Gender stereotypes and drinking cognitions as indicators of moderate and high risk drinking among young women and men

The study examined differences in gender stereotypes, restrained drinking and self-efficacy for alcohol refusal between moderate and high risk drinkers among a university sample of 301 women and 118 men. Both female and male high risk drinkers displayed a response conflict, typified by high scores on restrained drinking but low scores on self-efficacy. This pattern of response conflict was more pronounced for high risk drinking women, who also identified poorly with feminine traits (e.g. ‘nurturing’, ‘love children’, ‘appreciative’). The findings are discussed in relation to society's double standard that accepts intoxication in men but condemns it in women.

Contesting binarisms in Harry Potter : creative rejigging, or gender tokenism?

This paper arises out of curiosity inspired by four Japanese women students' consumption in English of the entire Harry Potter series (five increasingly lengthy books) in 2003, and it asks whether the six novels are regressive or creative on gender grounds. In a series which pivots around binaries and rarely complicates them, does gender come in for the same treatment? In updating the schoolboy/schoolgirl and action/magic genres and locating them in a co-ed setting, does the author of Harry Potter write as a woman or does she cling to regressive gender scripts?

Why do young women drop out of sport and physical activity? A social ecological approach

This study explored significant individual, social, and environmental factors and how they interact to influence participation in physical activity for adolescent young women. These factors were explored at two transitional life stages: from primary to secondary school and from middle to upper years at secondary school. Ten focus groups with young women and 10 interviews with teachers were conducted and multiple, interrelated themes emerged. Our findings indicated that there are a number of strategies that could be undertaken to increase the participation of young women in physical activity. These include: (1) enhancing intrinsic motivation for sport and physical activity; (2) appealing to young women’s need for socialising through opportunities for informal physical activity; (3) educating parents about the benefits of sport and physical activity; (4) overcoming gender stereotypes about what is acceptable behaviour for young women; (5) improving physical education teachers’ understanding of gender issues and motivating less physically active students; (6) the provision of accessible sport and physical activity facilities, programs, and services in schools; and (7) prioritorisation of sport and physical activity in the school curriculum. These strategies are not ‘quick fixes’, but rather require a whole-ofcommunity approach and, in some cases, a reorientation of societal values.

The future of football is female : a case of fan-tastic imaginings?

Consistent with FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s proclamation that the future of football is female, the Australian Football League (AFL) has instituted a range of initiatives in an attempt to present a ‘female friendly’ face and garner women’s support for the national game. Given the large number of women who follow the AFL, especially in comparison to other football codes nationally, it’s worth considering the motivations behind the AFL’s tactics. To what extent does what the AFL think women want correlate with women supporters’ experiences and realities of being a football fan? This paper presents findings from semi-structured and focus group interviews with female AFL fans to gauge their perceptions of being an Australian rules football supporter and its impact on their lived experiences and sense of self. The responses of women supporters are critically assessed in order to contemplate how women negotiate gender identity through their support of a male dominated sport. As well as offering insights into the role gender plays in leisure pursuits such as sport spectatorship, this paper considers how femininity and masculinity might be contested and/or remade through the practice of following football in the Australian context. By demonstrating the range and diversity of women’s experiences, this research has the capacity to generate alternative imaginings of fanship and sporting community beyond gender stereotypes.

Shilpa’s filthy hands

The celebrity Big Brother race row centers, in part, on the preparation, handling and consumption of food. While the ritual of formal and informal dining is a key trope of the series, in this instance it is used to construct notions of difference and Otherness. Eating/not eating Indian becomes a symbol of purity and danger: of Shilpa's filthy natural self that somehow lurked beneath her glamorous exterior. If one eats Indian one is consuming the Other, with the potential to be taken over or spoiled by it. Shilpa, then, comes to stand for a complex and contradictory mix of Eastern/Oriental gender stereotypes. However, at the same time, the racialised grammar of representation used to mark her out as Other draws attention to the white bodies attempting to deny her wholeness. In choosing to eat/not eat Indian one opens up a dynamic space for an interrogation of whiteness to emerge. In fact, Jade, Jo, and Danielle become inferior signifiers of national identity in an age of global consumption. By contrast, Shilpa becomes 'surplus value', a supericonic sign that resists the name calling, fetishisation, marginalisation demanded by those on the show. The Big Brother race row may well be a text that directly speaks to the new post-colonial communication flows in place in the contemporary age.

Cultural politics in the English classroom : textually dangerous territory?

How might one approach cultural politics in the English classroom? What might the role of the class text be in these discussions? This article is a snapshot of the author's journey from a pre-service English teacher to her most recent experiences of English teaching. Her pre- service pedagogy indicated a 'minimization' of the role of the text in unpacking cultural politics; the text itself was overshadowed by the important points the teacher was making about critiquing the way the world is socially, culturally and politically organised. In her beginning teaching year, the author was in a remote rural school where she encountered attitudes to hegemonic masculinity and heterosexuality which she felt she did not deal appropriately with. She now believes that more emphasis on how the features of the text itself work to create meaning and construct identities is needed. She recognises the importance of close textual analysis as a way toward engaging in culturally political conversations about constructions of gender and sexuality in media and non-media texts. If she were to have her beginning teaching years over again, she would probably collate a series of contrasting representations of masculinity and femininity from a variety of sources, including popular culture. She would then develop activities based around undertaking textual analysis of the constructions of gender and sexuality, and ask students to identify the different elements in the texts that create meaning, and compare similarities and differences between texts.

Girls back off mathematics again : the views and experiences of girls in computer based mathematics

The views and experiences of girls in two co-educational mathematics classrooms in which computers were regularly used were researched. Data were collected by observation and videotaping of lessons, questionnaire, and interviews of students and the teachers. In this paper case studies of six girls are presented. Their ‘stories’ reveal a diversity of experiences and views and multiple gender identities. High achieving girls persisted as “outsiders within,” other girls “backed off”, and exceptional girls challenged gender stereotypes. Implications for social justice in mathematics in the age of the super highway are discussed.

The owl

Short story examining women's role in society and associating gender stereotypes with nature.

Perceived barriers and facilitators to participation in physical activity during the school lunch break for girls aged 12–13 years

Given the short- and long-term health implications associated with overweight and obesity plus the likelihood of overweight or obesity to continue into adulthood, addressing the causes of overweight and obesity in childhood is a significant public health concern. One underlying cause of overweight and obesity is insufficient physical activity. The Department of Health and Aging recommends children engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day; however, these recommendations are met less frequently with increasing age, and girls less often meet these recommendations than boys. School lunch times have been identified as an ideal time for maximizing children’s physical activity (PA), but studies have shown variable levels of PA among children during this time and research indicates that during school lunch times, girls are consistently less active than boys. Understanding influences on girls’ participation in PA during this time may help to increase levels of PA for this demographic. Two South Australian schools, one government and one independent, were included in the sample. Four focus groups (three or four participants per group: total 13 participants) focusing on girls’ perceptions of PA during the lunch break were conducted. Transcripts and field notes were analyzed using a social constructionist framework and thematic content analysis. The expectation to participate in activities considered “gender appropriate”, maturation, and bullying/teasing were identified as explicit barriers to participation in lunch time play. Other important barriers included a “girls’” school uniform and feelings of inadequate competency. The ability to renegotiate gender stereotypes, a unisex school uniform, and perceived high competency were important facilitators of lunch time PA. Low levels of lunch time PA evident in many young adolescent girls may be due to many complex social factors. Therefore, these barriers may need to be addressed before any environmental interventions are likely to be effective.

Creating symbolic cultures of consumption: an analysis of the content of sports wagering advertisements in Australia

BACKGROUND: Since 2008, Australia has seen the rapid emergence of marketing for online and mobile sports wagering. Previous research from other areas of public health, such as tobacco and alcohol, has identified the range of appeal strategies these industries used to align their products with culturally valued symbols. However, there is very limited research that has investigated the tactics the sports wagering industry uses within marketing to influence the consumption of its products and services.

METHOD: This study consisted of a mixed method interpretive content analysis of 85 sports wagering advertisements from 11 Australian and multinational wagering companies. Advertisements were identified via internet searches and industry websites. A coding framework was applied to investigate the extent and nature of symbolic appeal strategies within advertisements.

RESULTS: Ten major appeal strategies emerged from this analysis. These included sports fan rituals and behaviours; mateship; gender stereotypes; winning; social status; adventure, thrill and risk; happiness; sexualised imagery; power and control; and patriotism. Symbols relating to sports fan rituals and behaviours, and mateship, were the most common strategies used within the advertisements.

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSIONS: This research suggests that the appeal strategies used by the sports wagering industry are similar to those strategies adopted by other unhealthy commodity industries. With respect to gambling, analysis revealed that strategies are clearly targeted to young male sports fans. Researchers and public health practitioners should seek to better understand the impact of marketing on the normalisation of sports wagering for this audience segment, and implement strategies to prevent gambling harm.

Negative perceptions about self-control and identification with gender-role stereotypes related to binge eating, problem drinking, and to co-morbidity among adolescents

Purpose
To examine the role of both positive and negative styles of self-control, and gender-role stereotypes in binge eating and problem drinking.

Method
Participants were 428 adolescent boys and 555 girls from predominantly Anglo-Australian backgrounds who attended regional state schools in New South Wales, Australia. Students completed standardized questionnaires that assessed problem drinking, binge eating, self-control styles, and identification with gender-role stereotypes. ANOVA and post hoc Tukey tests were conducted to examine differences among adolescents who reported problems in binge eating, drinking, and both domains.

Results
Adolescents who reported eating and drinking problems also reported a high negative and a low positive sense of self-control coupled with self-identification with the traits that typically describe negative dimensions of gender-role stereotypes. Regardless of gender, problem drinking was mainly related to traits of negative masculinity (bossy, noisy aggressive, etc.) whereas binge eating was mainly related to negative femininity (shy, needs approval from others, etc.). Participants who reported eating and drinking symptoms recorded low scores on positive control, high scores on negative control, and also high scores on the negative dimensions of masculinity and femininity.

Summary
A negative and passive style of self-control coupled with an identification with negative dimensions of gender summarizes the type of self-regulation that is implicated in both binge eating and problem drinking, and co-morbid symptoms. There is a need for interventions working toward a more balanced gender self-concept and a positive sense of self-control.

Gender and schooling : still making the difference?

This chapter analyses contemporary political responses to the perceived academic success of girls as compared with boys, and the motivations behind what they call the 'what about the boys?' lobby. It argues that the growth of this influential lobby group is emblematic of a feminist backlash in western societies. By exposing some of the theoretical problems with the construction of difference upon which the 'boys in education' case is based, the author constructs an alternative relational approach which urges that the school curriculum should encourage all students to deconstruct gender, and particularly the ways in which hegemonic masculinity is formed and shaped in our society

Men and gender relations

Discusses theoretical, political and personal perspectives on men's lives within the context of patriarchal gender relations and examines the potential for men to move beyond patriarchy towards egalitarian non-exploitative relations with women.