ABSTRACT
Much of the research on gender, media, and well-being has focused on ubiquitous, troubling suspects – the impact of violent media on the boys and men who disproportionately consume it, for example, or the impact of slim and/or sexualized images of women on girls’ and women’s body image, as well as on men’s perceptions of women. Content-analytic work has focused on the ongoing asymmetries, favoring men, in both quantity and quality of roles on television and in movies that may constrain audiences’ models for “possible selves” (Markus & Nurius, 1986). More recent work has focused on emotional liabilities that may result from social media use (e.g., Facebook, Twitter), which may lead to deating social or body comparisons, and may be a platform for the reproduction of sexism and stereotypes. Empirical emphases on the “dark side” of media use and impact reects our human (and largely adaptive) tendency to focus on problems to be solved, and remain critical and unfortunately relevant. However, there is also more to the story.
