Female comic characters skew toward upper socio-economic classes while males skew toward lower classes¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1953 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 1958: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? A greater proportion of female than male characters is in the upper-middle and upper socio-economic classes, with a correspondingly larger proportion of males in the lower-middle and lower classes. → Audio-Visual Communication Review 1953

Evidence¶

Audio-Visual Communication Review 1953¶

Audio-Visual Communication Review. (1953). Audio-Visual Communication Review, p. 316 (digest of Spiegelman, Terwilliger & Fearing, The Journal of Social Psychology, 37:189-203, May 1953; and Wolf & Fiske, The Children Talk about Comics, in Communications Research 1948-1949, Harper and Brothers, 1948). https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02713301

q2 · i? · associational · r1

Content-analysis result on the socio-economic class distribution of characters by sex in the 52-strip sample; the digest reports proportions directionally without a printed effect size.

"A greater proportion of female characters is in the upper-middle and upper socio-economie classes than male characters, and a correspondingly larger proportion of the males is in the lower-middle and lower classes."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Comic strip characters of both sexes highly prize altruistic group-oriented goals while self-oriented goals are frequent though disapproved — related
• Male comic characters' goals and means differ by socio-economic class: upper class humanitarian, middle class self- and power-goals with aggressive means, lower class fate and charm — related
• Female comic characters' goals and means vary by class: upper class being loved and lovable, middle class career recognition by hard work, lower class serving others and accepting fate — related
• Content analysis of 52 nationally syndicated Sunday comic strips finds over twice as many male as female characters — related
• Comic strips reflect ambiguous attitudes toward the status of women — related