Archetypes and gender in fiction: A data-driven mapping of gender stereotypes in stories

Abstract

Fictional character representations reflect social norms and biases. Women are relatively underrepresented in television and film, irrespective of genre. In addition, women are frequently stereotyped in these media. The combination of this stereotyping and the gender imbalance may have an impact on child development given the well-established connection between media and child development as well as on other aspects of society and culture. Here, we draw on a data-driven operationalization of archetypes -- archetypometrics -- to explore the characterization of canonically male and female characters. We find that canonically female characters tend towards more heroic and more adventurous archetypes than canonically male characters from an overall space of six core archetypes. At the trait level, the most heroic female characters are more masculine than other female characters. We also find that female characters tend towards the Diva and Sophisticate archetypes, whereas male characters tend toward the Brute and Outcast archetypes. Across all six archetypes, overarching patterns by gender sustain traditional stereotypes. We discuss the societal implications of skewed archetype representation by character gender.