The incidence of sex discrimination,sexual content,and hostility in television humor |
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| Authors: | Jerry Suls John W Gastoff |
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| Institution: | 1. Associate Professor of Psychology , State University of New York , Albany;2. Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science , University of Alabama |
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| Abstract: | Feminist groups have contended that women are portrayed more often as the butt of humor on prime‐time television than are men, citing this as an example of sex discrimination. The present study was conducted to investigate the accuracy of this charge. Other aims of the study were to assess the frequency of sexual and hostile humor on television and to determine whether the Family Viewing Hour contains less hostile and sexual humorous content than other times. To fulfill these goals coders recorded and classified humorous incidents sampled from the prime‐time (8–11 p.m.) viewing hours on the three major commercial networks in October, 1977. The results indicated that in absolute terms males were more often the object of humorous disparagement than were females. However, males appeared more frequently in principal roles on television and thus were more available as targets of disparagement. When the frequency with which males and females appear was taken into account, males disparaged females significantly more than females disparaged males. Thus, there is some support for the charge of sex discrimination. Other findings indicate that hostile humor is no more common than nonhostile humor; and nonsexual humor is more frequent than sexual humor. Finally, the survey indicated that sexual and hostile humor was as common during the Family Viewing Hour as during adult viewing hours. |
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