Sex Roles
Volume 37, Numbers 3-4, 269-281, DOI: 10.1023/A:1025604028966

Sex Role Stereotyping in the Sunday Comics: A Twenty Year Update

Sarah Brabant and Linda A. Mooney

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Abstract

In 1994, six months of Sunday comic strips (N = 78) were collected and coded for gender stereotypical images. Each of the family-oriented cartoons was analyzed for frequency of male and female appearance, location of appearance, major activities, and the presence or absence of reading material and ldquothe traditional symbol of domesticationrdquo—the apron [S. Brabant (1976) ldquoSex Role Stereotyping in the Sunday Comics,rdquo Sex Roles, Vol. 2, p. 336]. Results were compared to earlier findings from comparable samples in 1974 and 1984. The present research indicates two trends: 1) a movement away from some stereotypical images over the twenty years studied, while, at the same time, 2) a return to 1974 levels of gender stereotyping for other images. Implications are discussed.

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