer than it has been before, and we have restricted it, for the most part, to
films that video material that is unlikely to appear on TV.
A listing of the names, addresses, websites, and phone numbers of the suppliers of the videos listed in these
chapters is contained at the end of this manual.
Women's portrayal in advertising can be analyzed for some of the themes discussed in this chapter and for gender-
role stereotypes. Favorites of many instructors are:
Killing Us Softly (Cambridge Documentary Films, 1979, 30 min.), a thought-provoking feminist analysis of
women's image in the media. (See end of manual for complete information on Cambridge and other film
distributors. Cambridge definitely has some of the best videos on women and gender.).
Still Killing Us Softly (Cambridge Documentary Films, 1987, 32 min.), an update of the above movie, although
I've heard many opinions that the original is the better of the two.
Killing Us Softly 4 (Media Education Foundation, 2010, 45 min.) is the most recent update in the series. Media
Education Foundation is another one of the best sources of films on women and gender.
,MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Your text uses the term "gender" to refer to
a. the culturally imposed roles of males and females.
b. males and females.
c. people who are the candidates for the sex-change operation.
d. sexual behavior.
ANS: b
2. Your text uses the term “gender” to refer to
a. males and females.
b. qualities of males and females that are created by society.
, c. social construction.
d. biological aspects of masculinity and femininity.
e. areas of similarity between males and females.
ANS: a
3. In discussing psychology of women in terms of gender differences, there is an inherent paradox because
a. women want to have their cake and eat it too.
b. women both love men and hate them.
c. women are both different from men and very similar to them.
d. there is considerable overlap in the distributions for females and males on most psychological
characteristics.
ANS: C
4. "Gender similarities" refers to
a. the phenomenon that people are sexually attracted to people who are similar to them in attitudes,
personality, and so on.
b. the fact that there is great within-gender variability.
c. the similar path of male and female development prenatally.
d. ways in which males and females are similar rather than different.
ANS: d
