Gender, Race, and Class in Media: Quiz 2 Study Terms

Gender display

Goffman's term for the process whereby we perform the roles expected of us by the social conventions around us.

Ritualization of subordination

Goffman's term for the way advertising uses body postures to present what the culture defines as feminine as subordinate to what it defines as masculine.

Trapped in the code

Jhally's phrase for powerful women who are still posed in the submissive codes of femininity.

Men gaze, and women present themselves to be gazed at

John Berger's argument that to understand the present we must analyze the past, specifically the hierarchical gender relations in European oil painting.

Tough guise

Katz's term for the front so many young men put up to shield their vulnerabilities.

Violent masculinity

The idea that talk about violence in America is almost always talk about cultural ideals of manhood.

Hiding in plain sight

Katz's description of how media coverage uses gender-neutral language that keeps men's role out of view.

The sissy

Tomlin's narration describing Hollywood's first gay stock character who made everyone feel more manly or more womanly by occupying the space in between.

The Codes of Gender

A work by Sut Jhally that explores identity and performance in pop culture.

Goffman's view on gender

Goffman sees the distinction between two genders as created and not natural.

Cultural codes

The shorthand codes that individuals internalize to signal their gender identity.

Submissive poses in advertising

Body postures used in advertising that communicate submission and powerlessness.

Sexual availability

The interpretation of certain poses as an expression of sexual availability.

Cultural femininity

The cultural association of certain poses with femininity rather than biological factors.

Action films and femininity

The phenomenon where women in action films adopt submissive poses despite appearing powerful.

Historical context of the female nude

The context in which women were positioned to be watched by powerful men in European oil painting.

Passive nakedness

The submission to the gaze of the owner of the painting, as exemplified by Nell Gwynne.

Cultural ideals of manhood

The standards that dictate how masculinity is perceived and expressed in society.

Media's role in violence perception

The way media coverage obscures men's roles in violence through gender-neutral language.

Stock character views

Competing perspectives on the sissy character in Hollywood, as discussed by Harvey Fierstein and Quentin Crisp.

The Production Code (Hays Code)

The movies' first voluntary effort at self-censorship.

Legion of Decency

A Catholic Church organization that threatened massive boycotts against Hollywood.

Joe Breen

The enforcer of the Production Code who was authorized to change words, personalities, and plots.

Subtext

The underlying meaning in a narrative that is not explicitly stated.

Toxic Masculinity

A cultural concept that promotes harmful norms around masculinity.

Manosphere

A loose coalition of online communities associated with the men's rights movement.

Men's Rights Activists

Individuals who advocate for the rights of men, often associated with the manosphere.

Involuntary Celibates

Men who feel unable to find romantic or sexual partners despite wanting to.

The mantle of the underdog

The ability of men's rights groups to portray men as victims and feminists as oppressors.

Patriarchy

A social system in which men hold primary power.

Studying Up

The sociological approach of examining those at the top of a power structure.

Heterosexuality and Homosexuality

Terms that emerged in the 19th century to categorize sexual behavior.

Richard Krafft-Ebing

The sexologist who popularized the terms heterosexuality and homosexuality.

Ethnocentrism

Seeing one's own culture as better or more correct relative to another culture.

Buggery

A term used before 1886 to describe sexual behavior between two men.

Sodomy

Another historical term for same-sex sexual behavior.

Victorian Views on Sexuality

The belief that sexual desire was not exclusively directed toward the opposite sex.

Juliet Williams

A professor of gender studies who discusses patriarchy and male supremacy.

GamerGate

A harassment campaign that drew national attention to the manosphere.

Elliot Rodger

The individual whose killing spree in 2014 highlighted the dangers of the manosphere.

Southern Poverty Law Center

An organization that classified male supremacy as a distinct ideology of hate.