Discussion: Prejudice

 

People often use jokes to test the boundaries of what is considered offensive. Under the guise of humor, the joke teller can attempt to minimize any offense taken by defending the humor as “just a joke.”

Clearly, an attempt to belittle or demean others as a form of humor is distasteful. And in every culture, one can encounter humor that, to be understood, relies on prejudice—whether that prejudice be about race, sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, or nationality. What others might find funny, some find tasteless and indefensible. Simply because an offensive statement is clothed as a joke does not make the joke funny nor does it mean that the joke teller cannot be confronted by someone who finds the comment offensive or inappropriate. Even so, confronting someone about an inappropriate joke can present a social risk; the person being called out is likely to feel defensive and retaliate against whomever exposed them.

For this Discussion, you will draw on your own experience and social psychology theory to examine responses to prejudiced comments.

 

To Prepare

• Review the Learning Resources for this week and think about how social psychology theory and research explains the responses that people have when they hear prejudiced comments.
• Recall a time when you have been present when someone made a racist comment or “joke,” and no one confronted the joke teller.

 Post a time when you have been present when someone made a prejudiced “joke” or comment, and no one confronted the joke teller. Were you offended by the joke? How can a decision to stay mute be explained by social psychology theory?  

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‘It’s a man’s man’s man’s world’:
Music groupies and the othering of
women in the world of rock

Gretchen Larsen
Durham University, UK

Abstract
Groupies are understood as a particular type of fan that are most commonly associated with
rock music. The ‘groupie’ identity is almost exclusively applied to female fans but sometimes also
to female music producers and is largely used in a derogatory manner both by the popular media
and by fans themselves. This article argues that the ‘groupie’ identity is used to ‘other’ and exclude
women from creative production in rock music. This study draws on a rhetorical analysis of five
published biographical accounts of groupies to examine how the labeling of certain people as ‘groupies’
works as an othering practice that serves to support and maintain the gendered norms of rock and
identifies three underlying discursive processes. First, popular and music media played a significant
role in stereotyping groupie as female right from the emergence of the label. Second, the notions of
‘credibility’ and ‘authenticity’, which are central to serious music journalism, are constructed in such
a way as to stigmatize and therefore exclude women from rock, primarily by reframing ‘groupies’ as
inauthentic consumers rather than proper fans. Finally, the intertwining of femininity with fandom, as
occurs in groupiedom, serves to magnify cultural assumptions about women as sex objects and as
passive consumers of mass culture. In elucidating both the gender and marketplace role politics at play
in the ‘groupie’ identity and the mechanisms involved in othering women, space is opened in which
alternative possibilities for understanding and enacting the role of women in rock can be imagined.

Keywords
Consumer, creative industries, fans, gender, groupies, music, patriarchy

Introduction

The figure of the groupie looms large in the discourses and social imaginary surrounding rock
music, playing an integral role in the mythology of ‘sex, drugs and rock n’ roll’. Groupies can be

Corresponding author:
Gretchen Larsen, Department of Management and Marketing, Durham University Business School, Durham University,
Queen’s Campus, University Boulevard, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees TS17 6BH, UK.
Email: gretchen.larsen@durham.ac.uk

Article

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398 Organization 24(3)

found across a range of culture, leisure, and sports activities (Forsyth and Thompson, 2007;
Gauthier and Forsyth, 2000; Gmelch and San Antonio, 1998), but it is with rock music that they are
most closely associated. The phenomenon of the groupie gained recognition and took shape as a
social identity within the counter-culture of 1960s’ rock music and continues to hold significant
cultural currency and power. For example, films such as ‘Almost Famous’ (2000) and ‘The Banger
Sisters’ (2002) employ and as such reinforce the media representation of the groupie, and Hill
(2013) shows how women feel the need to negotiate that same representation when expressing
their fandom of metal music. There is no agreed definition as to who or what a groupie is, but a
dominant representation exists in popular media/culture and academic literature of a more extreme
type of female fan who seeks intimate emotional and/or sexual relations with musicians (e.g. Cline,
1992; Des Barres, 2005 [1987]; Fonarow, 2006; Forrest, 2010).The consolidation of the groupie
identity can be found in a cover article in Rolling Stone magazine in 1969 entitled ‘The Groupies
and Other Girls’, by John Burks, Jerry Hopkins, and Paul Nelson. However, as Rhodes (2005)
explains, this was not the first mention or use of the term ‘groupie’. As the groupie subculture
emerged, several articles about women who could be categorized as groupies were published, such
as Tom Wolfe’s (1965) ‘The Girl of the Year’ essay on Baby Jane Holzer. But in the wake of the
Rolling Stone article, ‘alternate visions of what a groupie was (or could be) were discarded in favor
of that offered by Rolling Stone and its highly sexualized and misogynistic approach to the groupie
and rock culture’ (Rhodes, 2005: 137). As Rhodes (2005) then carefully evidences, the Rolling
Stone article, which it is important to note is written entirely by males, carried such power that any
further negotiation of the groupie identity ceased. Consequently, it has provided what has been for
a long time, the definitive statement of what groupies are. Warwick (2007) summarizes this view
of the groupie as

a kind of female fan assumed to be more interested in sex with rock stars than in their music. Groupies are
understood to be ‘easy’ [i.e. sexually promiscuous], with low self-esteem, and too stupid about music to be
proper fans, but also—paradoxically—predatory and exploitative of the hapless musicians whose artistry
they cruelly ignore in their lust for celebrity sex. (p. 170)

which she argues is an unmistakably derisive and pejorative description focusing almost entirely
on the sexual motivations of groupies. One of the greatest concerns is that the label ‘groupie’ is
almost exclusively applied to females and has become a term used to describe all female fans,
wives, and girlfriends and even those females who work in rock music (Davies, 2001). This labe-
ling reduces the experiences of all women in rock to a singular one driven by sex and effectively
excludes them from productive participation. It is to this crucial issue that the article turns, as it
examines how the labeling of certain people as ‘groupies’ works as an othering practice that
serves to support and maintain the gendered norms of rock and thus exclude women from creative
production.

Beyond a surface-level recognition, we know little about groupies other than that they are
reduced to some kind of caricature used in a derogatory manner both by the popular media (Davies,
2001) and by fans (Hill, 2013) and are ‘treated like a punch line to a never ending joke that only
the boys are in on’ (Forrest, 2010: 135). However, as we prise beneath the surface, we begin to see
that the groupie identity sits at the intersection between the social identities of gender and market-
place role. Gender has functioned as a primary site for the analysis and interpretation of diversity
in the creative industries (e.g. Dean, 2008; Nixon and Crewe, 2004; Proctor-Thomson, 2013; Sang
et al., 2014). This is in large part because creativity, creative work, and creative identities are con-
structed in such a way that women are marginalized or even excluded. In the music industry,
women are underrepresented at all levels and in all roles (Leonard, 2015); discounted in the music

Larsen 399

press and media (Davies, 2001), and even where they have been acknowledged, their participation
is represented in gendered and often highly objectified ways (Hatton and Trautner, 2011). While,
as Schippers (2000) notes, rock music is a setting in which gender norms have sometimes been
challenged, particularly those related to appearance such as hair length and the use of make-up, this
genre of music has long been synonymous with hegemonic masculinity (e.g. Hill, 2014), heter-
onormativity (e.g. Frith and McRobbie, 1990 [1978]), and homosociality (e.g. Davies, 2001) which
act as pillars upholding the patriarchy of rock.In the immortal words of James Brown and (his
lesser known female co-writer and one-time girlfriend) Betty Jean Newsom, ‘it’s a man’s, man’s,
man’s world’.

In working to exclude women from creative production, the ‘groupie’ identity draws not only
on gender identity but also on the dichotomy between work and non-work. The key, relevant
social identity is what is called here ‘marketplace role’, which categorizes people according to the
producer–consumer dualism. In the creative industries, marketplace roles manifest in dualisms
such as artist–audience and musician–fan (e.g. Beauregard, 2012). Like any other social identity,
these categories imply subjectivities which define positions in relationships between socio-
political actors and carry with them various assumptions and statuses that serve to structure and
shape experience and engagement with the creative (e.g. Bradshaw, 2010; Bradshaw et al., 2005).
An important assumption is that because a market requires both production and consumption to
work, producers and consumers are co-dependent and therefore hold equal status. This assump-
tion is underpinned by notions of consumer sovereignty (Rothenberg, 1962), consumer subjectiv-
ity (Firat and Dholakia, 2016), and the logic of co-creation (Vargo and Lusch, 2004; Venkatesh
and Meamber, 2006). However, not only have producers and consumers largely been approached
in academia as separate, independent, and somewhat unrelated entities but also consumers have
been historically viewed, particularly in the cultural and creative sectors, as secondary, subordi-
nate figures (e.g. Beauregard, 2012; Huyssen, 1986). As noted in the Call for Papers for this
Special Issue, much remains to be understood about how gender intersects with other identities in
constructing experiences of creativity and creative work. There has been little exploration of how
gender and marketplace roles intersect to frame who and what type of work is considered to be
‘creative’ or productive and what the practices of inclusion and exclusion are. This article puts
forth the argument that groupies are othered in both categories—as women and as consumers, and
that in fact it is the intertwining of the two identities that has underpinned and reinforced the
groupie identity, and thus helped construct and maintain the patriarchy of rock music.

Following a deeper examination of the social identities of gender and marketplace roles in the
context of rock music, this article draws on a rhetorical analysis of five published biographical
accounts of groupies and rock wives in order to examine how the labeling of certain people as
‘groupies’ works as an othering practice that maintains the gendered norms of rock. Examining the
cultural phenomenon of the groupie retrospectively allows the processes behind the construction
and maintenance of the identity and its consequences to be explored. Three important discursive
processes emerge. First, popular and music media played a significant role in stereotyping groupies
right from the emergence of the term. Second, the notions of ‘credibility’ and ‘authenticity’, which
are central to serious music journalism, are constructed in such a way as to stigmatize and therefore
exclude, discredit, and invalidate the role of women in rock, primarily by reframing ‘groupies’ as
inauthentic consumers rather than proper fans. Third, the intertwining of femininity with fandom,
as occurs in the construction of the ‘groupie’, serves to magnify cultural assumptions about women
as sex objects and as passive consumers of mass culture and thus reinforces the groupie identity
and their exclusion from creative work in the world of rock.

This article contributes in important ways to a growing body of literature that considers how
intersectional social identities are constructed and articulated in rock music (Elafros, 2010) and the

400 Organization 24(3)

creative industries. It provides a historically and culturally embedded account of how the ‘groupie’
label works as an othering practice to exclude women from creative work. It resonates with and
builds upon other accounts in both the music and creative industries (e.g. on processes of forgetting
identified by Strong (2011)) that have written women out of the history of popular culture. It expands
our understanding of the role of gender in diversifying the creative by locating the groupie identity
as the nexus of gender and marketplace role. Through the processes identified, and contrary to the
transgressive and liberatory perspective taken by many of the original groupies, the groupie identity
effectively reproduces and reinforces gendered hierarchies within the creative industries. Finally, in
elucidating both the gender and marketplace politics at play in the ‘groupie’ label and the discursive
processes involved in othering women, space is opened up through which alternative possibilities
for understanding and enacting the role of women in rock can be imagined.

Gender and rock music

The idea that notions of creativity and creative work are gendered is one that is well established in
the literature (see, for example, Dean, 2008; Grugulis and Stoyanova, 2012; Huyssen, 1986;
Leonard, 2015; Sang et al., 2014). Sustained academic interest in gender and diversity in the crea-
tive industries is relatively recent, but the complex and thorny relationship between gender and the
creative has long underscored important debates surrounding culture and art. For example, Huyssen
(1986) elucidates and then interrogates the modernist notion of mass culture as woman, and real,
authentic culture as man. He ultimately argues that while this particular claim has lost its persua-
sive power as a result of a combination of feminist activism increasing the presence of women in
art, and the postmodern project of the blurring of boundaries between high art and mass culture,
gendering of the creative is still pervasive:

certain forms of mass culture, with their obsession with gendered violence are more of a threat to women
than to men. After all, it has always been men rather than women who have had real control over the
production of mass culture. (Huyssen, 1986: 62)

This is echoed in more recent research which shows how women remain marginalized and excluded
from work and identities in such diverse sectors of the creative industries as film and television
(e.g. Bielby and Bielby, 1996; Grugulis and Stoyanova, 2012), acting and performance (e.g. Dean,
2008; Dean and Jones, 2003), and music (e.g. Davies, 2001; Leonard, 2015; Maus, 2011). Even the
creative and cultural products that are produced and/or consumed by females are valued less and
placed further down the cultural hierarchy than those of their male counterparts, such as in the case
of the ‘inferior’ romance novels preferred by Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (Huyssen, 1986); the
immensely successful Twilight series (Strong, 2009); and ‘girl groups’, ‘boy bands’, and other
types of pop music (Railton, 2001). Strong (2009: p.1) argues that the construction and naturaliza-
tion of females as occupants of the lower levels of the cultural hierarchy is a form of ‘symbolic
violence that helps reproduce power relations between men and women’. The key issue here is the
struggle over the control of cultural production, or who has the power to define what creative work
is, who gets to do it, and under what conditions.

The rock industry has long been acknowledged and criticized for being gendered male in many
facets and norms. First, the style and form of rock music is commonly understood to be both
masculine and an expression of male sexuality (Frith and McRobbie, 1990 [1978]). For example,
in rock performances, musicians are aggressive, dominating, boastful, and in control; the music is
loud and rhythmically insistent; and the lyrics are assertive and arrogant. August (2009) elabo-
rates that much, although not all, of the lyrical content of the songs written by the rock band, the

Larsen 401

Rolling Stones, is misogynistic and promotes the subordination and objectification of women.
‘Musically, such rock takes off from the sexual frankness of rhythm and blues but adds a cruder
male physicality (hardness, control, virtuosity)’ (Frith and McRobbie, 1990 [1978]: 374). Second,
in terms of the nature and means of production, the rock music business is run predominantly by
males. Musicians, writers, technicians, engineers, producers, and road crew are largely male
(Frith and McRobbie, 1990 [1978]). Women remain underrepresented (Leonard, 2015) with roles
limited to those that fit with male notions of female ability, for example, singers and publicity
agents. Cohen (1997) illustrates how the rock scene is actively produced as male through various
institutions and social practices. For example, social interaction inside rock music venues is mas-
culine—referring to each other by nicknames; using technical and in-house jargon; and sharing
the jokes, myths, and hype that surround the bands on the scene. Third, mainstream rock music
press is gendered male in associations, assumptions, and representations of the music and the
musicians (Elafros, 2010). The contributions of female musicians are often excluded (Davies,
2001) or represented through the male gaze, as little more than a body. Davies (2001) argues that
the British music press uses its own very particular idiom, which is very similar to that found in
more explicitly ‘laddish’ magazines such as Loaded: ‘this distinctive idiom is internalized by
aspiring music journalists, who realise that they must write in the correct style to be successful.
Such compliance and conservatism mean that the sexism of the music press is self-perpetuating’
(p. 316). Finally, even practices of fandom in rock music are gendered male, particularly those
that occur publicly and are characterized by communal practices of engagement (O’Reilly et al.,
2013). Arguing for a new, more gender-inclusive framework for studying fans of hard rock and
heavy metal as a group, Hill (2014) explains that the

underlying gendered epistemology of fandom has resulted in a dismissal of women fans or, at best, a
systematic reduction of their experiences as fans (such as private engagements with the music, the
representation of women fans as groupies, and fannish activities such as reading magazines and
participating in online fora). (p. 174)

This patriarchy of rock music appears to be held in place by three distinct but interrelated forces
and their attendant institutions and practices: hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and
homosociality. Hegemonic masculinity, in its original and most prevalent formulation, refers to
‘the pattern of practice […] that allowed men’s dominance over women to continue’ (Connell and
Messerschmidt, 2005: 832). As introduced by Connell (1995), hegemonic masculinity embodies
the most honored, culturally valued, and therefore ideal way of being a man. While only a minority
of men might enact hegemonic masculinity, it is normative and at its most powerful when under-
pinned by complicit masculinities (embodied by men who do not conform to all characteristics of
hegemonic masculinity but because they do not resist it still benefit from the patriarchy (Connell,
1995)) and compliance among heterosexual women. In effect, it ideologically legitimates the sub-
ordination of women and non-hegemonic masculinities, to men. Much of the existing literature on
gender and rock music speaks to hegemonic masculinity, even if it does not explicitly use the term.
Whiteley (1997) argues that while

the cultural ideas of masculinity as expressed in popular music do not necessarily conform to the actual
personalities of the majority of men, it would appear that role models are significant, not least in providing
a cultural expression of hegemonic masculinity. (p. xxi)

These role models include ‘cock rock’ idols such as Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, and Phil Lynott
(Frith and McRobbie, 1990 [1978]) whose image is ‘the rampant destructive male traveler, smashing

402 Organization 24(3)

hotels and groupies alike’ (p. 374). These are also the men who occupy most powerful position in
rock music, that of the lead musician.

Hegemonic masculinity underscores heteronormativity which acts as a second pillar upholding
rock patriarchy. As explained by Chambers’ (2003) heteronormativity means ‘quite simply, that
heterosexuality is the norm—in culture, in society, in politics’ (p. 26). As a norm, heteronormativ-
ity acts as a measure against which every person is judged and evaluated. Sexuality, specifically
heterosexuality, has been a central theme in rock music and related scholarship. The premise upon
which Frith and McRobbie’s (1990 [1978]) seminal article ‘Rock and Sexuality’ is based is that
‘the most important ideological work done by rock is the construction of sexuality’ (p. 373). They
distinguish two kinds of masculine images of sexuality in rock music: ‘cock rock’, which presents
an image of macho masculine sexuality and is for consumption by men, and ‘teenybop’, which
presents a romantic masculine sexuality and is consumed mostly by young women. It is interesting
to note the resonance here with Huyssen’s (1986) distinction between authentic culture as male and
mass/pop culture as woman, as ‘cock rock’ is held in higher regard as a more authentic form of
music than ‘teenybop’. While Frith and McRobbie’s (1990 [1978]) article is now several decades
old, more recent research suggests that with the exception of a few instances such as in punk
(Berkers, 2012) and local music scenes (Groce and Cooper, 1990), heteronormativity endures.
Thus, when women do engage, whether as producers or consumers, they must still negotiate a
heteronormative position ‘that ensures that the high-status role of musician is reserved for men and
that provides those men with women to cater for their heterosexual wants’ (Hill, 2013: 1).

The third pillar upholding rock patriarchy is homosociality which describes the social, non-
sexual, bonds that exist between persons of the same sex. Often conceptualized as a social dynamic
that supports hegemonic masculinity, it is frequently used to explain how men maintain and defend
patriarchy through their friendships and collaborations with one another (Hammeren and Johansson,
2014). As described earlier, the social practices of the rock scene are masculine (Cohen, 1997).
Davies (2001) claims that all aspects of rock and roll are homosocial and that women are system-
atically excluded by the music press from any serious discussions either as musicians or fans. She
offers a detailed analysis of the discourses and tactics used by the music press to exclude women,
which range from simply ignoring them completely, to foregrounding their femininity and sexual-
ity over and above their musical capabilities and constructing musical credibility as a male trait that
women will not be able to live up to.

As this discussion of patriarchy in rock music suggests, there is little or no place for women in
rock music—in positions of power, in the constructions of sexualities, or through friendships and
collaborations. Despite numerous examples of female involvement in the production of rock music,
the only real role for women that is presented is that of the consumer/fan. Thus, as noted in the
‘Introduction’, women are marginalized and excluded from the production of rock music. In mak-
ing sense of how women are kept in their gendered role, Leonard (2015) identifies a significant
body of literature that ‘explores the way in which gender and sexuality are manifested, performed,
inscribed and played out within music texts, genres, instrumentation, cultures, locations, environ-
ments, practices and institutions’ (p. 181). However, much of this literature focuses only on the
social role of gender. With the exception of a few important studies, such as Elafros’ (2010) exami-
nation of how the feminist magazine Rockrgrl challenged tropes of mainstream rock criticism
regarding both gender and race and Whiteley’s (2005) work on the impact of age and youthfulness
upon the careers of popular musicians, there is still much to be learnt about how gender intersects
with other social identities in constructing and shaping musical experience. Given that the key
underlying issue in diversifying the creative is the struggle over the control of cultural production
and the patriarchal exclusion of women from creative work, then understanding how gender and
marketplace roles intersect to frame those who are excluded seems of critical importance.

Larsen 403

Marketplace roles and rock music

Because all societies produce some form of goods and services that are exchanged and con-
sumed, ‘production and consumption are often seen as fundamentals of social life’ (Featherstone,
2001: 2669). As such, production and consumption form the dualism upon which the social
identity, called here ‘marketplace role’, is based. Because both production and consumption are
required for exchange to work, the assumption is that both roles hold equal status. However, the
dynamics of this dualism are much more complex. On one hand, in recent decades, there has
been an increasing emphasis in academic, political, market, and everyday discourses on the
importance of the consumer (Gabriel and Lang, 2006), to the extent that contemporary society
has been called (and critiqued as being) a ‘consumer society’ (Kellner, 1983) driven by a ‘con-
sumer ethic’ (Bauman, 1988). For example, the growth of neoliberal capitalism and its atten-
dant processes of commodification and marketization, which mean that anything that has
use-value in everyday life is transformed into a marketable commodity with exchange value,
has prescribed a shift in human subjectivity to that of the consumer (Firat and Dholakia, 2016).
To fulfill the desires which fuel consumer demand and, in turn, the economic growth sought by
advanced capitalism, people have been encouraged to assume the role of independent, free-
willed, choice-makers who select from among a variety of market offerings, or even help co-
create their own (Vargo and Lusch, 2004), as sovereign consumers (Gabriel and Lang, 2006;
Rothenberg, 1962).

In contrast, but contemporaneous to this position, consumers have also been viewed as second-
ary figures who are subordinate to producers (e.g. Huyssen, 1986; Poster, 2004), a view which
endures particularly in the cultural and creative sectors (Beauregard, 2012). One way in which this
hierarchy is held in place is through gender norms. Based on the capitalistic ideology of the sexual
division of labor, shopping and consumption have long been assigned to the feminine domain,
creating a dichotomy that positions women as consumers and men as producers (Bocock, 1993;
Slater, 1997), thus subordinating feminine consumption to masculine production. Given the ubiq-
uity of consumer subjectivity in contemporary society, we might expect to see the breaking down,
or at least blurring, of the consumer-as-woman/producer-as-man dichotomy. However, Sandlin and
Maudlin’s (2012) critical analysis of popular culture representations clearly shows that women are
still constructed as consumers, and that ‘racist, classist and sexist perspectives […] continue to
characterize contemporary popular discourse’ (p. 189). The lower status of the consumer is also
apparent in critiques of the notions of consumer subjectivity and consumer society, much of which
is particularly relevant in relation to creative and artistic endeavors. For example, both Adorno
(1991) and Attali (1977 [1985]) argue that musical marketplace offerings are commodities, which,
because they are controlled, ordered, and shaped by capitalism, exert power and structure our con-
sumption patterns in ways that transform us into slaves to capital. Under these conditions, despite
the rhetoric of sovereignty and individual autonomous choice, the representation of the music
consumer takes the form of the masses. O’Reilly et al. (2013) argue that it is only under these con-
ditions, where ‘popular’ music is reproduced in a commodity-like form and is therefore ‘mass
culture’ (Huyssen, 1986), that framing music engagement as ‘consumption’ appears to be accept-
able. However, even in popular music, consumption is often reframed in other ways, such as fan-
dom, in an effort to deemphasize exchange and commodity value and instead highlight the aesthetic
and cultural value of the music. ‘Consumer’ is thus seen as a lower status identity, than ‘fan’, ‘col-
lector’, ‘producer’, or ‘musician’.

The ‘fan’ is an interesting and somewhat problematic category of marketplace role identity,
primarily because it challenges the producer–consumer dualism. Beauregard (2012) notes that fans
are at once both producers and consumers:

404 Organization 24(3)

on the one hand, fans are often described as the most salient example of the pathologies of the cultural
industries, as they are exacerbating the consumerist experience of culture—and popular culture in
particular. On the other hand, fans are also furthering the life of cultural materials beyond the commercial
sphere, through different craft practices. (p. 131)

A fan can be understood simply as someone who has developed a special type of relation with
the object of their admiration (e.g. music artist(s), genre), which is characterized by a focused,
highly involved interest and strong emotional reactions (Hill, 2014; O’Reilly et al., 2013). Duffett
(2013) elaborates further, describing a fan as

a person with a relatively deep, positive emotional conviction about someone or something famous,
usually expressed through a recognition of style or creativity. He/she is also a person driven to explore and
participate in fannish practices. Fans find their identities wrapped up with the pleasure connected to
popular culture. They inhabit social roles marked out as fandom. (p. 18)

Thus, a ‘fan’ is a social identity, and a discursive construct, which is employed to ‘position
people, rather than [being a] real social position’ (Williams, 2001: 225).

Inherent in this is a view taken in fan studies (Gray et al., 2007) that fans and fandom are embed-
ded within the existing economic, social, and cultural status quo, and therefore fan cultures replicate
broader social and cultural hierarchies. There are hierarchies of fans, at the bottom of which sit the
most excluded, improper, or deviant fan. One such example is Thorne’s (2011) dysfunctional fan,
who is so involved with the subject of interest that they perform antisocial activities, distance them-
selves from family and friends, and might enact behaviors such as violence, hysteria, and sometimes
even stalking. Very often these are the same terms used to describe female fandom (e.g. Ehrenreich
et al., 1992), and they are also often associated with ‘groupies’. A key difference between a groupie
and a fan is that the groupie has access to the musician when not on stage (Forrest, 2010). As Fonarow
(2006) observes, ‘the groupie, unlike other audience members, successfully crosses the boundary
between audience and performer and concretely enacts the desire on the part of the audience for
obliterating the membrane between stage and life’ (p. 211). Thus, where fans are problematic in that
they challenge the producer–consumer dualism, groupies obscure and have the potential to obliterate
the boundaries between producers and consumers. As a threat to the producer–consumer dualism and
the patriarchy it upholds, the groupie identity has been subjected to the process of othering.

Othering is the process by which a group of people are cast into the role of the ‘other’ and the
subsequent establishment of one’s own identity through opposition to the other (Gabriel, 2008).
The idea of ‘otherness’ is central to sociological, post-colonial, and feminist (among other) analy-
ses of how social identities are constructed by those who have greater political power. It draws on
the assumption that ‘subordinate’ groups are offered, and at the same time relegated to, subject
positions as others, which are frequently stereotypical and dehumanizing (Riggins, 1997).
Consequently, othering denies the other the characteristics that define the same, which in the case
of the groupie, includes access to, and inclusion in creative production. Thus, Jensen (2011) defines
othering as the

discursive processes by which powerful groups, who may or may not make up a numerical majority, define
subordinate groups into existence in a reductionist way which ascribe problematic and/or inferior
characteristics to these subordinate groups. Such discursive processes affirm the legitimacy and superiority
of the powerful and condition identity formation among the subordinate. (p. 65)

Othering processes include erecting boundaries, establishing and policing social institutions,
and constructing informal practices that keep the other in place. For example, Spivak (1985)

Larsen 405

outlines three dimensions of othering evident in the archival material of British colonial power in
India: (1) making the subordinate aware of who holds the power, (2) constructing the other as
pathological and morally inferior, and (3) constructing resources such as knowledge and technol-
ogy as being the property only of those in power. Similar processes can be observed in many con-
temporary situations. Othering is at its most potent when those who are othered are complicit in
their own subordination. For example, Patterson et al. (2009) argue that gendered identities only
work if they recruit subjects, and that this only happens if subjects recognize themselves and invest
in the representation.

Methodology

Taking the social identities of gender and marketplace role as a starting point, this article examines
how the labeling of certain people as ‘groupies’ works as an othering practice to maintain the gen-
dered norms of rock by excluding women from creative production. Social identities are often
perpetuated and even resisted, negotiated, and expanded (Hall, 2000) through popular culture texts
(Sandlin and Maudlin, 2012). Thus, in order to understand how the ‘groupie’ identity works to
exclude those who invest in it from the very thing they want to be part of, this study employs a
rhetorical analysis of popular culture texts (Leach, 2000; Sellnow, 2010), specifically biographies,
in order to identify the particular discursive processes of othering that are used. Haynes (2006)
argues that the use of biographical accounts and methods is growing in social science because
researchers wish to explore different dimensions of the lived reality of everyday life. They convey
rich accounts of lived experience, and as popular culture texts simultaneously ‘argue rhetorically
by confirming or disconfirming an ideology of a cultural group’ (Sellnow, 2010: 4). Biographies
are particularly useful in examining how the social identity of the groupie is perpetuated and con-
tested, because while they purport to communicate the voices of those who identify as groupies, at
one and the same time, they are also printed collections of stories, packaged for marketing to pro-
spective customers, and are therefore subject to the same forces that shape the rock music industry.
A rhetorical analysis enables an examination of these biographical texts as sites of struggle that
offer preferred (reinforcing) and/or oppositional (challenging) readings (Sellnow, 2010) of the
groupie identity as produced by rock patriarchy.

The five biographical texts upon which this study is based have been purposefully selected from
among the most popular books on groupies, according to Amazon.com, to offer a range of different
voices, identities, and places. The texts in chronological order of publication are as follows:

•• Fabien and Byrne (2005 [1969]) Groupie. London: Omnibus Press. A ‘fictionalized first
person anecdotage of life and times in the world of late-Sixties London’ (p. iii) largely con-
sidered to be a biographical account of Jenny Fabien’s experiences.

•• Balfour (1986) Rock Wives: The Hard Lives and Good Times of the Wives, Girlfriends and
Groupies of Rock and Roll. New York: Beech Tree Books. Edited interviews with 17 women
and 1 man about their relationships with rock stars.

•• Des Barres (2005 [1987]) I’m With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie. London: Helter
Skelter. An autobiographical memoir by perhaps the most well-known ‘super-groupie’ from
the late 1960s Los Angeles.

•• Des Barres (2007) Let’s Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and
Supergroupies. Edited interviews with 23 women and 1 man who identify, or have been
identified as groupies from the 1960s to the early 2000s

•• Welch (2007) Hollywood Diaries. Xlibris Corporation. Excerpts from the diaries of a lesser
known groupie in 1970s Los Angeles.

406 Organization 24(3)

In this analysis, each text has been examined specifically with regards to how groupies are por-
trayed, how these portrayals compare to the groupie identity, what is being conveyed as appropri-
ate/inappropriate and desirable/undesirable roles and rules for women in rock, and what specific
practices constitute the process of othering groupies. The first stage of the analysis involved the
manual coding of the five texts. Coding proceeded by identifying key identities, roles, and related
subject positions represented in the texts, as well as defining experiences in the groupies narratives.
During the second stage of analysis, the coded data were compared across the texts to identify simi-
larities and differences. This was followed by an iterative process of theoretically categorizing and
revisiting coded data, characterized by an interplay of deductive and inductive reasoning, which
was undertaken to illuminate the processes of othering. Three key discursive processes have been
identified, and the discussion of the results is organized around these: (1) stereotyping as female,
(2) stigmatizing as inauthentic consumers, and (3) reinforcing and entrenching stereotypes.

Stereotyping groupies as female

The Rolling Stone article entitled ‘The Groupies and Other Girls’, by John Burks, Jerry Hopkins,
and Paul Nelson, which lies at the root of the identity, defines a groupie as a ‘chick that hangs out
with bands’ and opened with the following characterization:

She got her man. He was the cat they were all after and she got him! In the groupies place in the culture of
rock and roll that makes her something. She was already something: She had already balled 17 (or 36 or
117) musicians—four (or 12 or 25) of them real stars, names everybody in the U.S. and England would
know—but now her status was elevated again. She had scored with this cat the first night he was in town.
She might get him for a whole weekend. He seemed to dig her, you know; you can’t always tell, but he did
seem to. Wow!. (Burks et al., 1969, italics in original)

This is then followed by several definitions of a groupie by the women featured in the article,
such as a ‘non-profit call girl’, who is ‘a friend and a housekeeper and pretty much whatever the
musician needs’. Groupies were represented in the article as more or less interchangeable with any
other mundane form of relaxation and are depicted as objects of pity and derision. But at the same
time, they are accused of objectifying, if not commodifying rock musicians by aggressively seek-
ing and having sex with them—which as Coates (2003) notes was a clear reversal of the gender
norms of that time. The Rolling Stone article ‘leaves the impression that groupies are pathetic
creatures to be pitied, but at the same time a crucial part of rock culture, without which male musi-
cians could not relieve tension or receive their deserved amount of adulation’ (Coates, 2003: 86).

Various other pieces of popular media were published around this time, which reinforced the
Rolling Stone magazine’s narrow representation of groupies. For example, Alan Lorber produced
an long play (LP) vinyl record in 1969 entitled ‘The Groupies’ on which a number of women spoke
of their exploits. It presented a ‘one-dimensional view of groupies as merely sexual beings, or
beings that spoke about sex, whose only goal in life was to sleep with as many musicians as pos-
sible’ (Forrest, 2010: 137). Reducing the relationship between female fans and male musicians to
a singular representation focused on sex is at odds with the passion for music that is expressed in
many groupies’ own accounts (e.g. Des Barres, 2007), but it becomes even more problematic when
we consider that groupies are often portrayed as young girls who are under the age of consent. This
is obviously an important and emotive moral issue, which should not, and has not been ignored as
we have increasingly seen in reflections on the legacy of cultural rock icons such as David Bowie
(e.g. Chapin, 2016). But the emotive power of this issue should not be allowed to further entrench
the dominant and limited representation of groupies in the media. There were and may still be

Larsen 407

‘baby groupies’, such as the well-documented case of Lori Maddox (e.g. Chapin, 2016; Des Barres,
2007), but many groupies were and are consenting adults who have varied and rich experiences of
the world of rock music.

What is seen upon analyzing the biographies is that this identity does not fit with all the stories
told by groupies, and therefore it fails to function either as a usefully comprehensive definition or
as a meaningful identity for those who are connected with it. There are a number of ways in which
this is evident. First, there is a lack of clarity as to who exactly can be considered a groupie. There
is much discussion in the texts around issues such as what a groupie is, what the difference between
a groupie and a wife/girlfriend is, and what a groupie is not. There are many different kinds of
groupies with different levels of status, as illustrated by the protagonist ‘Katie’ in Fabian and Byrne
(2005 [1969]):

I could feel the stage-door groupies’ envy, and I found I liked to be envied. I was different to them, because
I was with the group and they weren’t and they wanted to be. (p. 2)

Katie later muses that while their experiences might be quite different, they are connected by the
identity of ‘groupie’:

I wondered whether I was like them, I mean, we were all groupies together, me in my different way, and
they in theirs. Did they care that it was only for tonight, with a vague future maybe, because they would
probably be replaced in twenty-four hours, if not sooner. It wouldn’t matter that much, because for these
chicks, once was a kind of forever. (Fabian and Byrne, 2005 [1969]: 211)

Groupies are also not the same as wives/girlfriends and sometimes the difference is palpable
and antagonistic, as observed by Morgana Welch (2007):

Backstage, Liz Derringer was on a chair doing an impression of her husband Rick Derringer. I thought she
was pretty obnoxious as I watched her play air guitar and sing awfully. It was pretty weird, but who am I
to say—maybe it is the rift between groupies and wives. Sometimes it is a claw-screeching feeling when
the two sides of the camp are in proximity. (p. 68)

But, on the other hand, some groupies became wives and have little issue in reconciling these
seemingly opposing aspects in their sense of self. For example, prior to marrying Frank Zappa,
Gail Zappa was ‘by her own admission, an experienced groupie’ (Balfour, 1986: 127). She simply
sees that ‘being a groupie is a state of mind’ (Des Barres, 2007: 37), providing weight to the argu-
ment that it is a social identity, rather than a real social position (Williams, 2001).

As an ill-defined social identity, many groupies find themselves having to negotiate around
a portrayal that is unfit for purpose. In Des Barres (2005 [1987]) first autobiography, she often
appears ill-at-ease with the label and seeks a reaffirming justification for being identified in this
way:

I dig musicians. There are girls who dig sailors, you could call them ‘sailories’, chicks who dig doctors,
‘doctories’. So go ahead, call me a groupie. (p. 184)

But, in her later book (2007), she purposefully seeks to ‘redeem and uplift the horribly misun-
derstood word groupie’ (Des Barres, 2005 [1987]: 331), and therefore asks many of the groupies
whom she interviews how they feel about the ‘G word’. Bebe Buell offers an insightful
reflection:

408 Organization 24(3)

As far as the groupie tag, I don’t believe the word means now what it did in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. Much like other
misused terms, such as punk and grunge, the term groupie is used to describe almost anyone associated with
musicians today. Because of that, I have disassociated myself with the label. The innocence that once
surrounded the word has been replaced by an almost ‘anything goes’ mentality. I’m sure it’s an insult to girls
like Pamela des Barres, Cynthia Plaster Caster and the GTO’s—who coined it—to be lumped in the same
category as women who sleep with anyone associated with a band or crew. That is not what a groupie is, in the
old-fashioned sense …. The music was, and is, the most important thing to a true groupie of days gone past.
The modern sense of the term, I find degrading and false. It gets my back up. (Des Barres, 2007: 249–250)

Second, at the same time as being too broad to specify exactly who and what a groupie is, the
groupie identity outright excludes whole categories of people on the bases of gender and heter-
onormativity. Davies (2001) argues disparagingly that men are effectively written out of the
descriptions of groupies: ‘a groupie can only be a woman. A man is never called a groupie, even if
he admits to liking a female artist because he finds her attractive’ (p. 315). There are, however,
documented cases of male groupies, although they do remain elusive in the detail: ‘Hyatt House
and the denizen rock-and-roll stars that dwell within has now turned into a popular pastime or sport
for would-be male and female groupies. Yes, male groupies!’ (Welch, 2007: 33). Des Barres (2007)
interviews Pleather, who is conscious of his unique and largely unacknowledged presence in the
realm of the public perception of a groupie:

I saw an old TV show where Dick Cavett was interviewing Janis Joplin, and he asked if she had male
groupies. She said, ‘Not nearly enough’, and I felt strangely validated. (p. 281)

What is particularly interesting is the feminized and feminine account he gives of his hetero-
sexual liaison’s:

She [Carla Bozulich] was a tortured genius, totally screwed up, just the way I like ‘em. She needed lots of
help, and I like helping. […] I just wanted to facilitate, so she didn’t have to deal with the world. (Des
Barres, 2007: 289)

I’ve subconsciously set up my entire life to take the traditionally feminine role in relationships. When I say
feminine, I mean the person who is seen as weaker to the outside world, but is really the one making things
happen. Women make the world go ‘round, but men take the credit. (Des Barres, 2007: 292)

In Pleather’s experience, the woman takes on masculine traits and he adopts the feminine role.
Thus, even where an exception to the rule of groupie-as-female is provided, the potential to chal-
lenge to the groupie identity and the patriarchy it supports is diminished by framing his experiences
in heteronormative and heterosexual terms.

The key point to recognize in all of this is the conflation of the terms ‘groupie’ and ‘female’ and
the consequent othering of women from the world of rock music: ‘because of the [Rolling Stone]
articles language and its construction of groupie sexuality, labelling a woman or girl a groupie
became a way to reduce her options, and perhaps, even her power’ (Rhodes, 2005: 159). Even more
problematic was the notion that all female fans, and even the wives and girlfriends of male rock
musicians, are defined as groupies in the music press. Patricia Kennealy, a writer and editor for
Jazz and Pop in 1967, and a girlfriend of Jim Morrison says,

the women writers a lot of times got tarred with the groupie brush when they would go and talk to people.
The musicians were used to being pursued on the road, with groupies throwing themselves at them from
all directions. So they figured you were a total s**t. (Balfour, 1986: 143)

Larsen 409

This reduces any kind of relationship between females and male musicians to one based on
heteronormative gender roles and focused on sexuality.

Stigmatizing as inauthentic consumers

Closing down the representation of groupies and gendering it as female sets the scene for the stig-
matization and exclusion of groupies from any meaningful discussion of their role in rock. Central
to this are the notions of ‘credibility’ and ‘authenticity’, which Davies (2001) argues are important
in serious discussions in music journalism, but which are constructed in such ways that they are
almost completely unattainable for women, both as musicians and as fans. The specific mechanism
at work here is the reframing of groupies as ‘inauthentic’ fans (i.e. consumers) rather than ‘proper’
fans. Groupies have been characterized as grown up, hyper-sexualized, teenyboppers (Coates,
2003). The term ‘teenybopper’ has been naturalized to refer to types of music and fans that are in
direct opposition to a more authentic rock and roll, and gendered female (e.g. Frith and McRobbie,
1990 [1978]). Teenyboppers are seen as young, passive, female consumers who follow fashion and
who lack any real taste for ‘serious’ or ‘intelligent’ music, preferring popular and mainstream
music, which is defined precisely as music associated with girls and women (Huyssen, 1986;
Thornton, 1995). Thus, the linking of groupies to teenyboppers discursively constructs them simul-
taneously as female, ‘duped consumers’ of mass culture and functions to both discredit and invali-
date their experiences as music fans.

A closer reading of groupies’ own stories unmasks the centrality of the music in their experi-
ences, thus problematizing the notion that groupies are ‘too stupid about music to be proper fans’
(Warwick, 2007: 170). It is apparent in the biographies that in fact many groupies had a passionate
interest in music, very often accompanied by sophisticated and discerning musical tastes. As mem-
bers of the girl-group, the Girls Together Outrageously (GTOs), and part of Frank Zappa’s inner
circle, Mercy Fontenot and Pamela des Barres were early fans (and friends) of the now renowned
Gram Parsons. Good musical taste was often a way by which groupies identified and connected
with each other:

I spotted a reel-to-reel tape recorder gleaming underneath one of the tacky tables from across the dance
floor. Someone as fanatical as myself had carted the massive thing into the Galaxy just to capture these
ecstatic, unforgettable moments for all time, and I had to find out who it was so I could congratulate them
on having such immaculate taste. (Des Barres, 2005 [1987]: 75)

Bebe Buell speaks of how not only her musical tastes were appreciated by the musicians with
whom she spent time but also her musical knowledge.

I remember turning up backstage at a Cheap Trick show and watching Rick Nielsen’s face light up. It’s a
beautiful thing. They look at you and go, ‘Oh my God, you’re here! We’re gonna play so fucking great
tonight!’ They want to know that their girls are there. And we’re going to tell them the truth when they get
off stage: ‘You suck’ or ‘You were brilliant’ or ‘The bass player’s overplaying’ or ‘It was mixed horribly’.
We know our shit! There was only a handful of It Girls who got treated like rock stars and maintained that
status. (Des Barres, 2007: 255)

Many of the original super-groupies were actually artists themselves or had artistic talents
that become a central part of their experience as a groupie. Cynthia Rennie, who is better known
as Cynthia Plaster Caster, developed a unique form of art; she is infamous for making plaster
casts of rock stars’ erect penises. She has explained in Des Barres (2007) that at the same time

410 Organization 24(3)

as she was looking for a way to get closer to the rock stars whose music she loved, her art teacher
gave the class a homework assignment to make a plaster cast of a solid object. She had a flash of
artistic inspiration that she could do something creative, that was also fun and absurd and which
gave her a special edge over all the other groupies. It took her quite some time to figure out how
to actually make a cast, but once she did, she amassed an impressive collection. The important
point to note here is that her work is actually considered to be a legitimate art form; she was an
art student and had serious training and a recognizable professionalism in her approach. Frank
Zappa brought her into his inner circle on the basis of her innovative and groundbreaking work.
And finally, her collection of art has been exhibited at an art gallery in SoHo, New York. These
are all recognized institutions in the legitimation of art and the creation of its value (e.g. Rodner
and Thomson, 2013).

Although their creativity and artistic abilities take many different forms including fine art,
dancing, singing, hairdressing, and journalism, it is apparent that many groupies were greatly
inspired by the music they were hearing and passionately wanted to play and create music and
art themselves. In the homosocial world of rock music, there were, however, few routes into the
inner circle of creativity and little opportunity for women to be anything other than fans. But
through their artistic abilities, these groupies were able to negotiate their way to the inner cir-
cle. Concurrently, this immediately makes groupies a threat to the patriarchy of rock. Some
groupies were not artists and were not creative, but nonetheless undertook work that was impor-
tant in facilitating the production of rock music, such as managing the venue offices (e.g. Dee
Dee Keel), acting as a gatekeeper for access to the musician (e.g. Gail Zappa), making clothes
(e.g. Pamela des Barres), and cooking meals for them (e.g. Catherine James). Because it was
domestic and administrative work which supports the patriarchy, such work remains largely
unacknowledged. However, Gail Zappa has been quite reflexive about the importance of the
role she played in Frank Zappa’s artistry:

He was an artist: he did what he had to do and I did whatever I could to make it easier for him. I made a
conscious effort to keep everything mundane out of his way and out of his path so he didn’t have to deal
with that crap. (Des Barres, 2007: 47)

A part of Gail’s job, however, is making sure that everything runs smoothly for Frank, from day to day.
‘It’s the boring stuff, like following up on the details, like set up an interview at a certain time or make their
travel arrangements in a certain way. Mostly you just block for Frank so that all he has to do is do what he
does with not too many distractions’. (Balfour, 1986: 136)

Where the music has been written out of the representation of groupies, we see instead an insist-
ent focus on the sexual motivations of groupies, over and above any other potential reason for
engaging with the object of their interest, thus reinforcing the framing of the groupie as a (duped)
consumer rather than a ‘proper’ authentic fan. While it is undeniable that sex is an important part
of groupies’ experiences and is a key theme throughout all their stories, it is trivialized and over-
simplified in the groupie identity. For example, a common understanding of the motivation for
groupies’ sexual actions is that they are seeking glory from association with rock stars. But many
groupies speak of a much more complex sexual experience which is tied up in an embodied
response to the music. Thus, the music is still the central feature:

The twang of an electric guitar and the sexy thump of the deep dark bass opened me up and wreaked
sensual havoc with my teenage hormones. I wanted to be close with the men who made me feel so damn
good, and nothing was going to stop me. (Des Barres, 2005 [1987]: 12)

Larsen 411

The sexual freedom demonstrated by groupies at the emergence of the phenomenon transgresses
the sexual norms of the time, in a way that was often experienced as empowering (e.g. Des Barres,
2005 [1987]). Michelle Overman explains,

We were the first generation of women openly expressing our love for music; and the music, obviously,
was extremely sexual. But more than that, it was magical, and the magic was actually larger than the
groups that played it. (Des Barres, 2007: 156)

Of course, acknowledging this would have threatened the emerging discourses of rock as a site
of masculinity by imagining groupiedom as an empowered position for women in rock culture,
thus these transgressions have been framed as deviant and dysfunctional. The writing out of the
more empowered and productive stories of groupiedom can be explained as an example of ‘dis-
placed abjection’, whereby a ‘low’ social group (i.e. rock music in opposition to highbrow culture)
turns its power and disdain against a group that is even lower (i.e. women, in a patriarchal society),
in order to legitimate its own position and power (Coates, 2003). However, the figure of the groupie
cannot be written out completely as it plays an important role in the construction and myth of the
rock God, as groupies ‘directly participated in and even instigated wild backstage parties, outra-
geous hotel antics, and drug use that have been the basis for the construction of the persona of the
male metal rock musician as wild, sexually potent, powerful, and poignant’ (Forrest, 2010). Instead,
the discrediting and invalidation of groupies as inauthentic consumers we see at work in the groupie
identity masks the more empowering aspects of transgression regarding women in rock and has
enabled their stigmatization as the other.

Reinforcing and entrenching stereotypes

If being female discredits and invalidates a groupie, then it follows that the magnification of femi-
ninity will serve to deepen and strengthen their marginalization and exclusion. This can be under-
stood through the lens of Connell’s (1987) concept of ‘emphasized femininity’, whereby adhering
to normative portrayals of femininity defined by the interests and desires of men under the condi-
tions of hegemonic masculinity women comply with their own subordination. In her work on the
complex meanings surrounding the bodies of tattooed women, Braunberger (2000) explains that
tattoos are a magnifier of cultural assumptions about femininity. So where

a women’s body is understood to be a sex object, then a tattooed woman’s body is a lascivious sex object;
when a women’s body is nature, a tattooed woman’s body is primitive; when a woman’s body is a spectacle,
a tattooed woman’s body is a show. (Braunberger, 2000: 1–2)

A similar process can be argued for in the case of groupies, where even the stories that challenge
the identity emphasize groupies’ femininity and thus magnify cultural assumptions about women
as sex objects and as passive consumers of mass culture. This ultimately serves to reinforce and
entrench the groupie stereotype.

The analysis of groupies’ stories provides support for the argument that when femininity
becomes intertwined with fandom, femininity is emphasized. Resonating throughout many of the
stories is the classical feminine archetype of the muse—the goddesses of inspiration. Pamela Des
Barres (2007) says,

I believe [muse] describes the role of the groupie. A brilliant, creative man is often brought to the height
of his genius by the muse. Throughout the ages, such women have helped revolutionize the arts. (p. x)

412 Organization 24(3)

In the introduction to her book, Des Barres (2007) very carefully locates her view of groupies
within the mythology of muses by explaining that the ancient Greeks brought us nine Muses and
that since then, ‘attention and blessings from a muse are certain to stimulate any mere mortal’s
creative juices’ (p. x). The groupie-as-muse can be a source of great inspiration and creativity for
the musician. John Lennon (in Sheff, 1981) said of his muse Yoko Ono:

With us it’s a teacher-pupil relationship. That’s what people don’t understand. She’s the teacher and I’m the
pupil. I’m the famous one. I’m supposed to know everything. But she taught me everything I f**king know.

Of course, John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s relationship also demonstrates that the groupie-as-muse is
not entirely unproblematic, as Yoko was blamed by many for the breakup of the Beatles, due to her
powerful influence on John. Scodari (2007) argues that there are many conflicting gender issues tied up
in Yoko Ono’s controversial status in Beatles’ subculture and that these are manifest in what is called the
‘Yoko Factor’. This is the ‘inevitable moment when you are dating a guy in a band and he lectures you
about Yoko Ono, the message being that women are a suck on male creativity’ (Scodari, 2007).

The data also tell of groupies taking on a caregiving, nurturing, almost ‘mother-like’ role that is
in stark contrast to the predatory tones of the groupie identity. This is captured by the character of
Penny Lane in the film Almost Famous (2000) who describes herself as not a groupie, but a ‘Band-
Aid’. Director Cameron Crowe explains in Des Barres (2007) that the Penny Lane character ‘was
the person who hosted the arrival of the great indefinable it, asking, “Do you have everything you
need?”’ (p. 373). In this role, groupies supported, facilitated, cared about, and nurtured rock musi-
cians, in a manner that Gail Zappa (earlier) and Pamela Des Barres (2005 [1987]) describe:

I mooned around my new house, twinkly-eyed and trembling. My heart was doing a new dance, skipping
beats, in the throes of something scary. I wanted to DO things for him, I wanted to sew and cook fried
chicken and vacuum his rug. (p. 135)

Even Pleather, a male groupie, is drawn to this feminine archetype:

All the women I’ve known just want to be talked to. They want someone to listen. I’ve always been
empathetic. I like to listen and I like to help. (Des Barres, 2007: 291)

These re-tellings of groupies’ stories are necessary to problematize the narrow, reductive, and
dominant groupie identity and to give voice to the variety of experiences. The groupie-as-muse
representation contrasts with the dominant portrayal, by framing groupies as important, special,
inspirational, strong, and productive, but in doing so draws heavily on cultural assumptions about
women as artistic inspiration. This is where the key issue lies. While muses are important, and
arguably even essential to artistic genius, the genius artist/muse binary is inherently gendered
male/female, and thus marginalizes women to a supporting role in creative work. Drawing inspira-
tion from feminist art historian Cecilia Rentmeister, Huyssen (1986) states, ‘Women as providers
of inspiration for the artist, yes, but otherwise Berufsverbot [professional ban] for the muses’ (p.
50). So while these alternative stories empower by challenging the groupie identity, they simulta-
neously reinforce the gendering of the groupie as woman by magnifying cultural assumptions
about femininity, and thus entrench their othering.

Conclusion

This account of how the labeling of women as ‘groupies’ works as an othering practice contrib-
utes to an important, but still evolving body of knowledge on how gender is constructed and

Larsen 413

articulated in both music and the creative industries (e.g. Davies, 2001; Hatton and Trautner,
2011; Leonard, 2015; Strong, 2011) by illustrating how gender intersects with the social identity
of marketplace role to obscure and denigrate the contribution of women in rock and to conse-
quently exclude them from creative production. Three unique discursive processes (Jensen,
2011) of othering are at work through the groupie identity. First, the popular and music media
played a significant role in reducing the groupie identity to a stereotypical character (Riggins,
1997) right from the emergence of the label. The emergent identity of the ‘groupie’ was con-
flated with ‘female’ which, in turn, engulfed all women associated with music, including other
female fans, wives, and girlfriends of male rock musicians, and even those actually working in
the industry (Davies, 2001). The powerfully dominant identity of groupies as women interested
only in having sex with male rock musicians was constructed, which foreclosed any other pos-
sibilities for framing the relationship between females and rock music. The gendering of group-
ies as female, the subordinate gender role in the patriarchal world of rock, thus provides the
foundation for their exclusion from meaningful involvement in music. Second, the notions of
‘credibility’ and ‘authenticity’, which are central to serious music journalism (Davies, 2001),
have been constructed in a way to exclude, discredit, and invalidate the role of women in rock.
Key to this is the conflation of the terms ‘groupie’, ‘teenybopper’, and ‘consumer’, which serves
to stigmatize the status of groupies as inauthentic consumers. The groupie identity effectively
reproduces and reinforces age-old gendered hierarchies within the creative industries
(Beauregard, 2012) which position the male as producer and the female as consumer. So while
women are not completely excluded from the world of rock, the one identity that is made avail-
able to them as participants limits them to the role of a passive consumer. Finally, cultural
assumptions about femininity are magnified by the groupie identity, even in alternative represen-
tations of groupies. Thus, even though groupies might be somewhat empowered by the opportu-
nities these alternative identities offer to challenge the dominant and repressive view of their
identity, in the end, the stories they tell simply magnify their female-ness and thus render group-
ies complicit in their own othering by entrenching the stereotype further.

While a nuanced reading of the accounts of groupies clearly shows that the actual identities,
stories, and experiences of groupies are rich and varied, the singular, dominant, and hegemonic
groupie identity persists in media, practice, and popular culture. The resoluteness with which this
identity has been maintained by musicians, fans, and even academics is striking and speaks of the
power it holds. For example, even in the contemporary indie scene where Fonarow (2006) explains
the term ‘groupie’ is more ambiguous, the pejorative dominant image of the female groupie is held
up as an ‘other’ against which indie musicians and fans position themselves.

It is clear that the modernist notion of the inferiority of women’s artistic and aesthetic abilities,
and the ‘persistent gendering as feminine of that which is devalued’ (Huyssen, 1986: 53) is far from
resolved in contemporary creative industries. Rather, the gendering of women in rock is entrenched
in such identities as the groupie, and somewhat masked behind the marketplace roles of fan and
consumer. As it appears to be more socially acceptable to stigmatize people for being fans (e.g.
Cusack et al., 2003; Hills, 2005) than being women, the framing of groupies as inauthentic fans and
passive consumers renders gender less visible, but at the same time all the more powerful. Thus, a
critical and nuanced reading of the role of gender in othering and marginalizing women in music
as it intersects with the marketplace role of the consumer has problematized the accepted, singular,
and dominant identity of ‘groupie’ and thrown open the door for alternative discourses and further
research on groupies’ identity, role, and experiences. In elucidating both the gender and market-
place politics at play in the groupie identity and the mechanisms involved in othering women,
space is opened up through which alternative possibilities for understanding and enacting the role
of women in rock can be imagined.

414 Organization 24(3)

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publi-
cation of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Author biography

Gretchen Larsen is a senior lecturer in Marketing. Her research is located within interpretive and critical
consumer research, at the intersection of consumption, markets, and the arts. In particular, she seeks to under-
stand how the position of the consumer in a socio-cultural world is constructed, performed, interpreted, and
questioned through the arts. This research examines the importance of arts and music consumption in helping
consumers make sense of their world.

Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, 28:

474

–481
Copyright C© Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN 1040-2659 print; 1469-9982 online
DOI: 10.1080/10402659.2016.1237116

To Laugh or Not to Laugh at Racist Jokes
I Jin Jang and Carlos Cordero-Pedrosa

In times of Brexit, the French ban on the burkini, and the refugee crisis, the
return of openly expressing racism in many parts of Europe increasingly pairs
political correctness in a false dichotomy with freedom of speech. In this light,
humor seems a suitable vehicle to sustain racist discourse in an acceptable
way, and it is even presented as a critique of racism itself. Racist jokes are
employed with the purpose of parodying and exposing racism to challenge
political correctness. In this context, it is not clear if certain racist jokes are
reinforcing or subverting racism. Laughing at the jokes, then, becomes an
increasingly difficult choice. This essay departs from the authors’ shared per-
sonal experiences with racist jokes presented as a parody of racism. Using
two at times different, yet converging perspectives—of a Korean female and
a Spanish male—we try to bring those perspectives into our reflection on the
workings of racism, dynamics of power, and limitations and possibilities for
solidarity. We attempt to analyze our episodes from different angles in order
to present some of the manifold implications that racist jokes can reveal and
hide. We start by discussing a situation in which we were watching a Spanish
sitcom in a familial setting and the dilemma that arises when racism takes the
shape of humor.

After lunch, a ritual begins. In Spain people usually have lunch betweentwo and four in the afternoon. Carlos’ family was not an exception. After
the meal was finished, the family would take yogurt for dessert, and retire into
an adjacent sitting room where they would gather to relax. Sitting or lying
on a sofa to let the food go down, there is nothing better than to watch a
light comedy on a drowsy late afternoon. The TV is on, showing a rerun of
a popular Spanish comedy called La Que Se Avecina (What’s Yet to Come).
The quotidian routine of watching the show together after lunch is almost
sacred, and it is only polite for the guest to join this ritual. Between laughing,
they glance at I Jin to see if she understands the humor and to explain the
background stories of the characters for her to be able to follow.

La Que Se Avecina has been aired for eight years in Spain with immense
success. Set in an upscale suburban housing development around Madrid,
the sitcom revolves around the lives of the neighboring residents who are

474

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2016.1237116

To Laugh or Not to Laugh at Racist Jokes 475

gradually learning to “live worse” in the wake of the economic crisis in
Spain. Gossiping, scheming, backstabbing, and plotting unlawful acts with or
against one another are common devices chosen by the farcically stereotyped
neighbors in their desperate and hysterical attempt to keep up the appearance
of a good life. The show’s most popular and beloved character is Antonio,
who, ironically, embodies the quintessence of misanthropy manifested as sex-
ism, racism, and homophobia. A sort of Spanish Archie Bunker, only in its
extremely obnoxious and offensive version, Antonio’s character purports to
make a satirical parody of the racist Spanish society.

A wide array of the Orientalist repertoire toward Latin America isdeployed as background in which Antonio can do his parody: constant
reference to jungle, the indigenous ways of life, lack of civilized behaviors,
and exotic spiritual practices. Added are other stereotypes of Latin Americans
in Spain: drug dealing, gangs, promiscuity, and hyper-sexualized women.
Antonio’s relation with his employee Rosario, an undocumented migrant
worker from Colombia, portrays the most constant and overt expressions of
racism. Rosario is directly referred to as “the immigrant.” Rosario’s perspec-
tive is rarely presented except that he obeys his exploitative employer repeat-
ing “sí, jefe Antonio,” and shows gratitude for being able to live the “Spanish
dream.” One scene shows sexual intercourse between Antonio in a costume
of a Spanish conquistador, evoking Hernán Cortés, and Manolita, a Colom-
bian woman, dressed up as an indigenous person, fulfilling Antonio’s sexual
fantasy.

The target of Antonio’s racism is not limited to the people from Latin
America. The Roma are said to be irascible and vengeful. Muslims are either
terrorists or rich Arabic sheiks. Black women appear as sex workers. The
Chinese are portrayed as threatening business rivals. As the show claims to
be a satire of Spanish society, it is the extremely exaggerated representations
of stereotypes that give the sitcom its humorous vein. The absurdity works to
elicit laughter in the audience and somehow dilute offensiveness.

Nevertheless, that is when the moment of the poignant dilemma arises,
to laugh or not to laugh. Seated amid her host family, being entertained by
the show, the guest feels obliged to join in the laugh to be included; also to
be polite. But where is the laughing point? At times, their bursts of laughter
seem to imply that such overt racism is a thing of the past, and educated, lib-
eral white Europeans would never agree with what is being said by the show’s
maverick Antonio. This may be one of the reasons that Antonio, despite the
character’s crudely offensive demeanors, enjoys such popularity, reaching
even younger and more progressive-minded audience. Considering the supe-
riority theory of humor, the viewer’s laughter then entertains a certain notion
of moral superiority of having reached universal liberal ideals as opposed to
the outdated values that the racist character is obviously holding on to. The

476 I Jin Jang and Carlos Cordero-Pedrosa

portrayal of fictional characters uttering racist comments or jokes in popu-
lar TV shows, movies, and stand-up comedies is claimed to be harmlessly
humorous because it is supposedly those racist characters that the audience
actually laughs at, not at racism or at the target of racism.

This moral superiority, which is premised on the conception of racism
based on the individual moral grounds, then, renders the racist clearly absurd.
The laughter sometimes results from the shock. The incongruity theory of
humor posits that people are amused by the perception of incongruity, the gap
between what is considered commonsensical and the absurd or contradictory.
Racism, when considered to be social deviation, individual moral failing, or
anachronistic, becomes a source of abnormal contradictions that are not con-
gruous with the ideals of a society. Consider, however, Frantz Fanon’s stance
that in a racist culture, being racist is not an abnormal thing. In such a soci-
ety, no one is exempt from “racist rationality” as racism is a normative fea-
ture. The rigor of systemic racism renders everyday expressions of racism as
superfluous. According to Lewis Gordon, racist rationality not only sustains
and normalizes racism, but also renders it invisible to the dominant group
of a racist society. Placing racism on the racist individuals, and reducing it
to personal prejudices of such individuals themselves constitutes an intrinsic
element of a systemically racist society.

Antonio’s overt expression of racism is then not abnormal, but redun-
dant. It is hardly shocking for people of color living with everyday racism in
Spain. The source of incongruity may not be his racism despite the non-racist
social conducts or even aspirations, but his utter disregard for being politically
correct despite the constraints of political correctness. No wonder there is a
peculiar phenomenon of his character being almost received as a delegate of
social affairs: “(using a mechanism of comedy) I am exposing truth concealed
by political correctness.” When Antonio appears and makes a scene with his
“I-don’t-give-a-damn-about-political-correctness” attitude, it has not only a
shocking effect, but a perversely liberating sense of calling what it is, what it
is. We will come back to this theme later.

For Antonio to assume the role of anti-racist messenger, it is important toset him up as a popular and beloved character. Raul Perez examines how
rhetorical performance strategies are taught to white stand-up comedians to
make racist jokes successful—that is, funny and acceptable—without appear-
ing racist. Self-deprecation or negative self-presentation is one of the strate-
gies that allow the joker to create a safe space before telling racist jokes to the
audience. This corresponds to how La Que Se Avecina’s production team cre-
ated Antonio’s character to evoke pity. As misanthropic, homophobic, racist,
and misogynic as he is, escalating episodes depict how he is supposed to fail
at life in his pathetic attempts to succeed. In an interview, Jordi Sánchez, the
actor playing Antonio, comments that he was instructed to portray Antonio

To Laugh or Not to Laugh at Racist Jokes 477

as an obnoxious and, at the same time, a “lovely” character, a person full of
traumas, who, in the end, just feels alone. Compared to this careful building
up of Antonio’s character, the production team’s representation of people of
color is surprisingly one-dimensional. These characters make appearances as
mere stereotypes without interiority, playing the background against which
Antonio can express his racism.

Some viewers, discomforted by such representation and other racist
and sexist elements of the show, expressed their concerns on various online
forums. Interestingly, their questions and comments were most frequently met
with the reproach that they should learn to appreciate a parody (and also to
lighten up). This shows a strange logic behind whether to laugh or not. One
has to laugh at an attempt of parody (whether it is successful at parodying is
another matter of discussion) because its status as a parody already implies
a critique of what it intends to parody. For I Jin, that also means to join in
the laughter to show that she knows well enough not to be offended by the
racist moment she has just seen on TV. But what is it that she is supposed to
know? It is that the show producers, writers, actors, and the audience—the
Spanish people—all know racism is bad. That knowing puts oneself in what
Sara Ahmed calls the mode of declaration: to admit to being bad means being
good. That is why Sánchez says in the interview, “somos racistas”: we, the
Spanish people, are racists. In this case, simply by saying that we are racists,
we transcend the very thing (racism) we just admitted to being. Thus, declar-
ing that something is racist, or that racism is bad, itself, exempts oneself from
racism. The show is exempt from being racist, because it has already declared
its knowing.

As humor is an intrinsic part of social interaction and integral to socialrelationships, the dilemma in the family sitting room is a recurring
theme for I Jin. Coming from South Korea and living in Spain, where most
East Asians are taken as Chinese (chino), joking, teasing, and social banter
often involve cultural or phenotypical differences. Frequent joking material
includes the shape of eyes (although epicanthic folds by some Asians are
also shared by some Europeans), martial arts, rice and chopsticks, or Chinese
sounding gibberish. Comparison to Mulan, Pocahontas, or Lucy Liu can be,
least of all, amusing. Often the choice she makes is to laugh along. Not many
would like to be considered to have “no sense of humor” in many contem-
porary societies where a sense of humor works as great social capital, and is
even valued as a virtue. In this milieu, the social dimension of humor is often
disregarded in favor of individualist approach on humor, and the asymmetry
of power relations within humor is unquestioned, celebrating humor for its
own sake.

The racialized living in a white-dominated society only know too well
how they are seen by the dominant discourse. When such discourse adopts the

478 I Jin Jang and Carlos Cordero-Pedrosa

form of humor, how to respond to it becomes complicated not only with polit-
ical and ethical but also emotional implications. They might laugh along, but
their laughing is not really laughing, more often than not, forced by concealed
weapon in laughter by those in positions of power. When women, people of
color, or other oppressed groups refuse to join in the humor that targets them
as the receiving end, they are often called “hypersensitive,” and accused of
not being able to “take jokes.” Furthermore, calling a joke out as racist itself
is considered to be an offensive and false accusation toward the joker. When
people of color call out that the joke they have just heard is racist, they are
often met with strong protest to the word “racist.” That accusation is, accord-
ing to Sara Ahmed, an injury to whiteness. The injured then launches the
defense (“I was just joking”) and the attack (“You are too serious”). No mat-
ter how much explanation is provided, it is difficult for the injured to get over
the injury. So why go through the battle? Instead, why not just laugh?

The following is another one of our shared experiences of racist humor.
In this case, unfortunately, Carlos attempted to make a racial joke about I Jin’s
niece, which for her was not a laughing matter. Instead of laughing it off, she
felt frozen by his choice of the word “yellow” because of the association it
brought with it—the memories, personal and collective, of the dehumanizing
humiliation of racism. She chose her response, that of anger, to his joke, and
called it racist. Then it was his time to flip off with the word “racist.”

“It’s just a joke,” Carlos kept repeating. He was convinced that, in the end, itwas just a joke. Although her argument for the joke being racist sounded
reasonable, he nevertheless froze at her use of the word “racist.” From then
on, the rest of her argument turned into a buzz. It felt as an accusation, under
which his defense mechanism instantly activated. “It’s just a joke,” he kept
repeating. He barked that his comment was ironic, that what he was actually
intending was to twist colorblindness and political correctness by using the
racial slur. He defended that he had good intentions, that he considered him-
self non-racist, even anti-racist, and denied that it was a racist joke. Then he
pointed his finger at the accuser and called her over-sensitive.

The disclaimer “it’s just a joke” (or “it’s just a parody”) functions as a
shield that provides distance and detachment. Gary Alan Fine and Christine
Wood argue that the aesthetic format of the joke allows the joker to distance
himself from the implications of the joke, and if taken further, to distance the
meaning of the joke from what joking means. Thus, the joker evades respon-
sibility for the impact of the joke on others. Like Carlos shrugged off, “it’s
just a joke, it’s not what I really believe, or what I really am.” Then one can
say racist or sexist jokes without being racist or sexist.

The “it’s just a joke” disclaimer is a double-edged sword. At the failure
of the first, it immediately turns into an attack on the received: “you have no
sense of humor.” To oppose humor against seriousness is a recurrent strategy

To Laugh or Not to Laugh at Racist Jokes 479

when racist jokes are not received as expected. If we look at the concept of
seriousness from an existentialist perspective, it refers to a way of conceiving
values as ready-made, absolute, and independent from human intervention.
For Simone de Beauvoir, in his flight from responsibility, the serious man
denies one’s and others’ subjectivity in the constitution of meanings. Ironi-
cally, the joker who accuses of seriousness is being existentially serious by
meaning “jokes are what they are.” The joker makes no distinction between
what a joke stands for and the meanings through which human beings con-
stitute them. In other words, his/her desire to bestow certain symbolic values
to jokes is obscured and the desire itself becomes an inherent element of the
joke.

The allegedly subversive element of racist jokes is an argument often usedby left thinkers, as exemplified below with the case of Slavoj Žižek. They
argue that racist jokes provide a vehicle to challenge the alleged limitations
imposed on free speech. Carlos thought that using the word “yellow” may be
subversive of the dominance of colorblindness. The Slovenian philosopher
argues that racist jokes, when delivered with a critical purpose and for the sake
of solidarity, can oppose political correctness, which he considers as hege-
monic. Žižek sees political correctness as not effective against racism, rather
for him, it is just a paternalistic way of repressing and controlling racist dis-
course, fostered by liberal multiculturalism. Thus, racist jokes defy the moral
restrictions imposed by the hegemony of political correctness. For Žižek, the
fear of being accused of racism is a heavy burden put on the shoulders by
political correctness that impedes critical thinking. Accordingly, racist humor
can be critical and liberating.

In her response to Žižek, Sara Ahmed points out that the problem lies in
the fantasy created around the view of political correctness as being hege-
monic. Believing in the illusion that racist discourse is prohibited has the
opposite effect: it masks, dilutes, and ends up reinforcing racism. The spell
of the hegemony of liberal multiculturalism, Ahmed continues, produces the
mirage of an ideal where racism is prohibited; following the fantasy of the
transcendence of racism, most people want to be regarded as non-racists or
anti-racists; this allows them to identify and point at certain forms of racism,
always somewhere else, what results in the covering over of other experi-
ences of racism. The prohibition of racism turns racists into a minority, hence
racism is presented as counterhegemonic, and free speech is the form of
rebellion against the restrictions supposedly imposed by political correctness.
Lifting these restrictions by means of racist speech reinforces the illusion of
such restrictions, which in turn feeds racism through counter-appeals to free
speech.

Considering racist jokes as having liberating and progressive potentials
situates Žižek’s discourse not so much different from the right-wing argu-

480 I Jin Jang and Carlos Cordero-Pedrosa

ments. As pointed out by scholars, there is a close relationship between racism
and the idea of progress. Indeed, racism functions and advances through
the self-understanding of institutions and movements as being progressive.
Denying racism and justifying it as progress (as “the European colonization
brought progress and development to the world”) is part of the structure of
systemic racism. Ideas of progress have been used to legitimize the colonial
enterprises and to cover over their legacy, in which racism plays a central role.

The following account may offer a broader picture of the dynamicsof how “progressive” racist jokes work, and how racism and racist
stories are covered over and relegated to the background. A conversation
between a left activist and scriptwriter and a film director appeared in
the press. It contained a series of racist jokes about Jews and the Holo-
caust. The conversation on Twitter went unnoticed for four years until the
scriptwriter, Guillermo Zapata, was elected for a seat in Madrid’s town
hall as a member of a progressive party. After the publication, right-wing
press and parties called for his resignation. The issue, and specially the
newly elected politician, became the center of political and media atten-
tion. Zapata issued a series of public statements in which he apologized,
declared himself as non-racist, condemned any form of racism, and argued
that the information that appeared had been decontextualized, for those jokes
were part of a broader conversation about the limits of humor on the Inter-
net, since, he argued, black humor could have a cathartic effect despite its
cruelty.

In both cases, Zapata’s and Carlos’ “defense” was to declare themselves
as being non-racists. The issue is not whether Zapata is a racist or not. That
the public debate revolved around this question reveals how, in this case, the
vehement denunciation by the conservative media and parties of Zapata as the
embodiment of racism functions to place themselves as non-racist. Racism is
located in Zapata by the ones who “conserve” racism through their policies,
which determine, among others, who lives and who dies at the doors of hos-
pitals or at the shores of Spanish coasts. Distinguishing between good and
bad whites is also a form of evasion and concealment from the systemic char-
acter of racism. Being racist functions like the bucket that is passed around
in a closed circle, an ever-expanding loop of whiteness where no one wants
to be racist, and accusing others of being racists is used as a weapon. Mean-
while the structure remains invisible (to some) and denied, and so the stories
of racism go, silenced.

Going back to the TV room, laughing, in the end, at Antonio’s rhetoricseems to be laughing into complicity with the insidious and invidious
dominant elements carefully layered among different discourses that conceal,
expose, distort, and disavow the existence of systemic racism. That’s when

To Laugh or Not to Laugh at Racist Jokes 481

the poignant dilemma occurs: to laugh or not to laugh. Fanon said he could
no longer laugh, as he understood the weight of legends, stories, history, and
historicity that overdetermines the person of color. It may not be so easy to
laugh when one carries all those with oneself.

RECOMMENDED READINGS

Ahmed, Sara. 2004. “Declarations of Whiteness: The Non-Performativity of Anti-Racism.”
Borderlands: e-journal 3(3). Available at , last accessed July 17, 2016.

Ahmed, Sara. 2008. “‘Liberal Multiculturalism is the Hegemony—Its an Empirical
Fact’—A Response to Slavoj Žižek.” General Issue (0). Available at , last accessed September 3, 2016

Ahmed, Sara. 2016. “Progressive Racism.” Available at , last accessed September 3, 2016.

Fanon, Frantz. 1964. Pour la Revolution Africaine. Écrits Politiques. Paris: La Découverte.
Fanon, Frantz. 1967. Black Skin, White Skin. New York: Grove Press.
Gordon, Lewis R. 2015. What Fanon Said. A Philosophical Introduction to his Life and
Thought. New York: Fordham University Press.

Gordon, Lewis R. 1999. Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism. New York: Humanity Books.

I Jin Jang is a Ph.D. student of Peace, Conflict and Development Studies at Jaume I University, Spain.
Her research interests include philosophy for peace with regard to colonialism and racism, African and
Africana philosophy. E-mail: jerbyerl@hotmail.com

Carlos Cordero-Pedrosa is a Ph.D. student in Peace Conflict and Development Studies at Jaume I Univer-
sity, Spain. His research interests include racism and colonialism. E-mail: carlosjaviercorder@gmail.com

http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol3no2_2004/ahmed_declarations.htm

http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/category/issues/0-general-issue/

Progressive Racism

mailto:jerbyerl@hotmail.com

mailto:carlosjaviercorder@gmail.com

Copyright of Peace Review is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or
emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written
permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

RECOMMENDED READINGS

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Gender Representation on Gender-Targeted Television Channels:
A Comparison of Female- and Male-Targeted TV
Channels in the Netherlands

Serena Daalmans1 & Mariska Kleemans1 & Anne Sadza1

Published online: 5 January 2017
# The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

Abstract The current study investigated the differences in the
representation of gender on male- and female-targeted channels
with regard to recognition (i.e., the actual presence of men and
women) and respect (i.e., the nature of that representation or
portrayal). To this end, the presence of men and women on two
female- and two male-targeted Dutch channels (N = 115 pro-
grams, N = 1091 persons) were compared via content analysis.
The expectation that men’s channels would portray a less equal
and more traditional image of gender than women’s channels
was generally supported by the results. Regardless of genre as
well as country of origin of the program, women were under-
represented on men’s channels, while gender distribution on
women’s channels was more equal. The representation of wom-
en in terms of age and occupation was more stereotypical on
men’s channels than on women’s channels, whereas men were
represented in more contra-stereotypical ways (e.g., performing
household tasks) on women’s channels. Since television view-
ing contributes to the learning and maintenance of stereotyped
perceptions, the results imply that it is important to strengthen
viewers’ defenses against the effects of gender stereotyping
when watching gendered television channels, for instance
through media literacy programs in schools.

Keywords Gender-targeted channels . Gender stereotyping .

Gender representation . Content analysis . Television

Over the past decades, research has made it abundantly clear
that women are underrepresented in the media and that, when
they are present, they are more often than not represented in
stereotypical roles (Collins 2011; Emons et al. 2010; Furnham
and Paltzer 2010; Lauzen et al. 2008; Signorielli and Bacue
1999). Because the roles of women in society have expanded
tremendously as a result of the ongoing process of emancipa-
tion, these consistent findings are often seen as remarkable
(Collins 2011; Emons et al. 2010; Lauzen et al. 2008;
Signorielli and Bacue 1999). However, recent developments
in the television landscape may provide new insights on the
issue. There are indications that specific gender-targeted
genres (e.g., soaps and teen scene) might actually showcase
both a more equal distribution of men and women as well as
less stereotyping in its gender portrayals (Gerding and
Signorielli 2014; Lauzen et al. 2006). Following on from this
speculation, the emergence of channels that specifically define
men or women as their target group and thus predominantly
broadcast gender-targeted genres (also called narrowcasting,
Kuipers 2012; Smith-Shomade 2004) might be a promising
development with regard to a more representative portrayal of
both men and women. However, gender portrayal on such
gendered channels is rather unexplored, and is therefore cen-
tral to the current study.

Narrowcasting, or organizing user groups into specific au-
dience markets, started from the 1980s onward in the United
States (Kuipers 2012; Lotz 2006). It meant that specific, often
gendered, audience groups were targeted via specific pro-
gramming and advertising content (Sheperd 2014).
Following this pattern, we term narrowcasting on channels
that explicitly target either a female or a male audience
Bgender-targeted channels^ here. Gender-targeted television
channels employing narrowcasting currently form an increas-
ingly large portion of the television landscape in a multitude of
countries (Kuipers 2012; Smith-Shomade 2004; Van Bauwel

* Serena Daalmans
s.daalmans@maw.ru.nl

1 Behavioural Science Institute, Communication Science, Radboud
University, Postbus 9104, 6500, HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Sex Roles (2017) 77:366–378
DOI 10.1007/s11199-016-0727-6

http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11199-016-0727-6&domain=pdf

2016). Previous research into narrowcasting has, on the one
hand, focused on the emergence of female-targeted channels,
such as Lifetime and Oxygen, and its programming strategies,
content choices, and rhetoric used to win female audiences
and advertisers of female products (Byars and Meehan 1994;
Hundley 2002; Lotz 2006; Meehan and Byars 2000; Tankel
and Banks 1997). On the other hand, researchers studied
whether specific gender-targeted programs such as Sex and
The City and Ally McBeal can be considered (post-) feminist
texts (Akass and McCabe 2004; Dubrofsky 2002). What re-
mains unclear based on previous research is how the gendered
focus of such channels and of programs suitable to broadcast
on gender-targeted channels affect the representation of men
and women in terms of presence and stereotyping.

Investigation of the portrayal of men and women in pro-
grams broadcast at gender-targeted channels becomes urgent
when considering statements by television scholars who label
gender-targeting or narrowcasting as a hegemonic practice
(Meehan 1990; Sheperd 2014; Smith-Shomade 2004).
Moreover, studying gender representation remains of the ut-
most importance because watching television still is the most
time-consuming pastime (Collins 2011; Signorielli 2012). As
a result, television is seen as one of the main institutions as-
sociated with disseminating stereotyped views of the world
and its gender roles. From the theoretical vantage point of
cultivation theory as well as social learning theory, television
is confirmed as one of the main agents of socialization
(Bandura 1977; Gerbner 1979; Signorielli 2012). Research
has shown that television viewing contributes to the mainte-
nance as well as the learning (molding) of gender stereotyped
perceptions among children, adolescents, and adults (Larson
2001; McGhee and Frueh 1980; Signorielli 1989; Welch et al.
1979). Furthermore, it is generally accepted that television
impacts gender socialization in people’s self-image as well
as their image of others (Signorielli 2012). Assuming that
television has the potential to shape attitudes, self-perception,
and behavior—on top of the idea that stereotyping plays a
crucial role in the maintenance of power inequalities within
wider social, cultural, political, and economic structures
(Cottle 2000; Dyer 1993, 1997; Morgan 2007)—it becomes
important to analyze and understand the nature of gender-role
portrayals on gender-targeted channels.

Previous research on gender stereotyping in media has gen-
erally focused on two levels of gender stereotyping. The first
level of gender stereotyping includes the actual presence of
men and women in television programs (whether they ap-
pear), termed recognition. The second level focuses on the
nature of that representation or portrayal (how they appear),
termed respect (Collins 2011; Signorielli and Bacue 1999).
Research into narrowcasting remains inconclusive about
whether the representation of men and women on gender-
targeted channels differs from the overall established patterns
of underrepresentation of women (i.e., recognition) and

stereotyping portrayal of both men and women (i.e, respect).
Moreover, known previous research into narrowcasting has
only studied female-targeted channels (Byars and Meehan
1994; Hundley 2002; Lotz 2006; Meehan and Byars 2000;
Tankel and Banks 1997), but a comparison between the gen-
der representation on male-targeted and female-targeted chan-
nels is lacking. This comparison is important because, if these
gender-targeted channels differ in how they represent gender,
this might lead to differing conceptions of gender roles and
gender aspirations between their male and female target audi-
ences (Gerding and Signorielli 2014).

In all, the question that is central to the current study is: What
are the differences in the representation of gender on male- and
female-targeted Dutch channels with regard to the characteriza-
tion concepts of recognition and respect? This question will be
investigated by analyzing gender-targeted television channels in
the Netherlands, a country in which 40% of the television land-
scape currently explicitly targets a gendered target audience
(Stichting Kijkonderzoek [SKO] 2014).

In their longitudinal analysis of gender on television,
Signorielli and Bacue (1999) use presence and gender-role
stereotyping as indicators of recognition and respect respec-
tively. These concepts stem from a study of televised racial
minorities by Clark (1972), who posited that positive changes
in the treatment of lower status groups (minorities including
women) can be seen as a process that follows two stages:
recognition and respect. In gender research, recognition can
be seen as the presence of women on the television screen
(Lauzen and Dozier 2005; Signorielli and Bacue 1999).
Respect is measured by the extent toward which women are
not portrayed in stereotypical roles, but rather represented in a
diverse manner because this diversity is necessary to be rep-
resented fairly and positively (Signorielli and Bacue 1999).

Recognition: Presence of Men and Women
on Television

Recognition is defined as men and women being represented on
television proportional to their presence in society (Signorielli
and Bacue 1999). Research into gender representation has over-
whelmingly found that women are underrepresented on televi-
sion compared to their presence in society (Collins 2011; Emons
et al. 2010; Glascock 2001; Greenberg and Atkin 1980;
Koeman et al. 2007; Signorielli and Bacue 1999; Tedesco
1974). The last decades have shown a trend towards a more
equal distribution of male and female characters (Elasmar
et al. 1999; Emons et al. 2010; Glascock 2001; Greenberg and
Collette 1997; Lauzen and Dozier 2005; Vande Berg and
Streckfuss 1992), but increases are often small and women re-
main underrepresented (Koeman et al. 2007; Segijn et al. 2014).

There are some indications that levels of over- or under-
representation are connected to the gender of the target

Sex Roles (2017) 77:366–378 367

audience. Gunter (1986) found that soap operas in 1970s that
were specifically geared toward a female audience had an
equal distribution of male and female characters. Gerding
and Signorielli (2014) similarly found that whereas females
were underrepresented in ‘tween programs geared towards
male adolescents, the programs geared towards female ado-
lescents mirrored the U.S. population. Based on previous re-
sults we posit that women will be underrepresented compared
to their presence in society on men’s channels, but not on
women’s channels (Hypothesis 1).

Previous studies have revealed that television genres can
differ in the ways they represent gender. It has been shown that
gender stereotyping is surely still present, but has generally re-
vealed a trend of decreasing stereotyping in genres such as tele-
vision fiction (Emons et al. 2010; Greenwood and Lippman
2010; Gunter 1986; Signorielli and Bacue 1999), teen scene
programming (Gerding and Signorielli 2014), and advertising
(Wolin 2003). Moreover, the portrayal of women in these genres
has become more representative of the lives and status of con-
temporary women. In contrast, other studies—mostly on televi-
sion advertising, but also on fictional programs—conclude that
women are still underrepresented and portrayed in a stereotyp-
ical way and that the degree of stereotyping is even worsening
(Allen and Coltrane 1996; Bretl and Cantor 1988; Ganahl et al.
2003; Harwood and Anderson 2002; Koeman et al. 2007;
Milner and Higgs 2004). Based on the latter results, some have
argued that, due to its continued gender-stereotyped nature, tele-
vision forms a lagging social indicator, which reflects Bhow the
economy or society was rather than how it is or how it will be^
(Estes 2003, p.4; see also Emons 2011; Kim and Lowry 2005).

Taken together these results reveal that there is inconsisten-
cy in the literature about the relation between genre and gen-
der-stereotyping. These possible genre differences become
relevant and important when combined with the increased
attention from a cultivation perspective that has been given
to the possibility of genre-specific cultivation effects
(Bilandzic and Busselle 2008; Bilandzic and Rössler 2004;
Cohen and Weimann 2000; Grabe and Drew 2007; Morgan
and Shanahan 2010). Following the idea put forth by Hawkins
and Pingree (1981) that different TV genres may cultivate
different views of the world, research has revealed large dif-
ferences between genres (Gomes and Williams 1990; Koeman
et al. 2007; Pennekamp 2011). Because men’s and women’s
channels cater to different expected audiences most likely
with a selection of different gendered genres, this might influ-
ence the gender representation on these channels as a whole.
This then leads to the following research question: Do genre-
differences play a role in the presence of men and women on
gender-targeted television channels? (Research Question 1).

The country of origin of the selected programming might
also play a role in gender representational differences between
channel types. Previous research has revealed that country of
origin plays a significant role in the degree of stereotyping

present in the representation of gender (Emons et al. 2010;
Furnham and Paltzer 2010; Wiles et al. 1995). For example,
Emons et al. (2010) found that U.S. programs on Dutch tele-
vision represented more male adults, more women involved in
childcare, more men involved in a job, and fewer males in-
volved in other activities compared to Dutch programs on the
same channels. Based on this comparison, they conclude that
American programs on Dutch television are more gender-
stereotyped than programs of Dutch origin. Their research
indicates that gender portrayals on television can be artifacts
of the culture of the society they were created and thereby
potentially reflective of the degree of gender equality in the
culture of origin. Because the Dutch television landscape
hosts a large degree of foreign (especially American) pro-
gramming, it becomes interesting to see how this affects gen-
der representation on Dutch gendered channels (Kuipers
2008, 2011). We therefore pose the following research ques-
tion: Do differences in country of origin of the program play a
role in the presence of men and women on gender-targeted
television channels? (Research Question 2).

Respect: Stereotyping in Gender Representation

Analyzing the presence of women in the television world is only
a relatively small aspect the representation of women on TV. BA
more complete understanding of how women are portrayed on
television comes from examining the type and depth of the roles
in which they are cast – what Clark (1972) referred to as
respect^ (Signorielli and Bacue 1999, p. 530). We therefore also
investigate how women appear in television programs.

The first indicator of respect analyzed in the present study
is age. Studies have found that inequalities in the age of tele-
vised men and women persist because women are continually
represented as younger than their male counterparts are
(Emons et al. 2010; Glascock 2001; Signorielli and Bacue
1999). The fact that men on television are predominantly rep-
resented as older and therewith are perceived to be wiser than
their female counterparts can be interpreted as women being
given less respect (Signorielli and Bacue 1999).

Furthermore, previous research on gender-targeted children’s
programming has revealed that programs geared toward a boy
audience often showcased rather traditional gender-biased por-
trayals, whereas programs geared toward a girl audience less
often featured gender-stereotypical roles and sometimes even
showcased counter-stereotypical roles (Banet-Weiser 2004;
Gerding and Signorielli 2014; Leaper et al. 2002; Northup and
Liebler 2010; Thompson and Zerbinos 1995). Taken together
with previous research on age as an indicator of respect (Emons
et al. 2010; Glascock 2001; Signorielli and Bacue 1999), we
expect a more traditional image on men’s channels than on
women’s channels. This leads to the expectations that a larger
percentage of women will be young adults on men’s channels

368 Sex Roles (2017) 77:366–378

than on women’s channels (Hypothesis 2a) and a larger percent-
age of men will be adults on men’s channels than on women’s
channels (Hypothesis 2b).

The second aspect of respect that we will analyze focuses on
the social roles in which men and women are cast (Emons et al.
2010; Gerbner 1995; Greenberg and Atkin 1980; Gunter 1986;
Signorielli and Bacue 1999). Studies showed that televised men
are more likely to be cast in occupational roles, whereas tele-
vised women are more likely to be cast in nurturing or marital
roles (Gunter 1986; Lauzen et al. 2008; Signorielli and Bacue
1999; Tedesco 1974). Televised women are traditionally repre-
sented as housewives who perform housekeeping chores and
are preoccupied with family life (Emons et al. 2010; Gunter
1986; Koeman et al. 2007; Signorielli and Bacue 1999). The
results on gendered representation of social roles, combined
with the previously outlined results regarding the predominance
of traditionally gender-stereotyped portrayals in programming
geared towards boys and a more gender-balanced representation
in programming geared towards girls (Banet-Weiser 2004;
Gerding and Signorielli 2014; Leaper et al. 2002; Northup and
Liebler 2010; Thompson and Zerbinos 1995), leads us to expect
that women on men’s channels will be represented performing
household/caregiving tasks more often than women on
women’s channels (Hypothesis 3a) and men on men’s channels
will be represented performing household/caregiving tasks less
often than men on women’s channels (Hypothesis 3b).

In line with this reasoning, studies have found women to be
underrepresented with regard to being professionally employed
(Elasmar et al. 1999; Gunter 1986; Coltrane and Adams 1997;
McNeil 1975; Signorielli 1989; Signorielli and Bacue 1999),
which is the next indicator for respect that we will analyze.
Over time, there appears to be an increase of women represented
as having a job and a decrease of men represented as have a job
(Signorielli and Bacue 1999). Again, however, this trend is not
straightforward because the occupational status of men and
women on television tends to fluctuate (Emons et al. 2010).
Nevertheless, due to the expectedly more gender-traditional rep-
resentation on men’s channels (Banet-Weiser 2004; Gerding
and Signorielli 2014; Leaper et al. 2002; Northup and Liebler
2010; Thompson and Zerbinos 1995), we predict that women
will be granted less respect on men’s channels in terms of oc-
cupational status. Thus we hypothesize that women on men’s
channels will be represented as being professionally employed
less often than women on women’s channels (Hypothesis 4a)
and that men on men’s channels will be represented as being
professionally employed more often than men on women’s
channels (Hypothesis 4b).

The suggestion that family life and parenthood are of greater
significance to women than to men is also implicit in the fact
that parental status is more often made explicit for women than
for men (Davis 1990; Emons et al. 2010; Glascock 2001;
Gunter 1986; McNeil 1975). The final indicator of respect that
we will analyze, therefore, is parental status. Again there is a

trend toward a more egalitarian distribution of known parental
status for characters over time. The percentages of known pa-
rental status decreased from 81% for women and 54% for men
in McNeil’s (1975) study to 56% for women and 42% for men
in Glascock’s (2001) study. Again, a more traditional represen-
tation is expected to be more prevalent on men’s channels than
on women’s channels (cf. Banet-Weiser 2004; Gerding and
Signorielli 2014; Leaper et al. 2002; Northup and Liebler
2010; Thompson and Zerbinos 1995). We therefore expect
women on men’s channels to be represented as mothers more
often than women on women’s channels will be (Hypothesis 5a)
and men on men’s channels to be represented as fathers less
often than men on women’s channels will be (Hypothesis 5b).

Combined, these hypotheses test differences in the levels of
recognition and respect given to men and women on men’s
and women’s television channels by testing differences in
terms of stereotypical or counter-stereotypical role portrayals
between the two channel types, comparable to what Gerding
and Signorielli (2014) did in their study on ‘tween programs.
As we argued, these differences may impact the ideas that men
and women have about what are acceptable gender-role pat-
terns and what to expect from oneself and others.

Method

To test our hypotheses, we conducted a quantitative content
analysis of gender-role portrayals of 1091 characters in tele-
vision 115 programs aired during primetime on four gender-
specific television channels in the Netherlands in 2014. All
four gendered cable channels on the Dutch television were
analyzed: RTL7 and Veronica as men’s channels and RTL8
and Net5 as women’s channels. This distinction was made
clear in the explicit statements on their marketing pages as
well as their slogans broadcasted during their televised com-
mercial breaks (e.g., BEverything women love,^ BWhat wom-
en want,^ BRTL7 knows what men want,^ and BMore for
men^). Examples of programs on women’s channels are 15
Kids and Counting and Sex and The City; men’s channels
broadcast, for instance, Top Gear and programs about soccer.
All included channels are commercial broadcasters because
Dutch public service broadcasters do not identify specific tar-
get audience but are (by law) aimed at informing and enter-
taining the general population (Koeman et al. 2007).

A check of the validity of the distinction in gendered chan-
nels was conducted by verifying the audience profiles, based
on gendered viewer ratings, for each channel (Stichting
Kijkonderzoek [SKO] 2014, p. 39). The ratings revealed that
the audience profile of the male channels RTL 7 and Veronica
is indeed male-dominated, with respectively 64.0% and
55.1% of the viewers in 2014 being male. The women’s chan-
nels RTL8 and Net5 were shown to have a more female audi-
ence. Women represented 64.2% of the audience watching

Sex Roles (2017) 77:366–378 369

RTL8, and 63.5% of the audience watching Net5. In terms of
market share, the male channels RTL7 (5.0%) and Veronica
(4.4%) had a combined market share of just below 10%,
whereas the women’s channels RTL8 (2.4%) and Net5
(3.5%) had a combined market share of just below 6%
(Stichting Kijkonderzoek [SKO] 2014).

Sample

For each of the four channels, five primetime evenings
(6 PM–midnight) of broadcasting were coded and analyzed.
The evenings were recorded as part of a larger clustered sam-
ple of several constructed weeks and the channels were there-
fore recorded on consecutive days over the course of several
weeks (29 March 2014–12 May 2014). This type of sampling
leads to more representative results than recording an actual
week (Riffe et al. 2005) because television channels some-
times have thematic weeks that may not be representative of
year-long programming. All programs were analyzed but only
if the complete episode was aired within the timeframe of the
sample. The context unit of our study was one episode, there-
fore only information that was shown in the specific episode
was used for coding.

A total number of 56 programs (48.3%) were broadcasted
on a women’s channel: NET5 (26, 22.6%) and RTL8 (30,
26.1%), and 59 programs (51.7%) were broadcasted on a
men’s channel: RTL7 (24, 20.9%) and Veronica (35,
30.4%). From the total of 1091 characters that were present
in the programs, 597 (54.7%) were presented on men’s chan-
nels; 494 (45.3%), on women’s channels.

Recording Units and Coding Procedure

The two channel types constitute the units of analysis for our
study. Recording units were storylines (for fictional programs)
and items (for entertainment and reality programs) within pro-
grams and the main characters or persons who were featured in
them. Entertainment and reality as a genre contained programs,
such as Masterchef and Top Gear, whereas fiction as a genre
contained both comedic fiction, such as Two and a Half Men
and Mike & Molly, and dramatic fiction, such as Criminal Minds
and The Bold and the Beautiful. The women’s channels sample
consisted of 56 programs, of which 34 (60.7%) were fictional
and 22 (39.3%) were entertainment and reality. The men’s chan-
nels sample consisted of 59 programs, of which 30 (50.9%)
were fictional and 29 (49.1%) were entertainment and reality.

Coding initially differentiated between fictional and non-
fictional programming, of which the latter included the genres
News and Information and Entertainment and Reality.
However, the results revealed that there were actually no pro-
grams in the sample which belonged to the News and
Information genre.

Based on Emons et al. (2010) up to ten items or storylines,
each with up to eight persons, were coded. For fiction these eight
characters were selected by coding only main characters in the
episode. A main character was defined as a character who plays a
leading role in the narrative and whose choices and behavior
were essential for the development of the plot (Egri 1960;
Lauzen and Dozier 2005; Weijers 2014). In entertainment and
reality programs, the eight persons who had the most speaking
and/or screen time per item were coded. Show hosts and re-
porters were coded but excluded from the analyses because they
differed from the rest of the population as a result of their func-
tion rather than their gender or the channel type on which they
were portrayed (i.e., every show host always has an occupation;
marital and parental status are very rarely made explicit).
Moreover, only a minority of the initial sample consisted of these
types of characters (n = 50). In addition, animated persons from
three program broadcast on men’s channels were also excluded.

The coding instrument used to analyze the persons and
characters in the sample (see Table 1 for coding definitions,
categories, and frequencies) was developed using prior studies
of prime-time television (Davis 1990; Elasmar et al. 1999;
Emons et al. 2010; Glascock 2001; Greenberg and Atkin
1980; Koeman et al. 2007; Signorielli and Bacue 1999).
Two coders were involved in the coding process. Coders re-
ceived coder training and independent practice on programs
that were not part of the sample. The coders independently
coded practice materials and then compared and discussed the
results. The coding instrument was edited after these discus-
sions to fix potential problems prior to coding and analysis.
After the final revisions in the coding instrument, a little over
10% of the program sample (n = 14; 12.1%) was randomly
selected to be double coded.

Intercoder reliabilities were calculated in SPSS using the
macro by Hayes for Krippendorff’s alpha (Hayes and
Krippendorff 2007). All variables were analyzed as nominal
variables except for age, which was analyzed as an ordinal
variable. The cut-off points were defined based on Lombard
et al. (2002) who suggest that Krippendorff’s alpha coeffi-
cients of .90 or higher are always acceptable and .80 or higher
are acceptable in most situations. As reported in Table 1,
intercoder reliabilities are acceptable for all variables
(Kalphas > .87).

Results

Presence as an Indicator of Recognition

The first hypothesis stated that women would be underrepre-
sented on men’s channels, but not on women’s channels, com-
pared to their presence in (Dutch) society (Hypothesis 1). In
2014, 49.5% of the Dutch population (N = 16,829,289) was
male whereas 50.5% of the population was female (Centraal

370 Sex Roles (2017) 77:366–378

Bureau voor de Statistiek 2014). The gender distribution on
men’s and women’s channels was examined with a Chi square
goodness of fit test whereby the societal percentage was used
as the expected value. The results showed that women were
significantly underrepresented on men’s channels compared
to their presence in society. Women made up only 22% of
the cast, whereas men (78%) were much more present com-
pared to the gender distribution in society, χ2(1,
n = 597) = 192.48, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .57. In contrast, women (and men) on women’s channels were not underrep- resented. Their presence did not differ significantly from so- ciety in terms of gender. Women composed 48.6% of the population whereas men composed 51.4%, χ2(1, n = 494) = .73, p = .394, Cramer’s V = .04. In all, the results provide support for Hypothesis 1 because underrepresentation of women was only found on men’s channels.

The first research question asked if the genre of the pro-
grams presented on men’s and women’s channels would lead
to a differing presence of men and women on these channels.
The results revealed that, based on the adjusted residuals on
men’s channels, the percentage of men significantly exceeded
expected frequencies within the entertainment and reality
genre (87.9%, adjusted residuals =8.1), whereas the percent-
ages for women (although still underrepresented) significantly
exceeded expected frequencies within the fictional genre on
men’s channels (40.1%, adjusted residuals =8.1), χ2(1,
n = 597) = 65.20, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .33. In contrast, on women’s channels the percentage of women significantly exceeded expected frequencies within the entertainment and reality genre (54.8%, adjusted residuals =2.4), whereas the

percentage of men (55.9%, adjusted residuals = 2.4) signifi-
cantly exceeded expected frequencies in fictional genre, χ2(1,
n = 494) = 5.57, p = .018, Cramer’s V = .11. In all, there is a
more pronounced difference in the representation of gender on
men’s channels in different genres than on women’s channels,
where gender is more evenly divided.

The second research question asked if country of origin of
the programs presented on men’s and women’s channels
would lead to a differing presence of men and women on these
channels. Overall, results showed that women were underrep-
resented in programming from all countries. However, on
men’s channels in programs created in the United States, the
percentage of women significantly exceeded expected fre-
quencies (34%, adjusted residuals =8.0) with the percentage
of men (66.0%) falling below expected rates, χ2(2,
n = 597) = 64.85, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .33. Comparatively, men are starkly overrepresented in program- ming from both the Netherlands (95.2%, adjusted residuals = 5.8) and Other countries (91.1%, adjusted residuals =3.7), with the percentage of women falling below expected rates (NL: 4.8%, Other: 8.9%). In contrast, on women’s channels there were no significant differences between countries of origin in the presence of men and women, χ2(2, n = 494) = 4.35, p = .114, Cramer’s V = .10.

These results prompted a closer inspection of the particular
programming originating in the Netherlands and Other coun-
tries in the sample. Programs on men’s channels that were
created in The Netherlands were predominantly sports talk
shows (n = 4) and reality crime shows (n = 5). We need to
note here that Dutch programs constitute only 17.9% of the

Table 1 Overview of coded variables

Variable Definition Categories Kalpha Frequencies
n (%)

Genre Genre to which the program belongs
(N = 115)

Entertainment and Reality Fiction 1.00 52 (45%)
63 (55%)

Country of origina Country of origin of the program
(N = 115)

The Netherlands
United States,
Great-Britain / Other

1.00 22 (20%)
85 (73%)
4 (3.5%) / 4 (3.5%)

Gender Person or character’s gender

(N = 1091)

Male
Female

.98 720 (66%)
371 (34%)

Age Person or character’s age in terms of the life cycle
(N = 1091)

Child (0–12)
Teenager (13–18)
Young adult (19–34)
Adult (35–49)
Middle-aged (50–64)
Senior (65+)

.87 21 (1.9%)
45 (4.1%)
408 (37.4%)
455 (41.7%)
116 (10.6%)
46 (4.2%)

Household and caregiving tasks Whether the person or character engages in household
or caregiving tasks (for example: cleaning, doing
the laundry, or taking children to school)

(N = 1091)

Yes
No

.93 71 (6.5%)
1020 (93.5%)

Employment Whether the person or character is portrayed as being
professionally employed or explicitly mentions
having a job

(N = 1091)

Yes
No
Unknown

.96 681 (62.4%)
20 (1.8%)
390 (35.7%)

Parental status Whether the person or character is portrayed as a parent
or explicitly mentions being a parent

(N = 1091)
Yes
No
Unknown

.96 147 (13.7%)
19 (1.8%)
905 (84.5%).

a In the analyses, the categories of BGreat-Britain^ and BOther^ were combined due to low cell frequencies

Sex Roles (2017) 77:366–378 371

programming on men’s channels. All other programs were
originally from United States (71.4%) or from Great Britain
and other countries (10.7%). Programs on men’s channels
from other countries were all male-oriented shows such as
Top Gear, the famous BBC car talk show. Comparatively,
the programs aired on men’s channels originating in the
United States are a little more mixed, consisting of for exam-
ple the reality crime show Cops as well as comedy shows such
as Mike & Molly and drama such as Criminal Minds.

Age as Indicator of Respect

The second set of hypotheses stated that women would be
represented as young adults on men’s channels more often
than on women’s channels (Hypothesis 2a), whereas men
would be portrayed as adults on men’s channels more often
than on women’s channels (Hypothesis 2b). The distribution
of women along age categories differed significantly between
channel types, χ2 (5, n = 372) = 13.70, p = .018, Cramer’s
V = .19 (see Table 2a). In accordance with hypothesis 2a, the
residual analysis revealed that on men’s channels over half of
all women (56.8%, adjusted residuals =2.7) were portrayed as
young adults which was significantly more than the 42.1% on
women’s channels. As predicted in Hypothesis 2b, 49.2% of
men (adjusted residuals =2.9) were represented as adults on
men’s channels, and this was also significantly more than the
37.8% on women’s channels, χ2(5, n = 719) = 19.04, p = .002,
Cramer’s V = .16. Although not hypothesized, these results

also revealed that adult women (40.0%, adjusted residuals
=2.8) were significantly more present on women’s channels
than on men’s channels (25.8%).

As the percentages above already indicate, most of main
characters in the sample were either young adults or adults.
The other age categories that we discerned (child, teenager,
middle-aged adults, and seniors) appeared less frequent (12.3–
14.6% for middle aged men, all other percentages <7.5%, see Table 2a). No notable differences in presence of men and women of these age categories on either men’s or women’s channels were found, except for significantly more male chil- dren on women’s channels (3.9%, adjusted residuals = 3.5) than on men’s channels (.4%).

Tasks as Indicators of Respect

We expected that women on men’s channels would be over-
represented performing household or caregiving tasks com-
pared to women on women’s channels (H3a). We did not find
support for this hypothesis, since 12.1% of women on men’s
channels and 11.7% of women on women’s channels per-
formed these tasks and these numbers did not differ signifi-
cantly, χ2(1, n = 372) = .017, Cramer’s V = .007, p = .897 (see
Table 2b).

It was further hypothesized that men on men’s channels
would be significantly underrepresented performing house-
hold or caregiving tasks compared to men on women’s chan-
nels (Hypothesis 3b). The results supported this hypothesis as

Table 2 Indicators of respect for
women and men on gender-
targeted channels

Represented women Represented men

Indicators Men’s channels Women’s channels Men’s channels Women’s channels

(a) Age
Child 3.8% 1.7% .4% 3.9%*

Teenager 4.5% 4.2% 3.7% 4.7%
Young adult 56.8%* 42.1% 31.0% 34.6%
Adult 25.8% 40.0%* 49.2%* 37.8%
Middle aged 3.0% 7.5% 12.3% 14.6%
Senior 6.1% 4.6% 3.4% 4.3%
n 132 240 465 254

(b) Household and caregiving tasks
Yes 12.1% 11.7% 1.5% 7.9%*

No 87.9% 88.3% 98.5%* 92.1%
n 132 240 465 254

(c) Employment
Yes 43.2% 57.1%* 64.9% 72.8%*

No 3.0% 4.6% .4% 1.2%
Unknown 53.8%* 38.3% 34.3%* 26.0%
n 132 240 465 254

(d) Parental status
Yes 19.7% 23.8% 5.4% 15.4%*

No .8% 5.4%* .2% 1.6%*

Unknown 79.5% 70.8% 94.4%* 83.1%
n 132 240 465 254

* Frequency significantly exceeded expectations by adjusted standardized residuals

372 Sex Roles (2017) 77:366–378

7.9% of men on women’s channels performed household or
caregiving tasks (adjusted residuals =4.3) compared to only
1.5% of men on men’s channels, χ2(1, n = 719) = 18.44,
p < .001, Cramer’s V = .16 (see Table 2b).

Employment as Indicator of Respect

Women on men’s channels were expected to be represented as
having an occupation less often than women on women’s
channels (Hypothesis 4a), whereas men on men’s channels
were expected to be represented as having an occupation more
often than men on women’s channels (Hypothesis 4b). A sig-
nificantly larger percentage of women (57.1%, adjusted resid-
uals = 2.6) was indeed portrayed as having an occupation on
women’s channels than on men’s channels (43.2%), χ2 (2,
n = 372) = 8.31, p = .016, Cramer’s V = .15 (see Table 2c).
This finding confirms Hypothesis 4a. Contrary to Hypothesis
4b, men on men’s channels were portrayed as having an oc-
cupation significantly less often than men on women’s chan-
nels were (see Table 2c). On men’s channels, 64.9% (adjusted
residuals = − 2.6) of the men were portrayed as having an
occupation compared to 72.8% of men on women’s channels,
χ2(2, n = 719) = 6.75, p = .035, Cramer’s V = .10.
Furthermore, the results also revealed a significant overrepre-
sentation within the unknown category of occupation for both
women (53.8%, adjusted residuals = 2.9) and men (34.6%,
adjusted residuals = 2.4) on men’s channels.

Parental Status as Indicator of Respect

The final set of hypotheses predicted that women on men’s
channels would be represented as mothers more often than
women on women’s channels (Hypothesis 5a) and, converse-
ly, that men on men’s channels would be represented as fathers
less often than men on women’s channels (Hypothesis 5b).
The results revealed that women’s parental state significantly
differed between the channel types, χ2(2, n = 372) = 6.41,
p = .040, Cramer’s V = .13 (see Table 2d). However, the
residual analysis shows that this difference is due to the
knowledge of explicit childlessness of women between chan-
nel types, where women were significantly more often explic-
itly childless on women’s channels (5.4%, adjusted residuals
= 2.3) than on men’s channels (.8%). There was no significant
difference between the representation of women as mother
between men’s channels (19.7%) and women’s channels
(23.8%). We thus need to reject Hypothesis 5a. The results
also indicated that men were, as expected in Hypothesis 5b,
significantly more often represented as fathers (15.4%, adjust-
ed residuals = 4.5) on women’s channels than on men’s chan-
nels (5.4%), χ2(2, n = 719) = 25.08, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .19 (see Table 2d). Hypothesis 5b is thus supported.

Discussion

The primary goal of our study was to provide insight into the way
that gender was represented on television channels targeting ei-
ther men or women. The overarching expectation that, due to the
target audience, men’s channels would portray a less equal and
more traditional image of gender than women’s channels would
in terms of both recognition and respect was generally supported
by our results. In line with the results of Gerding and Signorielli
(2014), our study revealed that whereas women were grossly
underrepresented on men’s channels, gender distribution on
women’s channels mirrored the Dutch population. This phenom-
enon cannot be explained by the idea that audiences would prefer
watching members of their own gender because women should
then have been overrepresented on women’s channels just like
men are on men’s channels. Because this was not the case, we
can conclude that in contrast to women’s channels, men’s chan-
nels show a lack of recognition for women. Moreover, an explo-
ration of the level of recognition per genre and per country of
origin of the programs on the gendered channels also revealed
that women’s channels, regardless of genre as well as the country
of origin of the program, showcased a more equal presence of
men and women than men’s channels did. In all, this means that
only women’s channels fulfill the first of the two stages towards
positive and fair treatment of women: recognition (Clark 1972;
Lauzen and Dozier 2005; Signorielli and Bacue 1999).

In addition, our results revealed that men’s channels also
lagged behind in terms of the second stage of positive and
equal portrayal (Clark 1972): respect. First, the stereotypical
value of youth for women (as an indicator of a lack of respect,
see also Davis 1990; Emons et al. 2010; Lauzen and Dozier
2005; Signorielli and Bacue 1999) is much more pronounced
on men’s channels than it is on women’s channels. Women on
women’s channels were not only represented as older than
they were on men’s channels, but they were also distributed
more evenly over the age categories of young adult and adult.
Second, in terms of occupational status, women on women’s
channels were more likely to be portrayed as being profession-
ally employed than women on men’s channels were.

However, the results for the other indicators of respect re-
vealed a less straightforward conclusion. As for the percentage
of women performing household or caregiving tasks and the
overrepresentation of women as parents, there were no signifi-
cant differences between men’s and women’s channels.
However, it should be noted that women’s channels were more
likely than men’s channels were to represent men as performing
household and caregiving tasks and being parents. Household
and caregiving tasks especially were divided rather equally be-
tween both genders—in contrast to the results by Emons et al.
(2010). Therefore we conclude that at least the degree of gender
stereotyping (at least in terms of these indicators) is lower on
women’s channels and that they thereby still grant more respect
to women and men than men’s channels do.

Sex Roles (2017) 77:366–378 373

The most striking result found in our study is that it is the
representation of men (rather than women) in which the true
differences between men’s and women’s channels are found.
Men are represented in counter-stereotypical ways on women’s
channels and become connected to the home and family almost
as much as women. This focus on home and family life on
women’s channels could be interpreted as a post-feminist resur-
gence of the focus on gender differences and stereotypical fem-
inine values on women’s channels (Gill 2007; McRobbie 2009).
Another, more positive, interpretation might, however, be that
the private domain is being re-evaluated. Women’s channels
seem to present an image in which home and family life are
important—for both men and women. This might be interpreted
as the private domain itself increasingly gaining respect on these
channels. Also, besides their connection to family life, high
percentages of both men and women are represented as being
professionally employed on these channels, resulting in a more
diverse depiction of both genders.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

Although the findings here are of clear importance in adding
to our understandings of the differences in gender representa-
tion on gender-targeted channels, there are some limitations to
our study that should be addressed. First, the sample consisted
of a constructed week recorded on consecutive days.
Therewith, we did not control for seasonal differences in pro-
gramming. Recording several weeks, one in each season may
contribute to the representativeness of the results.

Second, in terms of variables we decided to code as many
of the aspects that were associated with the central concepts of
recognition and respect as discerned by Clark (1972) and
Signorielli and Bacue (1999). To this end, we closely followed
previous codebooks (Davis 1990; Elasmar et al. 1999; Emons
et al. 2010; Glascock 2001; Greenberg and Atkin 1980;
Koeman et al. 2007; Signorielli and Bacue 1999) in the
operationalization of our variables. As a consequence, we
were not able to explore every one of the aspects in an in-
depth manner. For example, household and caregiving tasks
were coded as either being performed or not performed.
Because of this, if one character was portrayed performing
household tasks for an entire episode and another performed
only one such task, both were coded as performing these tasks
in the same way. It is recommended that future research would
measure the number of tasks performed by each character so
as to gain more insight into gendered task distribution.

Furthermore, with regard to the variable of occupation, the
coding based on previous work relatively simplistically reflected
if a person had a job or not (or if it was unknown). Even though
the differentiation between having a job or not captures implicit
messages of gendered worth in the public sphere, future research
should add a dimension of gender-role stereotyping to this vari-
able in building on previous work (Coltrane and Adams 1997;

Glascock 2001; Signorielli 1989; Signorielli and Bacue 1999;
Signorielli and Kahlenberg 2001). Future research could establish
for gendered channels if there are differences between men and
women with regard to the type of occupation, the prestige asso-
ciated with that occupation, as well as the authority they have
over other workers in that occupation in order to determine how
stereotypical the representation of work for men and women is on
these channels. This is important because media portrayals pro-
vide one of the sources of information against which people in
modern societies give meaning to in their work and family lives
(Coltrane and Adams 1997; Signorielli and Kahlenberg 2001).
Seen in this light, the media’s previously documented tendency
of linking men with jobs in which they have authority and wom-
en with jobs with less prestige and less authority over other
workers (Coltrane and Adams 1997; Glascock 2001; Signorielli
1989), potentially aids in the perpetuation of gender stereotypes
and the maintenance of the gendered status quo.

Third, we decided to exclude show hosts and reporters in
entertainment and reality programs because there was almost
no variation with regard to the dependent variables. Although
their presence was low compared to the other characters who
were coded, their representation is important against the back-
ground of the current study. For instance, talk shows are fre-
quently watched, and the position of host carries a certain
amount of authority and expertise with it, implying that the
gender representation of show hosts may also contribute to
viewers’ stereotyped views of the world and its gender roles.
Previous research has already outlined that men form the ma-
jority of show hosts in programs devoted to Bhard^ content (e.g.,
politics and economy), whereas women are dominant as show
hosts for Bsoft^ topics (e.g., family and romance) (Gerbner
1995; Koeman et al. 2007; Segijn et al. 2014). Therefore, future
research should include an in-depth analysis of these roles on
gendered channels to assess potential differences.

In addition to including show hosts and reporters in future
analyses, it might be interesting to explore the relationship of
the gender of individuals behind the scenes of the gender-
targeted television channels (e.g., managers, writers, directors,
advertisers) and the on-screen portrayal of men and women.
This is particularly interesting because it could explore the
assumption which some media analysts and scholars have
put forward that if more women had positions of authority
behind the scenes in the entertainment world, the media would
offer less gender-stereotyped portrayals of men and women
(Benét 1978; Lauzen and Dozier 1999; Mills 1988). Some of
these dynamics have been explored for prime-time program-
ming by other researchers (e.g., Glascock 2001; Lauzen and
Dozier 1999; Lauzen et al. 2006; Lauzen et al. 2008), but
never systematically for gendered television channels.

A final recommendation for future research would be to
complete a cultivation analysis to measure how the audiences’
conceptions of gender are affected by the programming on
these gendered channels (Gerbner et al. 1978; Morgan 2007;

374 Sex Roles (2017) 77:366–378

Signorielli 1989; Signorielli and Bacue 1999). This directive
for future cultivation research is further strengthened by re-
search based in social role theory (Eagly and Wood 2012)
which proposed that gender stereotypes might change when
gender distribution changes (Diekman and Eagly 2000), and it
is encountered in daily life or through mediated exposure
(Eagly and Steffen 1984). Future research could then assess
if more traditional or progressive role-pattern expectancies are
indeed cultivated in the audiences of men’s and women’s
channels respectively. This would necessitate surveying
viewers of both types of channels with varying levels of ex-
posure to television about their conceptions of gender roles.
As outlined previously, some of the findings presented in our
study are concerning; however, until a cultivation analysis is
conducted, the actual influence of these programs on actual
perceptions of gender and gender roles remain unknown.

Practice Implications

Television broadcasters work fervently to entertain and keep
their audiences watching and loyal, all in order to turn a profit
by selling advertising space to makers of products and services
aimed at specific (gendered) niche audience groups (Kuipers
2012; Turow 1998). However, through their politics of narrow-
casting, viewers—and particularly viewers of men’s channels
our study points out—are at risk for developing too narrow
conceptions about gender roles that may prove to be limiting
in real life. Because research has shown that television viewing
contributes to the maintenance, as well as the learning, of gender
stereotyped perceptions (Gerbner et al. 1978; Larson 2001;
McGhee and Frueh 1980; Welch et al. 1979), we would there-
fore argue that the everyday television viewer should be made
aware of the presence of stereotyping on television. A possible
way to do this is to pay attention to this issue in media literacy
programs, which are part of school curricula in an increasing
number of schools (Koltay 2011; Tuominen and Kotilainen
2012). In these lessons, educators at all levels of education
should sensitize their students about gender-role depictions in
television programming and the (possible) effects they have on
men and women. In this way, they would ideally be providing a
continuous strengthening of children’s, adolescents, and young
adults’ defenses against the effects of gender stereotyping they
may encounter when watching various (gendered) television
channels throughout their life.

Conclusion

To conclude, some context for the rise of men’s and women’s
channels might be provided by the idea that we now live in a
post-feminist era in which there has been a resurgence of the
belief in sexual difference (Gill 2007; McRobbie 2009). It has
also been suggested that the increased status of women in
society has put pressure on the concept of masculinity

(Beynon 2002), which could explain the more traditional gen-
der portrayal on channels aimed at male audiences. However,
whatever the cause of the matter may be, our study makes
clear that rather than mirroring emancipatory changes in soci-
ety via a trend towards a more equal representation of gender
on television, the Dutch television landscape has become di-
vided through some large differences in the way gender is
represented on men’s versus women’s channels.

Taken together, we can conclude that, in the
Netherlands, it seems that a more equal image of gender
might be cultivated particularly for female audiences,
while the messages cultivated for male audiences remain
highly gender-stereotyped. These findings highlight a wor-
risome phenomenon when combined with several com-
plexities in gender-related practices and attitudes in the
Netherlands. The Netherlands is generally regarded as
one of the more gender-equal countries in the world
(United Nations Development Program [UNDP], 2015),
due for example to the continuously growing working
force participation of women, the increasing percentage
of women with a college degree, the increase of women
with a seat in parliament, a growing participation of men
in household chores as well as childcare in the last de-
cades, and a continuous increase in the share of individ-
uals who do not favor gender stereotypes in upbringing,
education, and the workplace (Arends-Tóth and van de
Vijver 2007; Collier et al. 2013; Emons 2011;
Gesthuizen et al. 2002; UNDP 2015). However, the
Netherlands also recently dropped three places in the
Gender Gap Index (World Economic Forum 2016) due
to the fact that in the Netherlands women’s workforce
participation rate is still lower than men’s. Women gener-
ally have part-time jobs, earn considerably less than men
do, and are severely underrepresented in senior executive
positions. Considering these complex and conflicting real-
ities in gender-related practices and attitudes in the
Netherlands, we feel that the results of our study seen in
the light of cultivation theory (Gerbner et al. 1978) and
social learning theory (Bandura 1977), combined with the
persistent finding that men in general tend to hold more
traditional gender views than women do (Bolzendahl and
Myers 2004; Brewster and Padavic 2000; Cameron and
Lalonde 2001), highlight issues that are important and
relevant to consider when examining the potential effects
of these gendered representations. As such, the gendered
representation on particularly men’s TV channels might
form a roadblock that stands in the way of true emanci-
pation and ideas of gender equality being reinforced in the
minds of not only women but particularly men.

Compliance with Ethical Standards The authors declare that they have
no conflict of interest and that they have complied with the APA ethical
standards.

Sex Roles (2017) 77:366–378 375

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appro-
priate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the
Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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• Gender…

Abstract
Recognition: Presence of Men and Women on Television
Respect: Stereotyping in Gender Representation
Method
Sample
Recording Units and Coding Procedure
Results
Presence as an Indicator of Recognition
Age as Indicator of Respect
Tasks as Indicators of Respect
Employment as Indicator of Respect
Parental Status as Indicator of Respect
Discussion
Limitations and Directions for Future Research
Practice Implications
Conclusion
References