Opinion-field And Gender Socialization

Since the early 1970s, scholars of feminist movement started toinvestigate how the mass media described the images of women. Sincethen, women's images in the mass media have been receiving moreand more attention.Based on previous studies, we discuss in this thesis the influencepublic opinions have on people's consciousness of gender role and ourdiscussion will centre on women's images in romantic novels and itsinfluence on high school female students.The first part of this thesis deals with the current situation of thepopularity of romantic novels in high schools and points out thepractical and theoretical significance of our study. Then the historicaldevelopment, theoretical modal and research paradigm of the study ofgender role are elaborated on in a comprehensive way.In the second part, we discuss from a theoretical perspective theinfluence public opinion field exerts on an individual's consciousnessof gender role. We hold that although scholars of feminist movementhave made a deep and detailed investigation about people's genderconsciousness in TV programs, movies, advertisements, cartoons anddaily conversations, their study is still on the trivial and concrete levelinstead of being able to abstract a relatively systematic theoreticalframework. The theoretical significance of our research lies in that weintegrate these trivial fields into a relatively independent system byusing the concept of "public opinion field" and on this basis we studythe special opinion field of romantic novels in detail. Then we moveon to explain the connotation, classification and characteristics ofpublic opinion field and the influence it has on the concept ofindividualism and gender consciousness.In the third part, we probe into the influence romantic novels have on the gender role consciousness of high school female studentsby. means of such methods as questionnaires, scales and tests,interviews, etc. At first, we discuss the reading situation and theinfluence of romantic novels. Then, we study women's images in thisopinion field and their overall characteristics. We find that, comparedwith the common public opinion field, the romantic novels womenwrite for their own entertainment describe women in a relativelypositive manner. They can to some degree restrain the development ofwomen's negative disposition and play a positive role in thesocialization of female gender.Finally, we propose that the establishment of a public', opinionfield that is good for the growth of females and the harmoniousrelationship betweenmen and women will greatly promote theharmonious development of society.We hold that negative public opinions against women should becarefully checked. We should distinguish facts from people'ssubjective ideas, pay attention to the harmfulness of "stereotypedimpression", and avoid describing gender role with "stereotypedimpression" in the public opinion field. More women should beallowed to join in the public opinion field and be given more right tovoice their opinions.