The article “Invisibility of Asian men and Black women in popular magazines” explores the theme of racial stereotypes referring to the gendered component. According to Schug, Alt, Lu, Gosin, and Fay (2015), “A number of studies investigating gendered race stereotypes have found that Blacks in North American society are represented and conceived as prototypically masculine, while Asians are represented and conceived of as prototypically feminine” (2).
The research focuses on the depiction of Asian men and Black women in popular magazines in comparison with Whites. The authors use quantitative study design to evaluate the appearance of different races and genders in six popular magazines. After the analysis of 8,672 individuals, the researchers conclude that non-prototypical gendered races are less presented in mass media, than other categories of the society (Schug et al., 2015). Popular magazines present Asians as female and Blacks as male, ignoring all people who do not conform with these conditions.
The research is very well structured presenting its main ideas in a clear, understandable way. The terms “intersectionality” and “intersectional invisibility” are described in detail and with the help of credible sources to give the overview of the subject. The authors underline that non-prototypical members of the society suffer more frequently from discrimination than others (Schug et al., 2015). The article gives historical context of developing stereotypes, citing the results of various other studies.
Mass media traditionally depicts Black women as aggressive, and Asian men as feminine and dependable. The article presents clear hypotheses that allow following the thoughts of the authors from the beginning until the end of the study. Both hypotheses support each other in their explanation. The choice of materials for the analysis attests the intentions of the authors to present credible study results. The article includes the overview of six popular magazines in three categories: fashion, fitness, and sexual themes (Schug et al., 2015). The magazines are equally targeted on men and women what helps to define the representation of different races. The magazines are also aimed at the broad readers’ audience, outlining common views on gender, race, and sexuality. The article contains statistics about the circulation of the magazines to prove their popularity.
The authors underline that a research assistant has conducted the analysis of magazines without knowing the hypotheses (Schug et al., 2015). Therefore, the results of the study cannot be affected by personal biases of the research assistant. The study uses second research assistant and Cohen’s kappa coefficients to prove the validity of the coded variables from analyzed materials. The authors conduct a series of analyses to prove and support their hypotheses. Due to the abundance of facts and statistics, their results seem credible. On the whole, the authors raise an important theme of race and gender stereotypes in modern mass media. This topic has a rich historical background and often appears in various research papers. Nevertheless, the quantitative study of Black women and Asian men in popular magazines gives new information on the subject that can be used in further investigations. The choice of material allows tracing the attitudes of a wide public towards races and gender. The reliability of results supported by facts and statistics attests the intention of the authors to provide a useful study on the subject.
References
Schug, J., Alt, N. P., Lu, P. S., Gosin, M., & Fay, J. L. (2015). Gendered race in mass media: Invisibility of Asian men and Black women in popular magazines. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 1-15.