Sociology in Hollywood Films

Sociology in Hollywood Films Author(s): John E. Conklin Source: The American Sociologist, Vol. 40, No. 3 (Sep., 2009), pp. 198-213 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20638843 . Accessed: 20/01/2014 23:50 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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Am Soc(2009) 40:198-213 DOI

10.1007/sl2108-009-9072-3

Sociology inHollywood Films John ?. Conklin

Publishedonline: 14 July2009

?

Springer Science

Abstract

+ Business Media,

LLC

2009

examination of 32 Hollywood films released between 1915 and is often portrayed as a discipline that focuses on the useless, the trivial, and the obscure. Undergraduate students of sociology are sometimes presented as academically untalented and weakly motivated, but at other 2006

Close

shows that sociology

times as thoughtful and capable of good work. Graduate students are depicted as flawed researcherswho are more interested in romance than the completion of their degrees. The movies acknowledge the expertise of sociologists but also suggest they

sometimes reach incorrect conclusions, snoop into behavior that should remain private, and fail tomaintain appropriate distance from their subjects. Sociologists occasionally appear in brief classroom scenes that contain little of substance; they are as likely to be depicted as advisers or administrators as they are to be depicted as teachers. The sources of cinematic portrayals of sociology and their influence on popular attitudes require furtherresearch. Keywords

Sociology

Sociologist Movies

Film Hollywood

Popular culture

Peter Berger (1963) claims that popular stereotypes of sociologists as social reformers, theoreticians for social work, and people who like towork with others were replaced by the early 1960s with ideas that sociologists are wedded to the scientificmethod, obsess over statistics, obfuscate with jargon, focus on the obscure, and expound what everyone already knows. Diane Bjorklund's (2001) examination of 80 English-language novels featuring sociologists offers a similar picture of the and discipline as focused on the trivial, overly attentive to methodology enumeration, replete within incomprehensible jargon, and more concerned with social determinism than individual choice. The fictional sociologists were depicted Iwould like to thank Ryan Centner, James Ennis, Sarah Sobieraj, comments on an earlier draft of this paper. J. E. Conklin (El) Department of Sociology, Tufts University, Eaton Hall e-mail: [email protected]

and Rosemary Taylor for their

115, 5 The Green, Medford, MA

Springer

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02155, USA

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as too ineffectual for their critical stance toward society to be threatening and as patronizing, prying, and deceitful scholars who dehumanized their research subjects and in the process dehumanized themselves.

Movies differ from novels in their potential impact on popular perceptions of sociology, itspractitioners, and its students. Films reach largeraudiences than all but a few novels do, and the impact of theirvisual images can be more powerful than the effect of words on a page. However, sociologists appear inmany more novels than

movies, and they are oftenmore fullydeveloped as characters in the books than on the screen.

This paper examines theway that sociology, sociologists, and undergraduate and graduate students of sociology are treated inHollywood films. It does not explore the process by which thatcontentmade it to the screen, nor does itdemonstrate how thatmaterial affects audiences.

Researching

Sociology

in theMovies

To examine themovies' portrayal of sociology, sociologists, and sociology students, I began with the data used formy study, Campus Life in theMovies: A Critical Surveyfrom theSilent Era to thePresent (2008). To compile a listof college movies for thatproject, I did keyword searches of theAmerican Film Institute'sCatalog of

Motion Pictures Produced in theUnited States (1971-1999) and the InternetMovie Database (http://www.imdb.com/)for college, university, campus, professor, student, and other related terms.My list included 870 U.S.-made, feature-lengthfilms that were theatrically released between 1915 and 2006 and dealt in some significantway with college. What to include as a "college movie" was a judgment call, but I erred on the side of over-inclusion. The original listof 870 filmswas longer than the listof

681 used in the book, because some movies about graduate students and professors pay little or no attention to the campus life of undergraduates, the subject of the

book. I tracked down and watched all but 112 of the 870 movies; most of the 112were from the silent era, and many no longer exist. In viewing the 758 movies, I encountered frequent references to the courses students were taking and to the teaching, research, and administrative activities of their professors. I recorded the academic disciplines mentioned in the films, data I could not have gathered from keyword searches alone. To illustrate, a search in the "plots" and "keywords" sections of imdb.com for "sociolog"?which picks up references to "sociology," and "sociologist," "sociological"?yielded only four of the 27 films dealing with sociology, sociologists, or sociology students that I identifiedfrom viewing the 758

college movies. Some of the 112 films on the original list that Iwas unable towatch might also include references to sociology, sociologists, or sociology students. Keyword searches for "sociolog" in the AFI Catalog and the InternetMovie Database yielded threemovies?The Caveman (1915), The Hoodlum (1919), and The Beautiful Cheat (1945)?that were not on the original list of 870 movies because they did not deal with college life. These and two other films?Johnny

added to the 27 films Eager (1942) and TheMilagro Beanfield War (1988)?were referencing sociology thatwere on the original list. Iwatched 30 of the 32 films; the Springer

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Am Soc (2009) 40:198-213

200

two from the silent era?The Caveman (1915) and The Hoodlum (1919)?were unavailable. The 32 films do not include a few thatmake a brief allusion to an unseen studentwho happens to be taking a sociology course or use the adjective "sociological" in place of "social" (for example, a comment inDirty Tricks [1981] that two people have irreconcilable "sociological" differences because they like differentkinds of food).

A Brief History of Sociology

in theMovies

Sociology was an established presence on American campuses long before the first movie mentioning the discipline was released in 1915; courses were taught as early as the 1880s, and the first departments were established in the 1890s. The field of sociology grew slowly between theworld wars and expanded from 1946 to 1960. The 1960s were the discipline's "Golden Era," a time of unprecedented research support and high enrollments that was followed by a period of decline and retrenchment (Turner and Turner 1990). The first reference to sociology in a feature-lengthHollywood movie is in The Cave Man (1915). In thatfilm, a socialite wagers that she can transforma common laborer into a convincing member of theupper class in just a week. She oversees the

grooming and manners of her guinea pig and convinces her friends that he is a sociologist doing research on the lower classes. Even though the man is only masquerading as a sociologist, this early film reveals awareness that social inequality

is a central concern of the discipline. This is also true of The Hoodlum (1919), in which a sociologist moves into a New York slum to gather observational data forhis new book. Two decades elapsed before sociology made another appearance in a Hollywood film. This

time span encompasses the Great Depression, but the absence of from the screen does not signal reluctance by filmmakers to deal with sociology social inequality during hard times, for several college movies released in the 1930s tackled the issue head on, most notablyMake a Million (1935) and Soak theRich (1936), each of which features an economist with radical ideas about social reform. When a sociologist reappears on the screen in 1939's 20,000 Men a Year, the female instructor is presented as thoughtful, strong-willed, and socially well-adjusted. The film focuses on a college's training program for commercial airline pilots and contains nothing of substance about sociology. Sociology appeared in threemovies during the 1940s: Johnny Eager (1942),

Weird Woman (1944) and The Beautiful Cheat (1945). Six films referencing the discipline were released from 1958 to 1964, an era that included the civil rights movement and the Great Society programs of the Johnson administration. The student antiwar movement kept sociology in the forefrontduring the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the generally liberal discipline was often linked to political activism; two 1970 movies and twomore in 1971 mentioned thefield. Sociology, sociologists,

and sociology students appeared in nine movies between 1972 and 1989, and another seven from 1990 to 2006. Between 1915 and 1957, sociology appeared in one movie every 7 years; since 1958, a year close to thebeginning of the discipline's Golden Era, ithas shown up in one movie every 2 years. Springer

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The primary genres listed by the InternetMovie Database for the 20 movies that include a sociologist or a student of sociology are comedy (9), drama (5), horror (2), action (2), and crime (2). There is no tendency for any of these genres to be more common during a particular era or to increase of decrease in frequency over time, nor do the depictions of sociologists and sociology students become more or less favorable over time. Sociologists and sociology students in comedies are not

consistently portrayed as more ridiculous than the other characters; the failings of sociologists and sociology students are the source of much of the humor in The Beautiful Cheat (1945) and The Milagro Beanfleld War (1988), but they are more sensible than the other characters inBoys' Night Out (1962) and The One and Only (1978). Even those who are sources of humor seem to be so more because they are professors than because

they are sociologists per se.

Sociology and Other Social Sciences

in theMovies

Michael Kimmel (2008) asserts in an article published in theAmerican Sociological Association's journal Contexts that thereare very fewmovies about sociologists, citing just four as examples. He says "the question is less the enumeration of sociology sightings in themass media and more about the sociology of our absence," butwithout

an enumeration there is no basis forhis claim thatsociology is absent from themovies (p. 63). His conclusion thatmovies, television shows, and novels depict sociologists as "idealistic yet clueless liberals,perverse voyeurs, pseudo-scientific poseurs, or hopeless apologists for the status quo" is based in part on his erroneous inclusion on his listof fourmovies supposedly about sociologists one that is actually about an anthropologist

{Beach Party [1963]) and another that is about a psychologist {The Chapman Report [1962]) (p. 62). He even uses those two films as evidence thatpopular culture depicts sociologists less favorably than anthropologists and psychologists. How does thefrequency with which sociology appears in themovies compare to thatof other social sciences? Table 1 displays the results of keyword searches ofmy detailed notes on the 758 college movies Iwatched for each of five social sciences: psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, and political science. Each film was coded as to whether it included a professor, teacher, or researcher in the discipline; an undergraduate or graduate student in thefield; or a passing reference to the social science but no professor, teacher, researcher, or student. Some films were coded as including both a student and a professor, teacher, or researcher.

Psychology greatly exceeds the other social sciences in total number of appearances in college movies, with more than twice as many as it closest competitor, anthropology, and nearly three times as many as sociology. Many more films feature professors, teachers, and researchers who are psychologists than is the case for any other social science. Sociologists appear in about one-fourth as many as psychologists, fewer than half as many as anthropologists, the same number as economists, and a few more than political scientists.Undergraduate and graduate students of psychology also appear more frequently than students of the other social sciences. Fewer movies feature students of sociology than is the case for any other social science except economics, a mere 13 in comparison to 51 for

movies

psychology. Springer

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202 Table

Am Soc(2009) 1 Number

of appearances

of five social sciences

Social Total number science of films

Psychology76b 34c

Anthropology Sociology 27d Economics 23 PoliticalScience 21

40:198-213

in 758 college films, 1915-20063

With a professor, teacher, or researcher

With

a

student

44

51

26

21 1

10

13

10

12 6

6

173

With only a passing reference

14 12

a Some films are coded as including both a student and a professor, teacher, or researcher b Movies referencing psychology in a nonacademic context and parapsychology are not included c Includes 13 references to archaeology d The Cave Man, The Hoodlum, The Beautiful Cheat, Johnny Eager, and The Milagro Beanfield War are omitted because theywere not on the original list of 758 college movies

What is perhaps most interesting about Table 1 is the number of passing references to sociology in comparison to the other social sciences. Whereas anthropology, economics, and political science are rarely alluded to unless there is a character who is a professor, teacher, researcher, or student of the discipline, sociology and psychology are often referenced in passing. Moreover, nearly all

passing references to social sciences other than sociology are either neutral (for example, a reference to a book with psychology in the title) or positive (for example, an insight attributed to a psychologist), while most passing references to sociology are critical, sarcastic, or dismissive. The firstpassing reference to sociology appears inSenior Prom in 1958, suggesting thatby then the discipline had become familiar enough to the general public to permit such a brief allusion. Since 1958, nearly half of thefilmsmentioning sociology include only a passing reference to thefield but no characters who are sociologists or students of the discipline. These passing references are no more common in one genre than another, appearing in dramas as often comedies.

The Discipline

of Sociology

Two movies

suggest thatbefore 1958 the public was unfamiliar with sociology. An in20,000 Men a Year (1939) describes a professor of sociology as mechanic airplane a teacher of "socigraphy" who "learns kids about animals." InJohnny Eager (1942), a gangster who is introduced by his parole officer to two sociology studentsmuses, "Sociology, hmm, well, let's see now..." One of the students replies, "It's a study of social conditions, seeing how the other half lives." Realizing she is being "I she like crime." Embarrassed mean, continues, condescending, things again, she I to understand what Mr. which he mean, says, "Well, you Eager," replies, "I get it." More recently, an elderly man in The Milagro Beanfield War (1988) responds to a graduate student's explanation that he is a sociologist conducting a study of indigenous cultures in the Southwest by asking what a sociologist is. ?

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Several movies suggest that sociology is a useless discipline that focuses on the trivial and the obscure. In R.P.M. (Revolutions per Minute) (1970), a drunken and

despondent sociology professor asks his graduate studentwhat her field of study is. She answers, "Sociology," and he replies, "Sociology. What the hell good is that? You should have chosen something relevant, like auto mechanics." A college senior in The One and Only (1978) asks her boyfriend, "So I have this degree in sociology and, urn, well, what'll I do with it?" He answers, "Open a sociology store." Skepticism about the value of studying sociology is also expressed by a character in

Splitz(1984):

So, after carefullyweighing thepros and cons thathigher education had to offer me, I realized that a degree in sociology with an emphasis on premenstrual activities of aboriginal tribeswomen could pose a problem when itcame tofinding a real job. That's when I decided to become a rock and rollmanager. Hey, my parents always toldme, you gotta have something solid to fall back on. Another film that implies that sociology is concerned with the trivial and the obscure is The Prodigy (1999), which briefly shows an online course listing for "Sociology 351: Ancestors ofModern Tagging. Hidden revolutionary subtexts found in pre-1960 graffitidating from Ancient Greece as a political art form."

Some films are gratuitously antagonistic toward (1970), a political activist responds to a discussion campus by asking, "But what if you want to end masquerading as a delinquent in The Beautiful Cheat

sociology. In Zabriskie Point about how to end ROTC on sociology?" A young woman

(1945) looks at the books in a office and what's racket?" He answers, "Racket? I'm a asks, your "Say, sociologist's was I She afraid of that." When theman is later sociologist." replies, "Oh, oh, thrown out of a nightclub for fighting, his brother, an attorney, defends him to the police; and a friend remarks, "This man is a well-known sociologist." An officer responds, "Oh, I get it...antisocial," then comments to his partner, "Well, that's life for you, Joe. One brother gets along okay and the other's a black sheep." A few movies suggest that sociology is not an appropriate field for a male who wants to be "a real man," one defined by the culture as competent, physically dominant, and heterosexual. InDirty Harry (1971), when Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) of the San Francisco Police Department learns thathis new partner, Chico Gonzalez (Reni Santoni), went to San Jose State, he remarks, "Justwhat I needed, a college boy." Callahan asks Gonzalez ifhe got his degree, and Gonzalez says he did, in sociology. Callahan comments, "Ah, sociology. Oh, you'll go far. That's ifyou live....Justdon't letyour college degree get you killed. I'm liable to be killed along with you." Callahan's contempt for a college education seems to grow

when he learns thatGonzalez majored in sociology. Disdain of a similar sort is expressed inA Raisin in the Sun (1961). When the stuffyGeorge (Louis Gossett, Jr.) arrives at an apartment for a date with a college student, he clashes with her drunken brotherWalter Lee (Sidney Poitier). Irritatedat George's cool response to his suggestion that they discuss his business plans sometime,Walter Lee says, I know you are a busy littleboy...l know ain't nothing in theworld as busy as you colored college boys, with your fraternitypins and your white shoes....I Springer

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see you all the time,with your books tucked under your arm going to your classes. What are you learning down there?What are they filling your head with, hey? Sociology? Psychology? They teaching you how to be a man? How to take over and run thisworld, boy? How to run a rubber plantation or a steel mill or something? No. Justhow to read books and talk proper. Yes, and wear faggotywhite shoes.

The idea that sociology is emasculating is also apparent in the character of Dr. Alexander Haven (Noah Beery, Jr.) inThe Beautiful Cheat (1945). The sociologist's

every action is controlled by his two sisters, his secretary, and his cook; the four women even keep him from drinking coffee because milk is better for him. Haven was a member of Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard University, but he is inept at baseball, unable to dance, and needs to ask for advice about how to propose marriage. Because Hollywood movies contain little that is favorable about the discipline of sociology to counterbalance theirnegative depictions, they end up framing the field as useless, concerned with the trivial and the obscure, and even emasculating. This

critical stance is most apparent when the field of sociology itself is the subject; characters who are sociologists and sociology students are sometimes presented in more balanced ways.

Undergraduate

Students of Sociology

Few undergraduates in college movies are committed to their academic work, because filmmakers regard this aspect of campus lifeas less entertaining?and hence less profitable?than romance, sports, and parties. Students of sociology are no exception to the usual depiction of undergraduates as intellectually indifferentand academically deficient. Released at the height of the Vietnam War, Summertree (1971) opens with a disaffected Jerry McAdams (Michael Douglas) unexpectedly arriving home inmid week. Over dinner, his father remarks, "I knew itwas a mistake, majoring in sociology." Jerryreplies, "I didn't say itwas a mistake," and claims his malaise has nothing to do with his major or even with school, suggesting instead, "Itmay just be

me." When his mother proposes thathe might be studying too hard, Jerryreplies, "I hardly study at all." Later, he says he understands the concepts and theories he has been learning but complains they have no personal relevance and do not make him happy. For a time, he finds meaning inmentoring a boy through a Big Brother program, prompting a nurse to call him a "do-gooder." When his plan to transferto a

conservatory to study guitar is thwarted, he is drafted and sent toVietnam. Jerry's predicament was shared by many students during this era, but the specific failure of sociology to engage him casts the discipline in a poor light. Several movies foster the idea that sociology does not attract thebrightest ormost motivated of undergraduates. InApril isMy Religion (2001), when a man learns that a dorm director has suggested that his son is taking his studies too seriously and needs to have more fun, he quips, "I wonder what her degree was in, probably sociology." A professor inA Change of Seasons (1980) points out that one of the college's best basketball players is failing sociology. A freshman basketball recruit Springer

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tells his tutor inOne on One (1977), "When it comes to books, I'm not really that smart," an opinion underscored by a course load that includes Synergistic to Coach Peewee in Prepubescent Kinetic Development, or How Techniques

Basketball, and Introduction to Sociology. When he mentions the sociology course, he and his tutorsmile and nod approvingly, indicating it is an appropriate choice for a weak student. In Splatter University (1984), a low-budget slasher movie, one student sleeps during the firstclass in introductorysociology and another reads a newspaper. Later

in the semester, a studentwrites the answers to an upcoming exam on his wrist. None of the students has a termpaper topic ready to hand in on the assigned date. A few weeks later,when the instructorannounces thata member of the class has been murdered, a student asks, "Are you going to postpone the papers, or are they due today?" In Young Warriors

(Dick Shawn) contrasts the (1983), Professor Hoover that crime is purely a psychological problem with the sociologist's position thatcrime is the result of a bad social environment, concluding that thepsychoanalyst's solution to the crime problem is to analyze everyone and the sociologist's is to give people better jobs. Kevin (James Van Patten), one of his

psychoanalyst's

view

students, rejects both solutions as "pie in the sky" and says therewill never be enough money formass analysis or enough good jobs. He proposes thatmore police officers are needed to catch criminals so they can be exterminated. Hoover advises

him to speak to someone at the psychiatric clinic, but Kevin instead joins with several fraternitybrothers to form a vigilante gang thatbeats and kills criminals. He did engage in serious discussion with his professor, but then he devised his own

solution to the crime problem. Undergraduates also engage in thoughtfuldiscussion inLittle Sister (1992). When Bobby (Jonathan Silverman) discovers that the sociology course in which he is enrolled is about the historical impact of women and that everyone else in the class is a female, he announces that he is going to drop the course, but he changes his mind when Diana (Alyssa Milano) enters the room. In a later class, he argues that presenting historically importantwomen as equal to outstanding men is good, but thatdoing so ignoreswhat setswomen apart frommen. Diana replies thatwomen do not want to be set apart, because purported differences have long been used to hold them back. Citing several influentialwomen, Bobby counters that itwas their differences that allowed them to accomplish what no man could. that shows undergraduates engaged with sociology isNew Best (Mia Kirshner), a diligent working-class student, tells a rich party girl, to stop talking during their sociology Hadley (Meredith Monroe), are to two be the class, partners in a fieldwork project. At firstuninterested assigned Another movie

Friend

(2002). After Alicia

in the videotape they are making, titled "A Sociological Examination of Poor Kids Placed in a Privileged Educational Environment," Hadley comes to enjoy her interactionwith the socially disadvantaged children and understand what they need to do to get ahead.

(1942) also features two sociology students who are doing Johnny Eager a fieldwork. Visiting parole officerwho is helping themwith theirresearch on crime, Judy (Diana Lewis) is surprised that the handsome Johnny Eager (Robert Taylor) could be an ex-convict. She asks, "Mr. Verne, when those poor old men come in and Springer

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report every month, can you believe what they tell you?" Verne (Henry O'Neill) replies, "We want to, naturally," but he goes on to describe their random inspections of theparolees' homes. The other student, the fashionably attiredLiz (Lana Turner), comments that Eager looks too ambitious to settle for being a cab driver. Verne believes he has become a solid citizen since his release from prison. Liz proves to be

correct and gets entangled in a disastrous relationship with the still-active gangster. Hollywood movies present undergraduates in sociology courses in a mixed light. Some films suggest they lack academic ability and care littleabout learning.Others depict them as engaged with sociological material and capable of doing interesting fieldwork.

Graduate

Students of Sociology

graduate students commit themselves to a field of study to a greater degree thanundergraduates, the threemovies featuring candidates for a master's or doctoral degree in sociology might be expected to deal with the discipline inmore depth than films about undergraduate students of sociology. In R.P.M. (Revolutions per Minute) (1970), Rhoda Green (Ann Margret), a an is affairwith Paco Perez, a professor in her 25-year-old graduate student, having a she calls department "50-year-old fanny pincher." Before beginning a 20-page on paper technological pressures on personality development, she asks him what she should read. When he recommends Talcott Parsons's The Social System and Structure and Process, she asks, "Can you give me the gist?" He replies, "Listen, do I have to do your homework for you?" She responds, "Listen, do I have to do your housework for you?" In fact, she does his housework, though she cooks badly, and she is always available for sex. Her scholarly pursuits get almost no attention in the film. Boys* Night Out (1962) cleverly introduces a consideration of sociological research methods into a standard romantic comedy. Doubting the validity of the

Because

survey data she has gathered for her thesis on suburban males' sexual fantasies, Cathy (Kim Novak) turns to observation, audio-taping her fourmale roommates and taking notes on theirbehavior. She and Fred (James Garner), a divorce who is the apartment's lone bachelor, become infatuatedwith one another, a failure on her part to maintain the detachment necessary to good research. Each of her roommates

mistakenly thinks she is a prostitutewho is engaging in sex with the other three. When the threemarried men learn this is not the case, they search the apartment and

find her typewriter,tape recorder, and notes. They confront herwith their suspicion that she is a blackmailer, and she confesses to being a graduate student collecting data for her thesis in sociology. The married men laugh, but Fred responds as follows: "It's one thing for a girl to be...to go wrong. A guy'd have to be pretty narrow-minded not to overlook a thing like that.But tomake me a miserable guinea pig, to use a guy for...for an experiment, to be a dirty, contemptible...sociologist. That's about as low as you can get." Fred's skeptical attitude toward snooping sociologists does not keep him from reconciling with Cathy, who says thatwhat she reallywants is to get married and live in the suburbs, implying she will abandon her plan to become a sociologist. Springer

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In TheMilagro Beanfield War (1988), Herbie Platt (Daniel Stern) gets off a bus in a New Mexico townwith a tape recorder hanging from his neck and announces to themayor thathe has a grant to do his thesis research and will be therefor 6 months. is ill-prepared for his fieldwork, lacking fluency in Spanish and being ignorantof local religious practices. When violence nearly erupts between the locals and a land developer, he openly sides with the locals. No mention ismade of how

Herbie

his lack of detachment might influence his research. These films present graduate students of sociology in an unflattering light.The twowomen aremore interested in romance than theircareers. Neither studentwho is gathering data is able to maintain uncontaminated by personal bias.

Sociologists

the detachment

required

to do

research

as Researchers

(1919), the firstfilm to deal with research by a professional sociologist is The Beautiful Cheat (1945). When his publisher asks Dr. Haven towrite a book about wayward children, the straight-laced sociologist realizes he has no youthful experiences of his own on which to draw. The publisher proposes thatHaven take into his home an underprivileged child in order to learn first-hand

With the exception of The Hoodlum

about delinquency. The sociologist worries about profiting from the plight of unfortunate youngsters, but he agrees to the project when the publisher suggests he donate his royalties to a fund to help them.Why this renowned scholar would follow a publisher's advice to write a book on a topic he knows nothing about is not explained, nor is the assumption that he could learn something importantfrom a "sociological experiment" with a single subject. research is presented more realistically in College Confidential Sociological

(1960), which was marketed as "a Kinsey Report on the college campus." The movie opens with undergraduate Sally Burke (Mamie Van D?ren) returninghome hours after curfew and lying to her angry father that she was with Professor Steve Macinter (Steve Allen) in his bungalow by the lake.When an angryMr. Burke (Elisha Cook, Jr.)confrontsMacinter inhis office thenext day, the sociologist denies Sally was at his cabin but says she has been helping him with his research project. Burke replies, "So that'swhat you call itnowadays." Macinter describes his study as a survey of college students' responses tomodern culture, but he admits to being

most interested in their sexual behavior. He points out that the college knows about his research.Macinter's fiancee (Theona Bryant) demands thathe stop his research after she hears rumors of his sexual involvement with students. She breaks their engagement when he refuses to do so, explaining thathis project took him a year to prepare and months to collect data and has to be finished so he can get the results published. Unlike the two female graduate students,Macinter values his career as a sociologist over his romantic relationship. Throughout the film,he is presented as a thoughtfulbut pedantic intellectualwho is committed to the search for knowledge. An odd reference inDead Man on Campus (1998) to one of the founders of sociology suggests both the importance of his work and a reluctance to attribute it to a sociologist. When two students get into academic trouble, they plan to take advantage of their college's policy of awarding a 4.00 grade point average for the ?

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semester to any studentwhose roommate commits suicide. While searching for a way to find a new roommate who is suicidal, they come across Emile Durkheim's Suicide. One

of them then approaches Professor D?rkheim (Paul Collins) of the college's Department of Psychology to getmore informationabout suicide. The error thatDurkheim's Suicide, published in 1897, was written a century laterwill be missed by most viewers who are not sociologists; those who are may be offended that one of theirdiscipline's seminal works is attributed to a psychologist. Another reference to a classic sociological work appears inThe Skulls (2000). An instructor (Rob Cohen) begins a seminar as follows: "Okay, C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite. The main thesis is what? That at certain institutions elite groups are formed that'll network the rest of their lives. Well, then that brings us to the question: Is America really a class society, or is it themeritocracy we're taught it is since we were inkindergarten?Mr. McNamara?" Luke McNamara (Joshua Jackson), a working-class

student distracted by the $45,000 bursar's bill he has just opened, "Uh, well, replies, actually I believe that it's both, sir." The instructorasks, "How can it be both?" and Luke replies, "Well, it's been my experience thatmerit is rewarded with wealth, and with wealth comes class." The instructorresponds, "Nice recovery,

Mr.

McNamara."

Even though they acknowledge that sociologists are experts, Hollywood movies sometimes imply a lack of respect for them and theirdiscipline. In Take Her, She's Mine (1963), the father of a studentwho has protested against the bomb, theBerlin

segregation, and fluoridation observes that she has arrived at what "sociologists call the social consciousness or the don't-wash-your-hair stage." Another father in Superdad (1974) responds to a televised discussion about why fathers should become more involved in their children's lives by spending time on the beach with his daughter and her friends.After the venture proves a disaster, he comments that teenagers are "nuts, and so are those sociologists thinking I could get along with them." On-screen sociologists are often depicted as researchers who should be respected for their expertise; but sometimes they are shown to reach incorrect conclusions,

Wall,

snoop into behavior that should remain private, and fail to maintain appropriate distance from their research subjects.

Sociologists

as Teachers

Hollywood films often portray sociologists as teachers and advisers, but overall they do not give proper weight to the importance of these roles in the lives of most academic sociologists. In Boys' Night Out (1962), the sociologist Dr. Prokosch (Oscar Homulka), whose most recent researchwas strangely a study of chimpanzees, responds to his graduate studentCathy's concern that thequestionnaire data she has gathered do not get at the truthabout men's sexual fantasies by asking how she will gather data ifnot with a survey instrument.He worries about her safetywhen she replies that she will do observational research on her fourmale roommates, but she assures him that themen are tame. She says thatmen forget that sex is but a small part of life, and Prokosch remarks, "2.6%," a rare use of a statistic by a sociologist in themovies. When he Springer

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asks if she can entice themen by pretending to offer them sex but not actually become intimatewith them, she answers that every nice girl learns to do that.His solicitude could be criticized as sexist, but his attention to therisks of field research can also be seen as appropriate to his role as thesis adviser.

When Cathy plays the audiotapes of her subjects for Prokosch, he tells her she cannot prove anythingwith a sample of only four.Her response that thepatterns she has found for her subjects are the same for all men raises doubts about her competence as a researcher, unless she is referring to consistency between her observational data and the survey data she gathered earlier. Prokosch advises her to learnmore about her subjects' home lives by interviewing theirwives, so she travels

to the suburbs and tells the women she is doing a sociological study of sexual behavior something like theKinsey Report. Here Prokosch's supervision fails, for by not instructingCathy to tell thewives that she is interviewing them only because theirhusbands are her research subjects, she engages in deception similar to that of Laud Humphreys (1975), who observed men having homosexual sex in public

restrooms, wrote down their cars' license plate numbers, and conducted in-home interviews after telling them theyhad been randomly selected as subjects in a social health survey. instruction rather than thesis advising is the focus of Splatter Classroom University (1984). In the initial meeting of her introductory sociology class, a nervous Julie Parker (Francine Forbes), who has just taken her first teaching

position, discovers that none of the students has the required registration card to hand in, so she tells everyone to bring it the next time. Claiming that she will be lenient on choices of paper topics, though they should somehow relate to the course, she conveys her low expectations to the students.No one has a paper topic to turn in on the due-date, and the class has conspired to tell her that she failed to notify them when their topics were due. By accepting this excuse, the inexperienced Parker is

who cannot contend shown to be a well-meaning butminimally competent instructor with studentswho have littleor no interest in their academic work. She does show concern for theirwell-being, but sometimes in inappropriate ways, as when she offers to recommend an inexpensive abortionist to one young woman. Questionable behavior by a sociology instructor also occurs in Little Sister (1992). In the semester's firstclass on the historical impact of women, Ms. Roffman (Christine Healy) addresses her students as follows: "Good afternoon, ladies. How

interesting,and gentleman." Already uncomfortable at being the only male in the room, Bobby nearly drops the course. In a later session, he and another student, Diana, get into a lively discussion about whether women are intrinsicallydifferent from men. In her office after class, Roffman says to Bobby, "I thought your comments todaywere insightful.Do you think she liked them?"When he asks who she means, Roffman replies, "Diana. Surely that speech wasn't meant forme or the class?" He responds, "No, but it is how I feel." After he tells her of his trickery in trying to win over Diana, Roffman asks what would happen if he ended his deception, advice to the lovelorn that seems nearly as inappropriate as Parker's offer

to recommend an abortionist. Another sociology professor is presented unflatteringly in New Best Friend (2002). The man announces that the eight words "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way" will be "the focus of our last semester together,and how they affect behavior Springer

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patterns in themodern American society, not only macrocosmically in the so-called real world, you know, but in themicrocosm of the classroom and the university, you know." The inarticulate instructorgoes on to say that studentswill work in pairs on fieldwork projects, prompting one student to suggest that the title of the project

implies they should work in teams of three rather than two.He rejects her proposal. Because most classroom scenes are brief and contain little of substance, the teaching function of sociologists in themovies gets less attention thanmight be

expected from the importance of this role in the lives of their real-life counterparts. Some on-screen sociologists fulfill their advising role well, but others behave contrary to theway theiruniversities expect them to act.

Sociologists

as Administrators

Hollywood movies give the administrative duties of sociology professors nearly as much attention as their teaching and advising. This is surprising,because filmmakers who attended college undoubtedly had more experience with their professors as teachers and advisers than as administrators, and because classroom interactions seem to offer bettermaterial for drama or comedy than running a department or a university. Dr. Pauline Swenson (Ellen McRae [Burstyn]) inFor Those Who Think Young (1964) is a sociologist and a college trusteewho offers to gather evidence to support the board's decision to curb students' alcohol consumption and general moral laxity by making a local dive off-limits.Modestly attired, she enters "Surfs Up" and orders fruit juice, but when the owner sees her taking notes, he serves her a large alcoholic drink. She likes the taste,ordersmore, gets drunk, and passes out. The next day,Woody (Woody Woodbury), the club's comedian, tells her that nearly half of her students are old enough to vote, marry, join the armed forces, and order alcohol. She expresses concern about underage drinkers, but he shows her a stamp the club uses to keep them from ordering alcohol. Convinced that the club is reputable, Swenson declares her investigation closed and apologizes for her behavior. Later, she is fired by the college forwriting a favorable report on the club. In Weird Woman (1944), Professor Norman Reed (Lon Chaney, Jr.),a member of a department of sociology who is apparently an anthropologist, has just had a book published. When Professor Millard Sawtelle (Ralph Morgan), anothermember of the departmentwho also seems to be an anthropologist, praises Reed's book, Sawtelle's

wife Evelyn (Elizabeth Russell) notes thathe, too,will soon have a book published. She worries he will not be appointed new chair of the department but says he has the inside track,because the job is usually awarded according to seniority.A dean points out thatbrains also count.When Reed's book wins a major prize and sells briskly, he seems themost likely candidate to head the department. Evelyn complains about

department politics toReed's ex-girlfriend Ilona (Evelyn Ankers), who observes that he is the "favorite boy around here" and claims that his new wife Paula (Anne Gwynne) is using magic to advance his career and might keep Sawtelle from becoming chair. Ilona tells Sawtelle that Reed knows he used a student's unpublished thesis as the basis for his book and would use his plagiarism to force him to withdraw his candidacy for the chair position. When Paula tells Reed she Springer

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used magic to ensure the success of his book and has nearly managed to secure the chair position for him, he dismisses her claim as superstition and asserts thathe has earned everything he has achieved. He destroys her ritual objects, and she says he has broken the "circle of immunity" that protected him. Soon after, the board of trustees hires a professor from another college to head the department, and Reed gracefully accepts his failure towin the position. In contrast to this avid pursuit of an administrative post, a sociologist inR.P.M.

(Revolutions per Minute) (1970) only reluctantlybecomes the acting president of his university.A leftistauthor of four books on social action, Paco Perez is described as "a very noted scholar" but also "a very noted oddball and a radical" who has affairs with his students and rides a motorcycle. At a late-night emergency meeting of the

board of trustees,he jokingly offers a jargon-laden statement, commenting that they must be seeking his analysis of the student takeover of the administration building, because "paper liberals" always turn to a Keniston, Riesman, or Perez to tell them where theywent wrong. The trustees tell him thepresident has just resigned because of the stress of the situation, and theywant him to become acting president, because he is the only realistic candidate acceptable to the student protesters.A trustee says that ifPerez turnsdown the job, theywill have to call in thepolice. Everyone agrees this should be avoided. The trustee tries to persuade Perez to assume thepresidency by saying, "Surely even a sociologist feels some obligation to the university." Perez replies, "Sir, my obligation is to teach," but when members of the board point out thathe will be listened to by theprotesters because he knows their leader, he accepts the appointment.

Perez meets with the studentprotesters and relays theirdemands to the trustees,who refuse to turnover theuniversity to "a bunch of adolescent troublemakers." Perez tells the studentshe can deliver on only nine of their 12 demands, and their leader rejects the

offerand asks him how itfeels tobe part of theEstablishment. Later, Perez gets agitated when theprotesters tellhim thatwriting books isnot the same as knowing and criticize his work as outdated.When theprotesters threatento destroy theuniversity's computer if theirdemands are notmet, Perez believes his only option is to summon thepolice to prevent the destruction of the institutionhe has believed in his whole life. Students throw computer tapes out thewindows, and the police launch tear gas canisters and storm thebuilding, clubbing fleeing protesters and bystanders alike. After theviolence has ended, a distraughtPerez says he feels old and regretsnot staying in thebuilding to

help theprotesters getwhat theywanted. That Perez is a sociologist is important in several ways. He personifies the popular conception of sociology as a liberal, sometimes radical, discipline, one whose professors and students are inclined to antiwar activism and other challenges

to the status quo. The film also questions theusefulness of sociology; despite Perez's many publications on conflict resolution, he cannot get the protesters out of the building without resorting to the brute force he deplores.

Conclusion Hollywood movies sometimes cast the discipline of sociology as a useless, even emasculating, field of study that dwells on the trivial and the obscure. However, Springer

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sociologists and students of sociology are often presented in a more balanced way. Some undergraduates are weakly motivated and academically deficient, but others are involved in creative projects and thoughtfuldiscussions. Graduate students are usually more interested in romance than in completing their degrees and too

involved with their subjects to do good research. None of the 12 movies featuring a sociologist fitswhat Berger describes as the common pre-1963 stereotypes of sociologists as social reformers, theoreticians for social work, and people who like to work with others. The conclusion of Berger, Bjorklund, and Kimmel that popular culture represents sociologists as statistics

obsessed and jargon-dependent "pseudo-scientists" and "perverse voyeurs" also gets little support from the 12 films. Sociologists are teachers rather than researchers in five of them?20,000 Men a Year (1939), Splatter University (1984), Little Sister a thesis adviser in a (1992), The Skulls (2000), and New Best Friend (2002)?and sixth,Boys'Night Out (1962). Sociologists in threeof the 12movies?Weird Woman (1944), For Those Who Think Young (1964), and R.P.M. (Revolutions per Minute) do not conform to Berger, Bjorklund, and Kimmers stereotype, each (1970)?also of thembeing immersed in administrativeduties or thepursuit of an administrativepost rather than research. The sociologists who do research in the other threefilms?The

Hoodlum (1919), The BeautifulCheat (1945), and College Confidential(I960)?

cannot fairly be described as obsessed with statistics,dependent on jargon, pseudo scientific, or perversely voyeuristic. Hollywood's portrayal of sociology, sociologists, and students of sociology raises two importantquestions that cannot be answered here: Where do filmmakers get their ideas about sociology, and what impact do theirmovies have on attitudes

toward the discipline? Screenwriters might write their stories and directors might shape their films in ways that conform to and reinforce popular stereotypes of sociology. The ways that sociology is depicted by novelists, news reporters, and political leaders?President Ronald Reagan's negative comments come tomind? ideas about the discipline. Filmmakers might also could be a source of Hollywood's use material from earlier movies, with cinematic portrayals of sociology being recycled over the years to become entrenched inpopular culture. Some screenwriters and directors might also be influenced by their own collegiate experiences with sociology, using a professor or a fellow student as a model for what eventually

appears on the screen.More likely, those who make films have littleknowledge of what sociology entails or what sociologists actually do, which would explain why sociologists in themovies sometimes do research that seems more appropriate to anthropologists, psychologists, and biologists. A second question is what impact cinematic depictions of sociology have on audiences. Ifnegative portrayals influence attitudes, they could harm the discipline by causing students to avoid enrolling in sociology courses, by reducing administrators' support for departments of sociology, and by limiting government and foundation support for research.

Primary References 20,000 Men a Year. (1939). A Change of Seasons. (1980).

Springer

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in the Sun.

(1961).

AprilisMy Religion.(2001). Blue Chips. (1994). Boys'Night

Out.

(1962).

(1960). CollegeConfidential.

Dead Man

on Campus.

(1998).

Dirty Harry. (1971). For Those Who Think Young. (1964). Johnny Eager. (1942). Little Sister. (1992). New Best Friend. (2002). One on One. (1977). Preppies. (1982). /?.?M (Revolutions per Minute). Senior Prom. (1958).

(1970).

Sp/atter University. (1984). Sp/z?r. (1984). Summertree. (1971). Superdad. (1974). fate //er, Me fr Mne. 77ie Beautiful Cheat. 7%e Cave Man.

The Hoodlum. 7fce M/agro

(1963). (1945).

(1915). (1919).

Beanfield War. (1988).

7%eOwe W O/i/y.(1978). 7%e/W/gy.(1999). 77ie S*u//.s. (2000). Jffeirc/ Vornan. (1944).

fowig Warriors. (1983). Zabriskie Point. (1970).

Secondary References The American film institute catalog of motion pictures produced in Film Institute. (1971-1999). the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press. Berger, P. L. (1963). Invitation to sociology: A humanistic perspective. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Bjorklund, D. (2001). Sociologists as characters in twentieth-century novels. The American Sociologist,

American

32, 23-41. J. E.

(2008). Campus life in the movies: A critical surveyfrom the silent era to the present. Jefferson,NC: McFarland. Humphreys, L. (1975). Tearoom trade: Impersonal sex inpublic places, enlarged ed. New York: Aldine Transaction. Conklin,

Kimmel, M. (2008). Good sociology makes lousy TV. Contexts, 7, 62-64. Turner, S. P., & Turner, J. H. (1990). The impossible science: An institutional analysis sociology. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

of American

Springer

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