Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...

however, the attached “highly charged feelings” are part of the attributes that give stereo-
type a negative connotation in contemporary usage. Other negative attributes are the
belief that the stereotype is an absolute truth, and the power, or intent, of the group
formulating the stereotype. The primary purpose of a stereotype is to categorize those on
the outside of the self (dominant group) as Other; its function is “to maintain sharp
boundary definitions” of those who are included in the social group and those who are
not. 3
The image of woman in American society between 1880 and 1930 was filtered
through gender stereotypes based on sexuality and prescribed behavioral characteristics
of femininity. Psychologists and social historians agree that “gender” is a social con-
struct rather than a biological fact. 4 The hegemonic hierarchy constructed feminine
stereotypes to categorize what is not masculine in the societal norm. Gender, then, is a
cultural designation of social function through dress, behavior, types of work, and
familial duties. In the late nineteenth century, gender role stereotypes were described
through bipolar strengths. Men’s roles were identified by terms like “instrumental, hard,
active, and agency”; women’s roles were identified by “expressive, soft, passive, and
3 See Orrin E. Klapp’s distinction between stereotypes and social types in Dyer, 14 and 16. Lillian
S. Robison defined Other as “the element that is not the subject, defined only in relation to it and only
negatively.” Sex, Class, and Culture (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), 26.
4 There is a common confusion between sex and gender in stereotypes. Feminist historians Linda
K. Kerber and Jane Sherron DeHart defined “sex” as unchangeable biological differences and “gender” as
learned societal meanings attached to those differences. “Gender,” Encyclopedia of American Social
History vol. 1 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1993), 484. Comedienne Joanne Gilbert explained the
two terms as “sex is what you’re born with; gender is what you do with it.” Performing Marginality:
Humor, Gender, and Cultural Critique (Detroit: Wayne State University, 2004), 6.
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