Citation

Potkay CE, Potkay CR, Boynton GJ, Klingbeil JA. Sex Roles 1982; 8(2): 185-200.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1982, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00287922

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Adjective descriptions of daily newspaper comic strip characters resulted in an unexpected pattern of equivalent or greater favorability for female characters than for male characters, depending upon primary or secondary familiarity. Exceptions to the pattern were Lucy Van Pelt and Mammy Yocum, nontraditional female characters who showed low favorability and femininity. Comic strips included Nancy, Peanuts, L'il Abner, Blondie , and Beetle Bailey , with Wonder Woman and Superman studied independently. The Adjective Generation Technique (AGT) allowed freely generated adjective descriptions to be quantified. Discussion integrated recent sex-role research findings (52 references). Attitudes may be changing in positive directions; however, sex-role biases continue to operate, perhaps in underground ways that will become more difficult to measure, identify, and evaluate empirically.