Subtle Sexism in Popular Culture: Representations of Gender and Benevolent Sexism

Abstract

Contemporary popular culture increasingly represents women as independent, professionally successful, intelligent, and capable of making decisions about their own lives. Such representations often suggest progress beyond traditional forms of sexism. Yet greater visibility of female agency does not necessarily mean gender inequality has disappeared. Sexism may appear through less obvious forms of representation in which women are valued, protected, idealized, or praised in ways connected to conventional expectations of femininity. This article examines subtle sexism and benevolent sexism in four contemporary films: Nancy Meyers’s The Intern (2015), Jon M. Chu’s Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (2019), and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023). The analysis draws primarily on Ambivalent Sexism Theory developed by Peter Glick and Susan Fiske, alongside research on gender stereotypes, media representation, post-feminist media culture, objectification, gender roles, and the cultural reproduction of inequality. The article argues that subtle sexism is important in contemporary popular culture because it often exists alongside narratives of female empowerment. The selected films do not portray women simply as passive or inferior. Instead, gender expectations appear through ideas about emotional responsibility, beauty, family, romance, marriage, caregiving, protection, professional achievement, and socially accepted forms of femininity.