My dissertation proposal...?

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

Interesting that you choose Playboy, A softcore p**n magazine published and managed by a woman who is the largest publisher of hardcore p**n on the planet. Perhaps you should make your dissertation on the women who exploit men by publishing demeaning media of women. This is like the Arabs who provided slaves to the traders in the early days of this nation.

Answer 2

i think you could easily go with what you've proposed...

but it might be more interesting to have both male and female focus groups.  ask identical questions to each group, but change the s*x of the interviewer to see how each group responds differently in the company of same or opposite s*x interviewer.  sort of a study within a study.

just a thought.