My dissertation proposal on Playboy & lads mags....opinions!?

Question

Hey everyone,

I am looking for opinions on the research I'm planning to do for my dissertation....do you think this is a good idea or can it be improved in any way?

I want to look at the portrayal of women in lad's mags and in softcore p**n mags, particularly Playboy. Initially I wanted to do a content analysis illustrating how sexualised the images are in both types of magazine before holding a focus group with a few participants to discuss their opinions on such images and magazines.

However, I'm struggling to get my head around the content analysis method, so I'm considering taking a feminist research stance and exploring female perceptions and attitudes towards lads mags and softcore p**n mags. I could hold a focus group with a group of females then conduct solo interviews with a number of women (around 10) exploring how they feel about the mags, certain images and articles. For the interviews I may be able to get a hold of some girls who have modelled in or would like to model in lads mags. I could then discuss whether such images of women can be considered empowering or oppressive, offering the different viewpoints of the women. I would also be able to discuss censorship laws, views on pornography, postfeminism, radical feminism, patriarchy, objectification and all kinds of things.

What do you all think? I really, really want to do a good job of my dissertation as I'm sooo close to getting a great overall degree so I will love any help, advice, suggestions for improvements etc. :-) Thanks! xx

Answer 1

I think that sounds great. However, you need to make sure it's original, because this topic has been explored before--though looking at magazines like Playboy, instead of at women's magazines like Glamour, makes it more original in the first place.

You might also want to look at the history of magazines, and how their aims have changed, and how this reflects society. For example, Penthouse used to be very literary, and published short stories by really famous writers, such as John Irving. What made these magazines depart from this path? Is it a reflection of society, and what does it say about our society and our view of women? Are these magazines to blame for objectifying women? How much do they influence this?

It would be great to get the perspective of those who have posed for these magazines. Do they feel that they are hurting feminism? Why do they do this?

Answer 2

Hey,

You certainly have a solid basis on how to go about your dissertation. Conducting interviews with different groups of women allows you to provide a variation in your data-set. Make sure you understand and follow which methodology you decide to choose, quantitative or qualitative, as you will need to fully elaborate on your results. Likert scales are pretty good to document responses and emotions of the women in different focus groups. You must pose a research question as well, which you have not in your description.

Although you mentioned censorship laws, radical feminism etc etc., be careful not to stray away from your research question! You need to provide much detail on the subject-specific topic and not simply add different elements to fill the page requirements. Good Luck!!

Answer 3

You will need to set a very clear hypothesis for which you are testing.  From the above, you don't seem to have a clear idea for that, except to "illustrate how sexualized the images are".   Using such vague or meaningless terms as "sexualized" in a dissertation does not lend credence to your research methods.    You need to find something concrete to measure or be very careful when defining the variable "sexualized".