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Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)

Example Abstract:

IT’S REAL SIMPLE, PEOPLE … TIME TO MAXIMIZE THE WOMAN’S DAY: SEXIST LANGUAGE IN CONTEMPORARY MAGAZINES
Andrea L. vonBriesen
Dr. Alan Swinkels, Psychology

         Sexist language, although less prevalent in academic writing, remains a potential problem in the popular press. Magazines are read by millions of people on a monthly basis; as such, the language they use (e.g., “mankind” rather than “humanity,” “he” rather than “he or she”) has the capacity to shape and maintain sexist attitudes. In the present study 400 magazines were inspected and categorized (e.g., business, fashion, men’s interest). Representative magazines from each of 27 categories were then coded for the presence of both sexist and nonsexist language. Five randomly selected pages from each of several randomly selected magazines in each category were coded along four dimensions of sexist language and four dimensions of nonsexist language. Initial analyses revealed a trend showing a greater incidence of sexist language compared to nonsexist language across all categories of magazines. Specifically, across 27 magazines there were 61 examples of sexist language compared to 20 examples of nonsexist language. These findings suggest that nonsexist forms of grammar can be adopted, but the prevalence of sexist language remains a problem.