Interpreting On and Off-Screen Lesbianism: A Case Study of EmoryUniversity College Students Público

Abstract

Television is a powerful agent of socialization in our culture, a structure that reflects back to society that which is appropriate and acceptable, and a medium that presents images of lesbians infrequently and in limited ways. I investigate how young audience members of today make meaning of lesbian images on television, how they feel about lesbians in reality, and how their social locations relate to both their views and interpretations. This thesis examines how Emory University College students interpret lesbian representation on television today.

I created and distributed an online survey that asked respondents to report basic information about themselves, their attitudes about lesbians in reality, and their interpretations of lesbian TV representations. The survey requested information about Emory College students' social locations with questions about their same-sex attraction, gender, proximity/contact with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ) people, religiosity, and socio-economic status (SES), and I analyzed these variables in relation to students' individual interpretations of lesbian TV portrayals and their attitudes about lesbians in reality. With feminist, sociological, and media theory, I examine how young audiences of today who occupy different social locations feel about lesbians on and off the television screen. This thesis begins with an historical overview of lesbians on American television, and concludes with an analysis of my collected quantitative data.

Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Chapter I. Historical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Chapter II. Theoretical Background and Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter III. Methodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Chapter IV. Conceptualization & Operationalization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Chapter V. Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Appendix A: CITI Certification and IRB Approval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Appendix B: Recruitment Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Appendix C: Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

List of Tables

TABLE 1: Views, Attitudes, and Interpretations of Lesbians in Reality and on TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

TABLE 2a: Same-Sex Attractions (SSA), Gender, and Contact/Proximity to LGBQ People. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

TABLE 2b: Independent Variable

Religious Identification and Socio-Economic Status (SES). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

TABLE 3a: Same-Sex Attraction (SSA) /

Views, Attitudes, and Interpretations of Lesbians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

TABLE 3b: LGBQ-Identified Family and Friends /

Views, Attitudes, and Interpretations of Lesbians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

TABLE 4: Gender /Views, Attitudes, and Interpretations of Lesbians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

TABLE 5: Religiosity / Views, Attitudes, and Interpretations of Lesbians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

TABLE 6: Religious Practice / Views, Attitudes, and Interpretations of Lesbians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

TABLE 7a: Socio-Economic Status (SES) / Views, Attitudes, and Interpretations of Lesbians SES (Parental Education). . . . . . . . . . . . 96

TABLE 7b: Socio-Economic Status (SES) / Views, Attitudes, and Interpretations of Lesbians SES (Parental Education). . . . . . . . . 97

TABLE 8: Socio-Economic Status / Views, Attitudes, and Interpretations of Lesbians SES (Parental Household Annual Income). . . . .98

TABLE 9a: Social Location Frequencies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

TABLE 9b: Views, Attitudes, and Interpretations of Gay Men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

TABLE 9c: Views, Attitudes, and Interpretations of Increased Lesbian and Gay Visibility in the Past 10 Years. . . . .100

TABLE 10: Missing Values Table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Gender Studies Women's Studies
Palavra-chave	survey of college students college student interpretations of lesbians on television stereotypical lesbian television characters gender sexual orientation audience reception lesbians on television lesbian sexuality on and off screen lesbianism queer hypersexualized lesbians on television social location and attitudes about lesbians same sex attraction marginalization of lesbians on television proximity to LGBQ people
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Werum, Regina, Emory University
Committee Members	Browne, Irene, Emory University Schreiber, Michele, Emory University

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