Browsing by Subject "Sexism"
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Item Amplifying a public's voice : online news readers' comments impact on journalism and its role as the new public space(2011-05) Loke, Jaime 1979-; Harp, Dustin, 1968-This dissertation is concerned with the impact online news readers comments have on the role of journalists and the implication it carries in shifting private sentiments onto a public space. Online news readers comments have recently grown in popularity and journalists across the United States are divided on how best to host this new public space. Drawing perspectives from new forms of journalism, sociological studies in race and gender, critical race and feminist studies, this dissertation focuses on a) the challenges of news organizations as hosts of this new public space and b) the racist and sexist discourse generated by audiences of certain online news stories. This dissertation employs a multi-method research design that combines a large scale survey of journalists in the United States, in-depth interviews with journalists, content analysis and a discourse analysis of online news readers comments from five selected news stories with strong race and/or gender elements in order to 1) gain journalists’ perspectives in this new electronic landscape and 2) examine the content of the comments that pose the most challenges to journalists in terms of hosting this space. The survey and interviews revealed how journalists are divided in wanting to serve their public by providing a space for dialogue but yet refusing to host hate. Faced with this challenge within the new electronic landscape, a majority of journalists are left on their own to determine how best to handle this new public space with hardly any guidance or support from news managers. The analysis of the comments showed that the articulations of race and gender in the discourse were not erratic expressions of a minority but instead repertories of racism and sexism that mirrored the string of findings from race and gender scholars. This dissertation finds that online news readers comments section have emerged as the space for unconstrained expressions to flourish without the constraints of political correctness and within the safe confines of anonymity.Item Facing Racism at 30,000 Feet: African American Pilots, Flight Attendants, and Emotional Labor(2012-07-16) Evans, LouwandaIn this qualitative study, I examine the experiences of African American pilots and flight attendants with emotional labor. Integral to existing theories of emotional labor is the incorporation of voices of color and their contemporary movement into professional industries. Essentially, most all theories of emotional labor were built through the examination of low-wage service workers in gendered or racially segregated occupations, with only recent incorporations of gendered occupations within professional settings. Using the theoretical concept of emotional labor, or the labor required to reduce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others, I argue that emotional labor is much more than labor produced within the confines of a job, but is also based on identity characteristics that directly influence interactions in the workplace. Therefore, I qualitatively examine, through in-depth interviews with more than thirty African American flight crew members, how emotional labor is influenced and performed when people of color are introduced to professional settings. The results of this study show that there are multiple dimensions of emotional labor that should be added to existing theory. Primarily, existing standards of emotional labor in the airline industry are a direct result of institutional structures and cultures created during a period of systematic exclusion that do not account for contemporary racism and sexism. Thus, performing emotional labor in this industry is unequally placed on those white women and people of color that had no input into its creation. The results of this study suggest that emotional labor should be inclusive of systemic racism perspectives as a method of understanding how salient identity characteristics, such as gender, race, and class, are directly connected to preconceived ideologies that influence interactions that call for emotional labor. Moreover, because African American men and women in this industry are underrepresented, emotional labor becomes a necessity in their interactions with coworkers, consumers, and management. In addition, African Americans experience highly regulated emotional labor that influence how they perform their jobs, interact with others, and formulate appropriate counter-narratives.Item Manhood up in the air : gender, sexuality, corporate culture, and the law in twentieth century America(2007-05) Tiemeyer, Philip James; Davis, Janet M.This project analyzes the sexual and gender politics of flight attendants, especially the men who did this work, since the 1930s. It traces how and why the flight attendant corps became the nearly exclusive domain of white women by the 1950s, then considers the various legal battles under the 1964 Civil Rights Act to re-integrate men into the workforce, open up greater opportunities for African-Americans, and liberate women from onerous age and marriage restrictions that cut short their careers. While other scholars have emphasized flight attendants' contributions in battling sexism in the courts, this project is unique in expanding such consideration to homosexuality. Male flight attendants' status as gender pariahs in the workforce (as men performing "women's work")--combined with the fact that many of them were gay--made them objects of "homosexual panic" in the 1950s, both in legal proceedings and in various forms of extra-legal intimidation. A decade later, aspirant flight attendants were participants in some of the first cases brought by men under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Their victories in the courts greatly benefited the gay community, among others, which thereby enjoyed greater freedom to enter a highly visible, public-relationsoriented corporate career. As such, my project helps to recast the legal legacy of the civil rights movement as a three-pronged reform, confronting homophobia as well as racism and sexism. Beyond legal considerations, Manhood Up in the Air also examines how both labor unions and the airlines negotiated a legal environment and public sentiment that largely condoned firing homosexuals, while nonetheless accommodating gay employees. This form of accommodation existed in the 1950s, though much more precariously than in the post-Stonewall decade of the 1970s. Thus, the project records the pre-history to the current reality, in which both corporations (with airlines at the forefront) and labor unions have become core supporters of the contemporary gay rights movement.Item Roles of women in advertising : the objectification of women and the shift to an empowering ad frame(2013-05) Perez, Nancy Pilar; Atkinson, LucindaThis report examines the sexualization and objectification of women in print advertising, and the consequences of these depictions. The major themes found in advertising are discussed, and their role in reinforcing sexism and female stereotypes. Advertising’s impact on society’s attitudes, beliefs, and behavior in relation to social comparison theory and cultivation theory are examined. The report examines historical implications of women’s role in advertising and the gradual shift to new trends in advertising that seek to empower women. Through content analysis of the 2005 Nike Real Women campaign, implications and recommendations for future advertising are discussed.Item Sexist attitudes about men’s sexual behavior: Development of a measure(Texas Tech University, 2007-12) Frizzell, Jason R.; Garos, Sheila; Hendrick, Susan S.; Richards, Steven; Clopton, JimSexism research to date has routinely focused primarily on the negative implications sexism has for women, yet has not directly addressed the question of whether such beliefs exist toward men, particularly men’s sexual behavior. In the current study, the Sexist Attitudes About Men’s Sexual Behavior Scale (SAMSB) was developed based on women’s responses to 126 rationally-derived items. Exploratory factor analyses of the SAMSB revealed three latent factors: Men’s Drive for Sex; Disapproval of Men’s Sexual Behavior; and Men’s Sexual Immorality. As hypothesized, scores on the SAMSB were positively correlated with two other measures of negative attitudes toward men: the Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory (ATMI), and the Attitudes Toward Men Scale (ATMS). Additionally, the hypothesis that scores on SAMSB would be positively correlated with women’s negative views of their sexual selves, based on responses to the Conservative-Embarrassed subscale of the Sexual Self-Schema Scale (SSS) was confirmed. A simultaneous regression analysis revealed that the SAMSB composite score was positively correlated with the Hostility Toward Men subscale of the ATMI, the ATMS total score, and the Conservative-Embarrassed subscale of the SSS. As expected, the SAMSB significantly predicted HM (hostility toward men) as well as the Conservative-Embarrassed subscale of the SSS. Results suggest that women who endorse sexist attitudes toward men’s sexual behavior may use sexist attitudes to inform an overall set of generally negative, if not hostile attitudes toward men. Results also suggest that women with sexual self-views reflective of less sexually permissive attitudes also have negative attitudes toward men’s sexual behavior.Item Something to Fear: Perception of Defining Characteristics of Animals, Evaluation of Animals, and the Moderating Role of Speciesism(Texas A&M International University, 2015-06) Waters, Allison Elaine; Muñoz, MonicaSpeciesism, a form of prejudice wherein a person gives or takes value away from an organism based upon how he or she categorizes living things, is most likely a form of flexible evolutionary adaptation. However, with increasing awareness of humanity's impact on the environment and growing morality, speciesism is increasingly becoming a disadvantage. Speciesism can be reflected in actions from unethical breeding habits to outright attacks on certain animals. The purpose of this study was to examine if altering the physical appearance of animals affects the person's attitudes towards those animals. It was hypothesized that altering physical characteristics of some animals would increase attractiveness of the animals and this effect would be moderated by speciesism. Fifty-six university students were asked to rate each of a series of 20 animal images to measure their specific animal attitudes, defined as their evaluation of the appearance, predicted behavior, and threat potential of those animals. The control group (Condition 1) evaluated 9 unaltered animal images and the experimental group (Condition 2) evaluated the altered versions of those images. Speciesism was measured as a potential moderator of altering the image. Hierarchical regression showed altering the image to be a significant predictor (β = -.271, p = .043) of attitudes. Speciesism, however, was neither a significant predictor by itself (β = -.144, p = .276) nor significantly strengthened or weakened the effect of altering the images (β = -.516, p = .197).