Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2011-03-17 Real Men Can Dance, But Not in That Costume: Latter-day Saints' Perception of Gender Roles Portrayed on Dancing with the Stars Karson B. Denney Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Communication Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Denney, Karson B., "Real Men Can Dance, But Not in That Costume: Latter-day Saints' Perception of Gender Roles Portrayed on Dancing with the Stars" (2011). Theses and Dissertations. 2615. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2615 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. REAL MEN CAN DANCE, BUT NOT IN THAT COSTUME: LATTER-DAY SAINTS‟ PERCEPTION OF GENDER ROLES PORTRAYED ON “DANCING WITH THE STARS” By Karson B. Denney A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Communications Department of Communications Brigham Young University April 2011 Copyright © 2011 Karson B. Denney All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT REAL MEN CAN DANCE, BUT NOT IN THAT COSTUME: LATTER-DAY SAINTS‟ PERCEPTION OF GENDER ROLES PORTRAYED ON “DANCING WITH THE STARS” Karson B. Denney Department of Communications Master of Arts This thesis attempts to better understand gender roles portrayed in the media. By using Stuart Hall‟s theory of audience reception (Hall, 1980) the researcher looks into dance and gender in the media to indicate whether or not LDS participants believe stereotypical gender roles are portrayed on “Dancing with the Stars.” Through four focus groups containing a total of 30 participants, the researcher analyzed costuming, choreography, and judges‟ comments through the viewer‟s eyes.