Sexual Humor in Hollywood Films: Influences of Social and Economic Threat on the Desirability of Male and Female Characters

McIntosh, William D.; Murray, John D.; Murray, Rebecca; Manian, Sunita

doi:10.1207/s15327825mcs0902_6

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Although the looks of male actors are consistent across changing social and economic conditions (Pettijohn & Tesser, 2003), actresses have more mature facial features during good social and economic times (Pettijohn & Tesser, 1999). However, during threatening social and economic conditions, less attractive and younger male performers (McIntosh, Murray, Murray, & Manian, 2006) become popular as audiences also gravitate toward comedies (Pettijohn, 2003) and comedies with more slapstick humor (McIntosh, Murray, Murray, & Manian, 2003). Movies might show the opposite effects in threatening social and economic times than those shown by other media because, unlike other forms of popular culture, most blockbuster films are not targeted to particular demographics and are often used for escapism rather than complimenting emotive moods.…”

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confidence: 99%

Good times and endless love: Billboard R&B/Hip Hop songs of the year across social and economic conditions.

Eastman

Pettijohn²

2019

Psychology of Popular Media Culture

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Previous research shows songs on the Billboard charts and the artists who create them vary according to social and economic conditions. However, only country and pop charts have been analyzed thus far. In the current study, we assess the music and lyrics along with the sex and age of the artists who recorded 65 Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop songs of the year between 1946 and 2010. Mirroring both country and pop artists, after the introduction of MTV in 1981, audiences gravitated toward more mature and therefore more comforting artists when the economy is sour and social problems are more prevalent. However, unlike pop stars but like country artists, female R&B/Hip-Hop artists are more likely to place songs atop the Billboard charts in difficult social and economic times. Still, like songs atop the Billboard Pop charts (but unlike country Billboard hits), when social and economic times become difficult, R&B/Hip-Hop songs are less likely to have lyrics about leisure or fun, and they are more likely to be longer, slower, and therefore sadder sounding. We hypothesize trends in the R&B/Hip-Hop charts are closely aligned to the pop charts because “black music” is, and always has been, more influential on pop than the more folk-oriented country music.

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confidence: 99%

Good times and endless love: Billboard R&B/Hip Hop songs of the year across social and economic conditions.

Eastman

Pettijohn²

2019

Psychology of Popular Media Culture

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“…Like Kunkel, Cope, and Biely (1999), any behavior that did not convey a sense of probable or possible sexual intimacy was not coded (e.g. McIntosh et al, 2003McIntosh et al, , 2006. Since the MPAA states specific guidelines regarding language and sexual content, talk about sex was included in our coding of sexual content, as were visual jokes of a sexual nature.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

MPAA Ratings Creep

Leone¹,

Barowski²

2011

Journal of Children and Media

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The term "ratings creep" refers to the belief that various types of adult content escalate in films with the same rating over time. The purpose of this study was to test the ratings creep hypothesis through a quantitative analysis of films from 1988, 1997, and 2006 in the PG-13 rating category used by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). A quantitative content analysis of 45 films was conducted, and significant increases in violent content in the PG-13 rating category from Time 1 (1988) to Times 2 (1997) and 3 (2006) were found. However, similar increases in other types of adult content in the PG-13 rating category were not found. Results suggest a leniency toward violent content by the MPAA ratings board that parallels America's parents' greater comfort with children being exposed to violence than other types of adult content-sex, for example-in the unrestricted PG-13 rating category.

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“…Finally, content analysis has been widely used in studies of humorous messages (Scharrer et al 2006;Paolucci & Richardson 2006;Cooper 2007;Furnham & Farragher 2000;McIntosh et al 2006).…”

Section: Grotesque Appearancementioning

confidence: 99%

Television humour and preferred meanings in the Catalan identity debate

Martínez-García

2014

EJHR

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This article analyses a sports-related satirical-parody television series as a generator of preferred meanings that may be associated with an ideological context of a stateless nation such as Catalonia, where the symbolic aspect is fundamental to the imaginary-building process. In this case, the research focuses on identifying whether representations of difference exist in the humorous content of the television series and, if they do, how they are represented and whether they propose imaginary boundaries. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis in a satirical-parody television series about sports-related news, this study shows that humour generates symbolic boundaries between two spaces. While one of the spaces is in close proximity to the context in which the series is produced and broadcast-Catalonia-, the other encompasses the rest of Spain. In the same direction, humorous audiovisual text contains preferred and also dominant meanings, and these are expressed by how characters valuate other characters, situations, contexts, etc. The nature of the valuations proposes meanings that express the idea of a positive "us" and a negative "them". Television humour acts as a cultural agent that proposes preferred meanings to the subject, and such meanings become part of the subject's identity process.

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Sexual Humor in Hollywood Films: Influences of Social and Economic Threat on the Desirability of Male and Female Characters

Cited by 5 publications

References 17 publications

Good times and endless love: Billboard R&B/Hip Hop songs of the year across social and economic conditions.

Good times and endless love: Billboard R&B/Hip Hop songs of the year across social and economic conditions.

MPAA Ratings Creep

Television humour and preferred meanings in the Catalan identity debate

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