We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Editor & Publisher Slow To Change Depiction of Women.
- Authors
Senat, Joey
- Abstract
This article examines the lexicon used by the magazine Editor & Publisher (E&P) to describe women from 1967 to 1974, a time in which women sought changes in the terms used to depict them in the media. Editor & Publisher was chosen because it serves as a weekly chronicle of events in the journalism industry and as a forum for the critical discussion of issues affecting journalists. From 1967 to 1973, Editor & Publisher contained much of the sexist lexicon feminists were criticizing newspapers for at that time. Descriptions such as pretty, vivacious and attractive blonde were commonplace in the magazine's articles about women journalists, though similar adjectives were not routinely used for men. E&P used such labels as newshen and Dixie darling, which are arguably belittling to professional women. E&P often pointed out the woman's status as spouse or mother, sometimes by calling her a wife or noting the number of her children, even when such information seemed irrelevant and even though similar details were rarely given about men. E&P used cheesecake photographs in which male newspaper industry executives ogled bikini-clad women. It frequently referred to women as girls, no matter their ages or professional experiences. Not until 1974 did the magazine markedly change its vocabulary in describing women, dropping the emphasis on their appearance and their relationship to men when the information was not pertinent to the story. It began treating them the same as it treated men--as competent reporters and editors.
- Subjects
WOMEN in the press; WOMEN &; journalism; WOMEN in mass media; MASS media &; women; PERIODICALS
- Publication
Newspaper Research Journal, 2004, Vol 25, Issue 4, p67
- ISSN
0739-5329
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/073953290402500407