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Petra Boynton
Sex and gender

A woman of achievement

Petra Boynton discusses her Woman of Achievement Award for Education (sponsored by Cosmopolitan and Secret), and tells how she believes psychologists need to make better use of the popular media. Interview by Angus Smyth.

18 August 2001

What is your area of interest?
The debates around sex and the media. The majority of studies are based on lab experiments using male psychology undergraduates, who will watch a film that may be sexually violent, and will then be tested to see how hostile they are to women. Evidently this behaviour isn’t representative of all men, or of the usual circumstances people look at porn. In addition, very few studies feature female participants or female researchers. And the results from a lab study are held as having more worth than the testimonies of women who have been abused. So I could see a number of areas for improvement.

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