Bollywood, Popular Visual Media, and Sexism in India: A Critical Glance Back

Sexism is a sociocultural and psychological construct existing since ages. The popular media, as a mode of influencing public mindset and opinion, is also inflicted by it. The current discussion centers around the gender role stereotyping and sexism portrayed in the mainstream Indian movies, television, and advertisements and its evolution over the years. We also highlight the possible reasons behind the continued sexism in the media, and the bidirectional influence of popular media on the society and vice versa. We conclude that the portrayal is changing with increased awareness despite the challenges present, and a continuous attempt at promoting gender equality at all levels will help shape the sociocultural beliefs and public perceptions in the long run.

Loosening the GRIP (Gender Roles Inhibiting Prosociality) to Promote Gender Equality

Prosociality is an ideal context to begin shifting traditional gender role stereotypes and promoting equality. Men and women both help others frequently, but assistance often follows traditional gender role expectations, which further reinforces restrictive gender stereotypes in other domains. We propose an integrative process model of gender roles inhibiting prosociality (GRIP) to explain why and how this occurs. We argue that prosociality provides a unique entry point for change because it is (a) immediately rewarding (which cultivates positive attitude formation), (b) less likely to threaten the gender status hierarchy, and therefore less susceptible to social backlash (which translates into less restrictive social norms), and (c) a skill that can be learned (which leads to stronger beliefs in one’s own ability to help). Using the GRIP model, we derive a series of hypothesized interventions to interrupt the self-reinforcing cycle of gender role stereotyping and facilitate progress toward broader gender equality.

Demystification of the glass ceiling phenomenon

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the gender role phenomenon and the stereotyping of requisite managers’ personal characteristics in the Greek society of today. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected quantitatively based on the informants’ perceptions on successful managers’ personality traits and according to the informants’ personality characteristics. Questionnaires were administered online to two separate convenience samples. Reliability analysis (Cronbach’s α) was employed for scale refinement, while intraclass correlation coefficient (r’) and t-test analysis examined the similarity of respondents’ responses across the items of the refined scale. Findings The results indicate that gender role stereotypes are challenged. It seems that the perceived managers’ personality is comprised of both agentic/masculine and communal/feminine characteristics and this perception is not perceived differently by men and women. This debates on whether the “glass ceiling” exists due to other determinants. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature on gender role stereotyping research and perceptions of managerial personality characteristics in Greece.

Gender Role Stereotyping Of Women As Housewives In Conventional Pakistani Society

This study aims to analyze the short story, The Spell and the Ever Changing Moon (2014) by Rukhsana Ahmad, from the feminist perspective. A close reading of the text reveals that facing everyday challenges and juggling between multiple roles is a common practice for middleclass house wives in Pakistani society. The economic instabilities added with emotional, psychological as well as physical abuse plays a vital role in their oppression and humiliation on regular basis. These roles as assigned to them define their social standing and suffering becomes their destiny. Multiple roles of such women and social expectations outside and inside the house define their way of living. Each and every movement and thought becomes codependent on their social familial roles. Being selfless becomes an obligation and ‘sacrifice’ becomes convention for middle class women who spend their whole lives living under the thumb of their men folk. Moreover, the movement and status of women inside and outside the home is also a major concern addressed in this paper including the concept of home, and its significance in lives of Pakistani women.

Pervasively Offside

Women remain underrepresented in sport media despite increased opportunities in other facets of sport and journalism. Further, women who have held positions in sport media are often perceived as being less credible than men in the field. In an effort to understand why these perceptions exist, the present study examined the influence of gender-role stereotyping and sexism on perceived sportscaster credibility. Using a posttest-only quasi-experimental design, 544 participants watched a video of a basketball debate between a male and female sportscaster, in addition to assessing the credibility of these sportscasters. Participant attitudes toward the sportscaster, gender-role stereotyping, and sexism as well as media consumption intentions were also measured. Results indicated that participants’ endorsement of gender stereotypes and level of sexism had a negative effect on the perceived credibility of the female sportscaster. Credibility was also found to have a significant relationship with attitudes toward the sportscaster, which in turn was related to media consumption intentions.

Gender Representation In Pakistani Print Media: A Critical Analysis

The key objective of this study was to examine the representations of men and women in print media in Pakistan. Gender role stereotyping and sexism in print media is not a low-profile gender issue as printed communication and contents still hold an important place in contemporary digital world. Keeping in view the importance of newspapers as the leading source of credible content/messages, this paper examined gender stereotyping and sexism in print media in Pakistan and attempted to highlight whether print media reproduces or challenges gender stereotypes and sexism? Keeping in view the complexity of sexism in print media, content and discourse analyses were performed on four widely read national news papers. The findings have been placed within the socio-cultural context of Pakistani society and feminists theories. The study’s findings indicated that print media in Pakistan reinforces gender stereotypes and provide little challenge to gender stereotyped imagery of males and females.