Deck 11: Popular Culture and Media

Question 1

What is the Bechdel Test?

A) A quiz that assesses how aware high school students are of lesbians in the media
B) A medical test that measures toxins televisions emit and their effects on different racial ethnic groups
C) A way of counting females in movies that brings attention to the "missing" women in the media
D) A personality quiz that measures what type of gendered television watcher a person is

Answer 1

C

Question 2

How does the media play a role in societal legitimation?

A) It makes people feel better about themselves and less insecure.
B) It prompts cynicism and helps the common person develop a desire for societal transformation.
C) It makes audiences more fully aware of the intersectionality of oppressions, including race ethnicity, gender, and class.
D) It creates an image of our society as the best of all possible worlds and communicates that message to the common person.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

In what way have TV images of gender become worse in the past several decades?

A) The proportion of male characters to female
B) The extent to which female characters are stereotyped as hypersexual
C) The disproportionate increase of depictions of violence against women
D) The numbers of women in positions of authority

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What do Gaye Tuchman and her colleagues suggest with their term "symbolic annihilation"?

A) That the underrepresentation of women in media renders women invisible and sends a message that they do not matter
B) That violence against women is a direct result of the increase of representations of violence against women on television and in movies
C) That U.S. media commits a kind of violence against other nations with its lack of international programming
D) That depression and anxiety have resulted in great numbers among women because of the lack of media role models

Question 5

What variable does gender intersect with on American television advertising, in comparison with Turkish and Japanese television advertising?

A) Race ethnicity
B) The tension between the East and West
C) Age
D) Power

Question 6

What is "sexualization," in comparison with healthy sexuality?

A) When a person's value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior to the exclusion of other characteristics
B) When a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness (narrowly defined) with being sexy or is sexually objectified
C) When sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person
D) Any of the above

Question 7

What is "self-objectification"?

A) Another term for self-love or self-esteem: when women and girls learn to feel positively toward their own bodies
B) When women and girls "buy" sexualized images in the media and start to behave in ways consistent with them
C) Another term for "narcissism," when women and girls love themselves more than they love others, because the media has taught them to do so
D) The idea that selfhood as it is currently structured by the media in the United States turns people into "commodity fetishes"

Question 8

What proportion of U.S. women report experiencing online abuse or harassment?

A) 1/5
B) 1/4
C) 1/3
D) 1/2

Question 9

What does "reception theory" argue about media's effects?

A) That media play a conservative role in society, manipulating and persuading viewers to believe that the status quo is the best of all possible worlds, or even the only possibility
B) That viewers, listeners, and readers are not just passive receivers but rather engage in thinking about and giving meaning to what they take in
C) That each person, no matter what his or her social position or background is, interprets what the media deliver very similarly
D) That our ideas about issues such as gender are a combination of what the media sends and what our government tells us

Question 10

What was Beverly Guy-Sheftall referring to when she said, "it's not the whip, it's the dollar bill" that keeps women oppressed"?

A) Her contention that it is the capitalist system itself, rather than individuals, that is responsible for the oppression of women
B) A claim that women are far more likely to respond to financial incentives and intimidation than to physical threats
C) Her argument that hip hop music is far less racist than its detractors claim
D) The similarity she perceives between the nearly naked women in music videos and America's racist past, when women were paraded naked at slave auctions

Question 11

Which theory states that media play an active role in manipulating and persuading viewers that the status quo is the best, if not the only, option?

A) Hegemony theory
B) Reception theory
C) Reflection theory
D) Objectification theory

Question 12

Advertising in the 1930s-1980s generally depicted two types of ideal masculinity. What were they?

A) Loners who shirked institutional responsibility ("drifters") and rugged individualists ("cowboys")
B) Thrill-seekers ("daredevils") and tough, violent men who are callous about women and sex ("bad boys")
C) Men who prioritized family and social duty ("sturdy oaks") and men who achieve professional success ("big wheels")
D) Mysterious loners (the "handsome stranger" type) and strong, patriotic men (e.g. soldiers and cowboys)

Question 13

Which of the following gender stereotypes has declined significantly in children's media?

A) Female characters being mothers at higher rates than male characters being fathers
B) Men portrayed in work settings more often than women
C) Men committing violence
D) Women being damsels in distress

Question 14

Which of the following is NOT a stereotype that researchers have observed in U.S. advertising?

A) White men tend to be depicted as powerful.
B) White women tend to be depicted as sex objects.
C) Ads feature the trope of the "wise, beautiful housewife"
D) Black women are more likely to be shown in paid employment

Question 15

Who was the first openly gay character on U.S. television?

A) Ellen DeGeneres on Ellen
B) Billy Crystal on Soap
C) Eric McCormack on Will and Grace
D) Lance Loud on The Louds

Question 16

What percentage of 12-15 year olds in the U.S. say they prefer YouTube to watching TV?

A) 20%
B) 33%
C) 50%
D) 87%

Question 17

A 2017 study found that ______ percent of recurring television characters are LGBTQ - the highest ever recorded.

A) 1-2%
B) 6-7%
C) 10-12%
D) 20%

Question 18

________ occurs when a person is treated as a thing for another's use, rather than seen as a person with the capacity for independent action and decision making.

A) Sexualization
B) Objectification
C) Self-objectification
D) Misogyny

Question 19

Which of the following does Emerson (2004) observe in her analysis of the music videos of black female hip hop and rap artists?

A) There is a lack of diversity of body types and ages.
B) They tend to depict women as one-dimensional objects of male consumption.
C) Independence themes are common, such as speaking out and speaking one's mind.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 20

Which of the following best supports the reception theory of media?

A) Women taking fashion and style cues from a television show while also criticizing the sexist themes in the show
B) Young girls planning their future weddings based on the weddings of princesses they have seen in movies
C) Boys and men feeling dissatisfied with their bodies and wishing for bigger muscles after watching muscular characters on television
D) Consumers buying products after seeing advertising for them