How young adult women ‘make-sense’ of female portrayals in pop-cultural media

Abstract

As Irish poet and playwright (died 1900) Oscar Wilde (2004) once said; “life imitates art far more than art imitates life” (pp.9) This then made the studying of portrayals in pop cultural media important. Therefore, this study aimed to understand ‘How Young Adult Women ‘Make Sense’ Of Female Portrayals In Pop-Cultural Media.’ It tackled the question through a qualitative approach. This was done by conducting semi-structured interviews with 6 participants who fit the criteria of the research question. The data was then analysed through Clarke and Braun’s (2006) Thematic analysis and the epistemological underpinnings of Queer Theory (Seidman, 1994). Findings of this study found that my participants had both positive and negative views of the way women have been depicted in film, and while there was consensus that the way women are portrayed is shifting, we still need more of this shift in future pieces of pop-cultural media.