Bandura, A. (2009). Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication. In J. Bryant &
M. B. Oliver (Eds.), Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research (2nd ed., pp. 94-124). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
This book chapter, written by an esteemed professor from Stanford University, examines the links between what humans, particularly children, see, hear, and experience, and how that shapes their behavior. Information and innovation is diffused between individuals, groups, and social structures, and humans will then decide, subconsciously, whether they will adopt the new pattern of behavior. This theory has become an increasingly prominent conceptual framework through which children’s use of media and learned behavior can be gauged and discussed. It is particularly valuable, in this discussion, as a theoretical foundation for examining the ways in which young boys learn to adapt their behavior to fit into a socially acceptable, non-transgressive manner to avoid punishment or ostracism, as discussed by Barnes (2012). Boys are taught early on that cohesion is the method of behavior or performance with the least likelihood of attracting negative consequences, establishing a schema of masculinity that will pervade their developmental experiences.
​
​
Barnes, C. (2012). It’s No Laughing Matter . . . Boys’ Humor and the Performance of
Defensive Masculinities in the Classroom. Journal of Gender Studies, 21(3), 239- 251. DOI 10.1080/09589236.2012.691648
​
This article, authored by a professor of Sociology at the University of Limerick, Ireland, explores how humor, and larger conversational tactics, enforce homogenous, performative examples of hyper-masculinity among teenage boys. The author, utilizing extensive ethnographic research with teenage school boys, identifies that boys use humor to police and maintain what constitutes acceptable masculinity, to gain and keep group status, to defuse tension and conflict, and to reject individuals who do not conform to dominant masculine traits.
Unlike Hatchell’s article (2006), Barnes suggests that rather than hegemonic masculinity originating from school administration-based sources, the dominant classroom ideology is propagated collectively by school boys as a social group. This provides an alternative view on the situation, and positions individual boys as being in an environment where they are under constant scrutiny, and are vulnerable to the testimony of their peers. This view is an important one to address in discussions about masculinity. While media substantially influences the perceptions of young, developing boys, it is imperative to consider how these media messages are reinforced and endorsed by social groups.
​
Brenick, A., Henning, A., Killen, M., O’Connor, A., & Collins, M. (2007). Social Evaluations of Stereotypic Images in Video Games: Unfair, Legitimate, or “Just Entertainment”? Youth and Society, 38, 395-419. DOI 10.1177/0044118X06295988
​
This study, written by researchers from the University of Maryland and the University of California, assesses older adolescents’ perception and reception of gender stereotypes in video games. The study was comprised of interviews with 87 students, of approximately equal number of boys and girls, about game usage, knowledge and assessment of stereotypes, and the influence of games and their content on players. The researchers found that male respondents were more likely to be accepting of both negative male and female stereotypes, and more insistent that games do not influence players in any way. This belief was further enhanced if the male was a high frequency video game player, with the authors contending that more repeated exposure further endorsed a more callous mode of thinking. This study suggests a continuous, insidious effect that media can impart to its young consumers. As discussed by Strasburger, et al. (2014), repeated exposure to negative influences and content leads to young boys becoming increasingly desensitized to both what they are watching, playing, or hearing, and, correspondingly, the effects of these stereotypical misconceptions in the real, external world. Through access to inappropriate media content, boys are taught to normalize negative perceptions about themselves, girls, and women.
​
​
Brown, L. M., Lamb, S., & Tappan, M. (2009). Packaging Boyhood: Saving Our Sons
From Superheroes, Slackers, and Other Media Stereotypes. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
​
In this book, the authors, two professors of education and one of psychology, compile and analyze an extensive list of male-targeted media, and examine the consistent, underlying messaging that boys and male adolescents are exposed to during their development. The authors perform content analysis of hundreds of examples of media, advertising, toys, and clothing to provide a comprehensive picture of the current pressures that are being heaped on boys by corporate interests, and society at large.
The authors suggest that boys and men are conditioned to be unemotional, detached, physically and morally courageous individuals who crave action, independence, sports, technology, crass humor, anti-intellectualism, and sex by what they are exposed to, and that this exposure occurs from an incredibly young age, with heterosexual, sexualized commercials aimed at prepubescent boys, and hyper-masculine, hyper-muscular characters performing ‘justified violence’ to solve problems.
Further, this singular ideology endeavors to create a strong distinction between boys and girls, suggesting that fundamental differences exist between the two, suggesting that emotion is a feminine trait and should be avoided. Positively, the authors offer advice for parents on how to discuss, according to developmental stage, the effects of male-centric media, providing a nuanced resource for concerned adults who want to combat this issue. The authors offer, in this text, the most comprehensive, complete study of this issue, and it is an invaluable foundation for further study into the psychic damage that is consistently being caused to young, developing boys.
​
​
Coyne, S. M., Linder, J.R., Rasmussen, E. E., Nelson, D. A., & Collier, K. M. (2014). It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Gender Stereotype!: Longitudinal Associations Between Superhero Viewing and Gender Stereotyped Play. Sex Roles, 70, 416-430. DOI 10.1007/s11199-014-0374-8
​
This article, authored by researchers from Brigham Young University, Linfield College, and Texas Tech University, explores the effects of viewing strong masculine stereotypes in media, focusing specifically on superhero media and how it affects children’s play behavior. The researchers undertook longitudinal studies of 134 mothers of preschool children, and their reported changes in the children’s demeanor and rate of violent play.
Male-stereotyped play among the boys increased, and weapon play increased among boys and girls in conjunction with the viewing of superhero media. The results correspond to similar concepts explored by Pomerance & Gateward’s book (2005) on masculinity in cinema, and the tendency for boys and young men to mimic or adopt hyper-masculine traits that they see on-screen. This article provides a valuable longer term, comprehensive assessment of how boys’ developing personalities change gradually, yet dramatically.
​
Davies, B. (2003). Frogs and Snails and Feminist Tales: Preschool Children and Gender
(Rev ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Hampton Press.
​
In this book, the author, a professor of education at James Cook University, Australia, discusses the structuralist nature of gender in preschool children, and the ways in which sex and gender is performed and maintained is largely determined by external influencers, and young children’s adoption of social cues. The study, through examination of children’s play, their conversation, and their responses to feminist retellings of traditional stories, identifies the ways in which children, from a young age, must learn how masculinity and femininity are articulated, and are compelled to do so without transgressing across gendered lines. In one instance, the author reads several feminist retellings of traditional fairy tales, with brave princesses and gentle princes, to children, and the non-sexist tale was rejected and met by outrage, to the point of tears, by the group. However, the author notes, as Wohlwend (2011) and Jane (2015) do, these perceptions are vulnerable to individual refusal or rejection of norms, or by adopting new forms of discourse and discursive practices that destabilize traditional gendered beliefs, newly minted as they are in children’s minds. This book is a valuable resource for identifying the early role media can play in establishing life-long paradigms. By preschool, children already have a burgeoning idea about how princesses and prince are supposed to act differently, simply through exposure to reinforcing media texts. Significantly for this discussion, not even at this age is it acceptable for boys to be perceived as being gentle. They are already being forced to adopt the detrimental attitude of toughness that will likely pervade the rest of their development.
​
​
Hatchell, H. (2006). Masculinities and Violence: Interruption of Hegemonic Discourses in an English Classroom.
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 27(3), 383-397. DOI: 10.1080/01596300600838843
​
In this article, the author, a professor of education at Murdoch University, Australia, examines the perceptions of war and violence among adolescent boys, corresponding impressions of gender discourses, and the placement hegemonic, masculine attitudes in classroom settings. The author performed a series of qualitative interviews with groups of 10th grade students, and their teachers, and found that, by and large, the young men glorified the often-sanitized tales of war and camaraderie that they were being taught, and, consequently, tended to marginalize women to an anachronistic position of being the home-maker.
However, the author notes that many of the respondents were not entirely content with the singular, hyper-masculine narrative with which they were being taught, and many of the students stated that they yearned for an environment of greater discourse and flexibility to discuss how concepts such as violence and male friendship should be positioned. Like Barnes’ article (2012), this article addresses an often-overlooked delivery mechanism for both media, and ideology, which is the classroom. Young people spend 12 consecutive years, within which they will develop from children to adolescents to young adults, and this article paints a convincing portrait of how young males’ perceptions of manhood can be affected by something as seemingly innocuous as historical retelling.
​
​
Jane, E. A. (2015). “Gunter's a Woman?!”— Doing and Undoing Gender in Cartoon
Network's Adventure Time. Journal of Children and Media, 9(2), 231-247. DOI 10.1080/17482798.2015.1024002
​
In this article, the author, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales, Australia, examines the cartoon series Adventure Time, a show ostensibly targeted at children, and the ways in which it subverts normative feminine and masculine stereotypes. The author uses a textual analysis to explore key moments of the series where narrow impressions of gender are undermined by the show’s action or narrative, with a significant emphasis placed on the way in which progressive, and potentially transgressive, behavior is normalized and accepted within the universe of the show.
Jane expands on these moments to suggest that they offer an alternative method for examining gender, and, more specifically, the rigid, performative aspects of the gender binary for media commentators and feminist scholars. This article offers a more positive outlook on the state of media than some of the other material within this bibliography, and suggests that within the accepted power structures, there are, increasingly, greater gaps for progressive elements to broadcast alternative ideological options. Like Brown, et al.’s book (2009), by identifying the problematic aspects of media, and the dangers of the ideological influence it produces, solutions can be manufactured to combat or counteract the spread.
​
​
Jansz, J., & Tanis, M. (2007). Appeal of Playing Online First Person Shooter Games.
Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 10(1), 133-136. DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2006.9981
​
This study, undertaken by two researchers from the University of Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands, explores why people spend their time playing online first-person shooter (FPS) games. At the time of the study, online gaming was largely untouched as an academic pursuit, and online FPSs were dominated by young, adolescent males. The researchers conducted a survey of 751 online players, trying to examine who they were, and what reasons drove them to play. They found that the mean age of respondents was 18-years-old, predominantly male, and, on average, spent 2.6 hours of their day playing.
The most significant result of this paper is that, surprisingly, the most common desire for players in these games was for social interaction and connection, a quality totally at odds with the social perception of online gaming and, often, men. This research is important as it suggests that young men are seeking connection, and interaction, but are only able to do so in acceptable, competitive ways. In effect, these results show a natural subversion, as discussed by Jane (2015), of traditional gender wants by forming emotional, relational bonds within an acceptable format.
​
​
Kahlenberg, S. G., & Hein, M. M. (2010). Progression on Nickelodeon? Gender-Role
Stereotypes in Toy Commercials. Sex Roles, 62, 830-847. DOI 10.1007/s11199-009-9653-1
​
The authors, both professors of Media and Communication at Muhlenberg College, performed a comprehensive content analysis on after-school toy commercials on Nickelodeon, to examine the gender portrayals and gender-role stereotypes that were being shown to the young audience. The researchers examined over 455 toy commercials during the month of October in 2004, and were evaluated for setting, types of interaction, the types of toys being advertised, gender orientation and portrayal, and the ratio of representation among boys and girls. The authors found that gender-role stereotypes were almost universally present among these commercials, despite the increasingly diverse nature of Nickelodeon programing, which celebrated the unique differences between boys and girls, and were increasingly adopting nuanced program leads.
The authors contend that progressive elements were disregarded by corporate interests to deliberately segregate boys and girls into distinct market segments. This raises a significant issue about how economic pressures can sustain stereotypes about both boys and girls, men and women, for financial gain. This content analysis reveals that it is possible for progressive, positive media messaging can be counteracted by external sources and organizations. This is a vital consideration as Strasburger, et al.’s book (2014) reveals the extent to which companies target children with advertising.