Popular culture and the portrayal of women: Content and control

This is the description in the introduction to the volume:

sociologist Muriel Cantor details how gender is built into every aspect of mass communications but especially focuses on portrayals of men and women in media primarily directed to female consumers: magazines, romance fiction, and television soap operas. Across the media, over time, regardless of social class and despite enormous changes in the society and culture, one theme remains dominant: the supreme importance of romance in the life of a woman. This is particularly true for the portrayal of sexuality. (21)