The purpose of this research paper is to highlight the socialization differences between men and women responses to the visual imagery of album cover artwork. The core of the research stems from the idea that due to the patriarchal nature of our society, upon being questioned about themes represented in artwork, women and men will respond similarly when viewed collectively. However, when considered separately, women on average will acknowledge more themes in the artwork overall, as they conform to the dominant gaze as well as represent their marginalized standpoint as well. The theory is tested by showcasing 27 album artwork through an anonymous survey distributed online and analyzing the data results. The survey, however, does not test for additional values of perception such as ethnicity or socioeconomic background due to the skewed population. In addition, based on the nature of the voluntary, online survey I cannot dictate how many responses from each gender I received. Finally, a smaller sample size of 11 (two albums tying for 10th place) most effective albums at representing themes, as concluded by both men and women, were used to make the final conclusions. After analyzing the data collected, results showed that men and women responses chose the same top themes for each album of the 11 most effective albums. However, the results concluded that women averaged 3.33 themes for all 27 albums, and averaged 4.23 for the sample size, while men averaged 2.51 themes for all albums and 2.98 for the top 11. Moreover, the data supports the claim that women and men identify the same dominant perspectives themes overall, but women on average still offer more theme responses per album artwork.
