Date on Honors Thesis

5-2025

Major

Journalism

Minor

Media Production

Examining Committee Member

Dr. Marcie Hinton, Advisor

Examining Committee Member

Professor Leigh Wright, Committee Member

Examining Committee Member

Professor Chris Haynes, Committee Member

Abstract/Description

Since Dr. Jean Kilbourne called attention to the dehumanization of women in magazine ads in her series of lectures-turned-documentaries “Killing Us Softly” vol. 1-4, the treatment of women in media has received attention from researchers and documentarians alike. Kilbourne asked audiences to take the impact of negative depictions of women seriously, encouraging women into careers where they could shape the next generation’s media. Subsequent documentaries assessed Kilbourne’s research and expanded it to include political consequences, minority voices, and various systemic issues.

Using a summative content analysis approach, this research examines the content of six documentaries, spanning 1979 to 2018, to see how the conversations and the industry have changed in order to begin to assess the impact of the documentaries and the progress of women in media.

Also, by applying the Bechdel-Wallace Test to a sample size of the top 100 grossing films of 2023, which include box office hits such as Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” this research offers a contribution to modern research on women in film by highlighting gender gaps behind the camera, as well as a lack of present and positive female representation in the media.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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