Methodolgy

Deborah Cameron proposed the idea that language is the primary influence upon creating gender stereotypes, highlighting the importance of social causes rather than biological predispositions. I will be looking at children’s magazines that are fundamentally aimed at young girls (8-12 years of age) In relation to Cameron’s opposing theories around the heavily debated topic “The Myth of Mars and Venus”. Within these magazines I will look predominantly at how the use of language creates representations of young girls amongst several magazines and compare the differences between them. 

I have picked my data very carefully to reduce extraneous variables that may influence my results in relation to reliability and comparability factors. I have chosen 3 well-known magazines that are readily available in popular shops that are all aimed at the same target audience. I felt that 3 was enough to allow me to gather a good amount of information to look at and sort through and find what will be applicable to my investigation. It will also allow me to identify similarities and differences between them and thus increasing reliability and comparability factors.

 I have also ensured that these magazines are all recent (dated Oct – Nov) to improve the temporal validity of my data. I feel that this was a very important factor to consider when choosing my particular data as we know that attitudes about women have evolved over time. For example looking at magazines from the 1940’s would not be comparable to now due to previous social concepts and norms that would no longer be acceptable to produce. Despite this I will not be ignoring these arguable advances from my investigation as I feel it is an important topic and I still expect to see some similarities. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have also considered the slightly more obvious issue of differences amongst cultures and eliminated these by ensuring that all my magazines are English, because representations of women vary over time but also from culture to culture. As I am looking at published magazines there are no issues with privacy meaning I did not need any permission when collecting my data.