Constructing risk and responsibility: a gender,race, and class analysis of news representations of adolescent sexuality

Teen sexuality has been portrayed as dangerous (i.e., risk of pregnancy, STIs, sexual victimization for girls) yet pervasive in a growing post-feminist culture of sexualization. Adolescents are tasked with negotiating the difficult terrain of desire and danger as adults persistently construct contradictory discourses and panics around teen sexuality. This study examines a sample of online news media through a feminist intersectional lens, considering race, class, gender, and sexuality as mutually imbricated within dynamics of power, to analyze how contemporary news articles on teen sexuality construct adolescent sexuality at the intersection of neoliberalism and the sexual double standard. Our analysis revealed three particular moral panics around risk for girls: (1) pregnancy and STIs; (2) engagements in sexualization; and (3) sexual victimization. We illuminate how the sexual double standard and neoliberal notions of accountability reinstate and reproduce gendered, raced, and classed representations of adolescent sexualities.     

Gamers,gender, and cruel optimism: the limits of social identity constructs in The Guild

Abstract

Video game culture has a long, ongoing history of problems with representation and inclusivity, as a wide variety of forces have constructed video games and gaming as masculine. Against this background, the popular gamer-oriented web series The Guild (2007–2013) appears to offer a unique counterperspective, presenting a gender-diverse cast and focusing primarily on female protagonist Cyd “Codex” Sherman. As such, the show could potentially diversify popular conceptions of gamers. Through a close reading of The Guild, however, we demonstrate that it fails to do so. More specifically, the show’s portrayal of gamer identity serves as a form of cruel optimism, presenting it as an ideal that promises game players a consistent subculture and a sense of belonging, but ultimately traps them in narrow roles and identity constructs. Furthermore, the show’s gamer ideal also reproduces particular forms of gendered inequalities that posit aggressive, competitive masculinity as superior to both more passive masculinities and all forms of femininity. Overall, this leads The Guild to reinforce gaming culture’s existing problems with sexism and regressive stereotypes. Because of this, the show presents a relation of cruel optimism, assuming the appearance of positive change while failing to deliver on it.     

The construction of gender in dating apps: an interface analysis of Tinder and Bumble

In this article, we analyse two mobile dating applications: Tinder and Bumble. Mobilizing two studies by Erving Goffman and Lucille Alice Suchman, we present a detailed analysis of the affordances of the profile creation tools of both of these applications. Together, these theoretical perspectives make visible the effect that the constraints imposed by the app’s self-presentation tools have on constructing subjects that are intelligible to the apps’ algorithms and, by implication, its designers and other users. Specifically, through our analysis, we demonstrate how the gender categories made available to users in creating their profiles are reflective of the structural needs of the app’s programming. This work is motivated by two research questions: First, how do the affordances of digital communication tools structure their users’ identities as they are both constructed and performed through the technology? Second, in what ways are notions of gender reflected in the affordances of mobile dating applications’ profile creation tools? Our results indicate that these apps construct gender as a rigid category that has more to do with function (matching profiles) than with identity. Implications for identity and design are discussed.     

The Editor,the Publisher,and His Mother: The Representation of Lesbians and Gays in the New York Times

The attention and prominence given to issues in media outlets may affect the importance citizens attribute to them, so the actors who influence mass media coverage decisions may have political power in society generally. This article seeks to measure the relative influence of journalists, social trends, events, government officials, editors, and owners on the New York Times coverage of lesbians and gays from 1960 to 1995. Although many factors affected the nature and frequency of such coverage, the findings of this article show that the owners of the Times exerted decisive influence. Documentary evidence reveals that the Times' owners actively intervened to suppress coverage of lesbians and gays until 1987, even as reporters and editors recognized that increased social visibility made them newsworthy. Statistical analysis confirms that, although some actual events and statements of officials attracted attention from the newspaper throughout the period, they were more likely to generate prominent coverage after 1987 when the stories were consistent with the enthusiasms of the owners.     

Political battlefield: aggressive metaphors,gender, and power in news coverage of Canadian party leadership contests

Our study analyzed aggressive figures of speech used by the Globe and Mail to describe the personas, performances, and prospects of women and men leadership candidates for the (Progressive) Conservative Party of Canada in 1976, 1993, and 2004. We codified four distinct forms of power communicated by the aggressive metaphors—power over, power to, power with, and power as—to investigate what these battleground metaphors communicate about gender and political power. Our content analysis and discourse analysis of the phrases applied to each of the candidates revealed gendered assumptions about political leadership. All three women candidates in our study—Flora MacDonald (1976), Kim Campbell (1993), and Belinda Stronach (2004)—were discussed as formidable foes, capable of using considerable force in their efforts to win. Indeed, Campbell became Canada’s first and only woman prime minister. Yet, much of the aggressive mediation confirms the gendered mediation thesis that aggressive metaphors exclude women and reconstitute politics as masculine. Many of the combative phrases cast doubt on a woman candidate’s ability to successfully compete on the political battlefield.     

The impact of local labour markets on investment in further education: Evidence from the England and Wales youth cohort studies

The paper focuses on the individual's choice of activity on completion of compulsory schooling – to remain in full-time education or to seek employment – and the factors influencing this decision. Information from the England and Wales Youth Cohort Studies, coupled with labour market data, is used to estimate of logit model of choice and assess the role played by social and market factors. The results show that labour market conditions play an influential role in determining outcomes, particularly in the case of young males with weaker academic qualifications. Consistent with the time-series evidence, we find that participation rates in further education for both males and females are positively related to the unemployment rate in the local labour market, the effects being greater at times of economic recession when unemployment rates are rising. Received: 5 May 1997/Accepted: 17 July 1998     

我国出生性别比失衡区域的识别、特点及成因——基于县(市)级层面的分析

本文采用地理信息系统(GIS)的空间分析技术,利用地理信息系统分析软件(ARCView GIS)、探索性空间分析技术软件(GeoDA)、社会科学统计软件包(SPSS)等软件,对1982年、1990年和2000年三次全国人口普查的县域截面数据进行了分析。通过空间分析,识别出我国高出生性别比聚集的热点区域,并进一步对其分布、演变特点和成因进行了较深入研究,试图找到热点区域分布及变化的规律性特点。在此基础上,提出了热点区治理和跨区域治理相结合的政策思路。