Bimbos and Rambos: The Cognitive Basis of Gender Stereotypes

Margaret W. Matlin
http://www.psichi.org/pubs/articles/article_112.aspx

In this article the author presents how she feels gender stereotypes influence our cognitive processes and also how the media contributes to the stereotypes continuing. Margaret Matlin suggests that one of the biggest ways people stereotype in general is based on gender. She gives four really great examples of how gender plays a role in the way we divide people into groups. Her first example is labeled “Gender Polarization” which is habitual and automatic splitting of people into either the male category or the female category. Margaret suggests that we tend to see the members in the male group as being very similar to each other and likewise with the members of the female group. However, we see the two groups as wholes being extremely different from each other. Her second example was in the way that we have different expectations for males and females. Here she cited a study done with infants and a jack-in-the-box and their reaction to it. Participants in this study, if thinking the infant was a male, attributed the crying response as anger; if thinking the infant was female, attributed the crying response as fear. They were not told the actual gender of the infant; they were led to believe the infant was one sex or the other, sometimes falsely. The third example she gives states that we view the males attributions as the “norm” and therefore females are measured based on that “norm”. The fourth example is “Remembering Gender Consistent Information”, here she states that people are more likely to recall facts about a person if the fact is consistent with what is considered to be the norm for their gender.
As for how the media contributes to stereotyping she lists again four ways in which this happens. Number one is that women are underrepresented in the media in general. Number two is the way that women’s and men’s bodies are represented differently in the media. For example, women are usually shown in a provocative manner, where men are usually shown as standing tall and looking competent. Number three is women and men are shown doing different activities, they are shown doing only the activities that are consistent with their gender norm. Number four is how women of “color” are represented in an especially biased way. She suggests that women who are not caucasian are shown in more exaggerated sexual ways, if they are shown at all, then women who are caucasian.
I thought that all of the author’s suggestions as to how we divide people into groups based on gender were true and accurate. However, I felt that her suggestions regarding the media were slightly outdated. I would like to believe that we now use guys as sex objects in advertisements as well as women. Also, that there has been increased use of all races in ads in the media. I think that there is less definition between what activities are the norm for each gender to be shown performing. I felt as a whole this was an interesting view on how we use gender stereotyping.