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RESULTS:

Christopher Warren, Ph.D.

Department of Psychology

California State University, Long Beach

RESULTS:

FUTURE WORK:

• More time should be spent assessing differences in representation across genre and setting, including cultural settings (i.e., Anime).
• Future studies should assess visual representations in comics in addition to descriptive information about the characters.
• The use of O*Net adds validity to this study by comparing pre-existing measures of job complexity and preparation for a career.
• Differences in representation over time should be analyzed to compare major shifts in cultural representations (a la Minority Influence Theory).

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METHODS:�

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CONCLUSION:

• Men and women have equal job complexity with slightly different work values, and different type of jobs.
• Only immigrants reflected significant differences in job complexity and alignment.
• In terms of moral alignment, the data demonstrate male and immigrant characters hold a higher likelihood of being evil than their counterparts.
• These results can facilitate discussions through comics about representation in real life.

INTRODUCTION:

• Sales of comic books in the U.S alone surpass $1 billion dollars and revenue of films adapted from comic books exceeds $21 billion (Comichron, 2017; Boxoffiemojo, 2017)
• White men are currently the dominant consumers in both readership and purchase for comic books, which may reflect their overrepresentation in comic book characters (Alverson, 2017).
•  Non-white races have often been underrepresented and relegated to roles subordinate to white characters (Wright, 2001). 
• Female characters are often portrayed as “damsel in distress” who need to be rescued, and their achievements are overshadowed by their physical appearance and sexuality (Brown, 2011).  
• Typically men are in positions of power ‘‘behind the scenes’’ of creating comic books, and authors of the books tend to focus more on women’s bodies than their talents.

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Prediction: Male and Native characters will tend to hold more powerful roles in industry and society, including their superhero abilities.

Illustrations of Discrimination in the Comic Arts

• Top unique work value of men: recognition.
• Top unique work value of women: relationships.
• Both shared independence and achievement.
• Immigrants matched top female work values.
• No significant results between ethnicities for either job complexity or alignment.

• Characters from printed and online comics were coded through online wikis.
• Character job information was compared against O*NET job descriptions.

METHODS:�

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• We coded 382 individual characters from comics as early as the 1930s.
• 66% of the characters were male, and 34% were female.
• 21% of characters were immigrants; 79% were native to their country.

Job complexity was not significantly different between males and females. Immigrants had a significantly lower job complexity than native characters.

Males were more frequently evil than female characters, and immigrants were more often evil than native characters.

• Top 3 of 92 immigrant jobs: pirate (15%), chief (7%), soldier (7%).

Female Work Values

Male Work Values

Comic Identifier Information:

Title, Start Date, Setting, Time Period

�Character Demographics:

Gender, Race, Sexual Orientation, Role (e.g. Protagonist), SES, Species, Height, Weight, Mental Health, Immigrant status, Personality, Age, First Appearance

�Occupation Information:

Job Title, Job Complexity*, Ability*, Rank, Work Values*, Work Style*

Top 3 of 100 female jobs: adventurer (8%), teacher (5%), and reporter (6%).

Top 3 of 176 male jobs: chief (7%), police (5%), pirate (5%).

ABSTRACT:

Sales of comic books surpass $1 billion dollars and revenue of films adapted from comic books exceeds $21 billion in the U.S. As the comic arts have gained mainstream attention, the research into critical analysis of the art form has increased. Included in these investigations are relationships between characters in print and their syllogistic representations in society, such as origin stories and economic realities. In this investigation, a systematic analysis of character occupations from published comics was undertaken to discern how gender and racial attributes correspond to the lines of traditional discrimination and job segregation. The comics were qualitatively coded for character occupations and compared to the skills, abilities, and personality attributes typically associated with employees in that job domain. The analyses demonstrated evidence for social and professional circumstances which echo differences between men and women such that men tend to hold roles in industry and society that emphasize recognition while women hold those that emphasize relationships. Immigrants display lower job complexity. Male and immigrant characters tend to hold evil alignments more frequently than female and native characters. Implications of this work are far reaching and suggest the potential for reinforcing stereotypes and biases through character archetypes in comics.