Research in the area of sex and gender communication has been largely relegated the organizational setting and the superior/subordinate framework. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the effects of biological sex and psychological gender on evaluations of communication appropriateness within the interpersonal context. College students were first asked to complete a sex-role inventory. There were then presented with a series of scenarios depicting a communication encounter in which communicators adhered to gendered communication behavior norms, and a communication encounter in which communicators deviated from gendered communication behavior norms. After reading each transcript, participants completed a communication appropriateness scale for each character presented in the scenarios. The results show that within the interpersonal context, there are differences between males and females in evaluations of general competence, and that males enacting a feminine style of communication are evaluated as more communicatively appropriate than males enacting a masculine style of communication. Finally, this study provides a critique on the Bem Sex-Role Inventory based upon empirical evidence. / Department of Communication Studies

The purpose of this study was to determine if sex role stereotyping occurs in elementary school readers, and, if it does, to what extent. To achieve this purpose, the study examined and classified the roles, relationships, activities, attitudes, treatments, generalizations, future directions for life and work, and the relative importance assigned to male and female characters in elementary school readers. Data were generated from the application of a 48 item classification instrument which was developed by the researcher.The sampling for the study consisted of 280 stories in 56 elementary school readers, grades 1-6. Those stories were contained in the textbook series of the 7 publishing firms adopted by the state of Indiana for use during the 1973-78 school years.Data collected from the stories were viewed collectively for all series of elementary school readers. Findings and conclusions were based upon the total data compiled during the investigation of the problem.The data strongly indicated that sex role stereotyping consistently occurs in elementary school readers. Those data are presented in the following table:TABLE OF FINDINGSReported below are data collected from the 280 stories examined in 56 elementary school readers which present numerical comparisons between male and female roles.ItemNumber of timespresentedMaleFemaleMajor character21862In illustration (foreground)24581In front cover illustration12531Sex of names in story titles7117Biographies263In the business world (labor force)18943Active character29185Passive character36165Positive character statement25540Negative character statement3561Physical tasks accomplished24454Mental tasks accomplished18533One sex portrayed alone in groups16129Recreational activity107/111Working in the kitchen344Other domestic work1143Making an important decision21635Acquisition of skill or knowledge16324In a ridiculous or degrading situation2292Subservient to other sex074Dependent upon other sex280Based upon the findings of the study, it was concluded that females in elementary school readers were (1) less frequently represented than males in terms of numbers; (2) less frequently represented than males in titles, central roles, and stories; (3) represented in stereotyped roles such as wives, mothers, housekeepers, elementary teachers, and other service-oriented jobs; (4) represented in subordinate, home-related roles; (5) represented as being best fit to be helpmates to males and to depend on males for protection and support; (6) represented less frequently than males as intelligent, capable people with the ability to solve problems and get out of difficult situations; (7) frequently the recipients of derogatory comments; and (8) frequently represented in situations which reinforce culturally conditioned sexual characteristics illustrating as female such traits as dependency, passivity, emotionalism, and a non-competitive spirit.

As sexualities educators, we rarely examine the broader social context our sexualities are shaped within, nor do we often give meaningful instruction to students on how to come to terms with emotions and desire or choosing and being good partners. Some of the ways we 'do' masculinity, femininity and gender in this culture can compromise our ability to fully engage in loving relationships with our selves and others. Teaching sexualities as transformational learning, critical theory challenges us to do better, both as individuals and as a society aware of and resisting oppression. Instead of teaching as though the body and spirit can thrive independently of one another, an authentic sexualities education would address the many dimensions of human experience, including morality, physicality and emotionality.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-77) / Microfiche. / v, 77 leaves, bound 29 cm

I am fascinated by the men who visit the strip clubs of Hindley Street in Adelaide. In other words, I observe male spectators who look at naked women performing an alluring act for their pleasure. Such a scene represents sexual difference at an extreme level particularly as the night progresses and the men get drunker becoming themselves a part of the performance. Strippers manipulate mens desires and fantasies and parody, through their routine, the male in the act of sex. And as men watch men watching women perform, I suggest men are actually sharing their sexual experiences with each other, raising questions about assumptions of ???heterosexual??? desire associated with why men go to strip clubs, as gender boundaries blur and become ambiguous. / The focus of my research has involved positioning myself as a member of the audience in three strip clubs along Hindley Street a clothed woman in a male dominated space dedicated to the representation of nudity and sex. In conducting my research, I have relied upon a methodological approach loosely based both on ethnographic and the action research models with the aim of using the understandings gained through this to inform my visual art practice, which includes photographic images, staged settings and installation. I consider my artwork to be a form of experimentation through which I explore issues of sexuality, power, sexual transgression and gender difference within strip clubs creating provocative scenes which position viewers as voyeurs. / My thesis as the totality of the artefacts and exegesis which form the outcomes of this research draws on critical and cultural theory concerned to explore pornography, with particular reference to masculine fantasy and desire. I also make reference to a number of contemporary visual artists who question these same issues through their works. / My project questions why men go to strip clubs, and involves speculation as to whether this choice actually entails a rejection by such men of aspects of their own masculine identity, or reflects a need to detach themselves from the physical act of sex with women, or perhaps simply reveals their reliance upon fantasy, titillation and suspense as a form of sexual pleasure. Using a play of gender roles based on a reversal of performative aspects of the scenario of the strip club, I hope the artefacts created in the course of this research will provoke viewers into exploring unsettling questions and issues and reflect an image of men as being both complex and vulnerable, rather than dominant and in control. Through constructed installation spaces involving photographic images of empty strip clubs, men and women, along with smell, lighting and sound I attempt to set the stage for a performance upon and about sexual desire and difference. / Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, n.d.

I am fascinated by the men who visit the strip clubs of Hindley Street in Adelaide. In other words, I observe male spectators who look at naked women performing an alluring act for their pleasure. Such a scene represents sexual difference at an extreme level particularly as the night progresses and the men get drunker becoming themselves a part of the performance. Strippers manipulate mens desires and fantasies and parody, through their routine, the male in the act of sex. And as men watch men watching women perform, I suggest men are actually sharing their sexual experiences with each other, raising questions about assumptions of ???heterosexual??? desire associated with why men go to strip clubs, as gender boundaries blur and become ambiguous. / The focus of my research has involved positioning myself as a member of the audience in three strip clubs along Hindley Street a clothed woman in a male dominated space dedicated to the representation of nudity and sex. In conducting my research, I have relied upon a methodological approach loosely based both on ethnographic and the action research models with the aim of using the understandings gained through this to inform my visual art practice, which includes photographic images, staged settings and installation. I consider my artwork to be a form of experimentation through which I explore issues of sexuality, power, sexual transgression and gender difference within strip clubs creating provocative scenes which position viewers as voyeurs. / My thesis as the totality of the artefacts and exegesis which form the outcomes of this research draws on critical and cultural theory concerned to explore pornography, with particular reference to masculine fantasy and desire. I also make reference to a number of contemporary visual artists who question these same issues through their works. / My project questions why men go to strip clubs, and involves speculation as to whether this choice actually entails a rejection by such men of aspects of their own masculine identity, or reflects a need to detach themselves from the physical act of sex with women, or perhaps simply reveals their reliance upon fantasy, titillation and suspense as a form of sexual pleasure. Using a play of gender roles based on a reversal of performative aspects of the scenario of the strip club, I hope the artefacts created in the course of this research will provoke viewers into exploring unsettling questions and issues and reflect an image of men as being both complex and vulnerable, rather than dominant and in control. Through constructed installation spaces involving photographic images of empty strip clubs, men and women, along with smell, lighting and sound I attempt to set the stage for a performance upon and about sexual desire and difference. / Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, n.d.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Lana Stermac.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--International Christian Graduate University, School of Theology, 1987. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-78).