From the Body to Gender

Videos

• Killing Us Softly

• Bro Code

Videos• Killing Us Softly

– Women are routinely objectified in our culture• Valued for their appearance over other traits• Sexualized• Turned into objects

• Bro Code– Contemporary culture promotes sexist men by:

• Training men to objectify (or womanize)• Immerse men in porn• Make rape jokes • Obey the masculinity police

Videos• Killing Us Softly

– Women are routinely objectified in our culture• Valued for their appearance over other traits• Sexualized• Turned into objects

• Bro Code– Contemporary culture promotes sexist men by:

• Training men to objectify (or womanize)• Immerse men in porn• Make rape jokes • Obey the masculinity police

The role of the media

• Product and Producer• Unrealistic images of beauty for

men and women• Underrepresentation of women

of color• Overrepresentation of women

as “parts”

Unrealistic Body Images

• The ideal female body is unattainable, unrealistic, and dangerous

• Men are coming under increased pressure to obtain muscular, lean ideals (25 years)

• Naked male image is more frequent in the last decade

• Still, this new emphasis on male image is not equivalent to women’s.

Images of Women of Color

(Baker, 2005; Coltrane & Messaneo, 2000)

• Tokenism• Under Representation Bias

– Under 10% of mainstream TV ads include people of color

• Subtle Racism– Inconsequential– Subservient to White

• Sexual images

Women as “Parts”

• Pervasive tendency to depict women’s bodies more than their faces

• Faceism = index of facial prominence

• Lowest Faceism Index: Black Women

Self-Objectification

• Living in a culture that sexually objectified women more than men

• Women learn to view themselves as objects

• Objectification = tendency to regard one’s physical self primarily in terms of appearance and to adopt an observer’s perspective on the physical self

Self-Objectification Questionnaire• NSTRUCTIONS: We are interested in how people think about their

bodies. The questions below identify 10 different attributes. We would like you to rank order these body attributes from that which has the greatest impact on your physical self-concept, to that which has the least impact on your physical self-concept.

• NOTE: It does not matter how you describe yourself in terms of each attribute. For example, fitness level can have a great impact on your physical self-concept regardless of whether you consider yourself to be physically fit, not physically fit, or any level in between.

• Please first read over all of the attributes. Then, record your rank by writing the letter of the attribute.

• WHEN CONSIDERING YOUR PHYSICAL SELF-CONCEPT, HOW IMPORTANT IS…

• 9 = most important and 0 = least important• a. physical coordination? f. physical

attractiveness?• b. health? g. energy level (e.g. stamina)?• c. weight? h. firm/sculpted

muscles?• d. strength? i. physical fitness

level?• e. sex appeal? j. measurements •

SO Score

• Sum of appearance related traits

• Sum of competence related traits

• Subtract competence from appearance related traits

• Higher numbers = Greater objectification

States of Objectification

• Cover Story: Consumer Product Evaluation

• Two conditions:• Women and men asked to try on

speedo swimsuit or sweater• DV: Level of objectification,

shame and math performance• Measure of SO• How many cookies they ate

Swimsuit v. Sweater: Self-Esteem

Swimsuit v. Sweater: Body Concerns

Swimsuit v. Sweater: Body Shame

Swimsuit v. Sweater: Math Performance

Effect of the Swimsuit (shorts/swimsuits v. sweater)

That swimsuit becomes you• Both men and women in

speedos (of various ethnicities) showed:

Gender Differences

• Main effect for gender:– Women always rated themselves

higher on body shame and self-objectification.

• Different methodologies:

Fig. 1. Talking time as a function of participant’s gender, partner’s gender, and communication condition.

Saguy T et al. Psychological Science 2010;21:178-182

Copyright © by Association for Psychological Science

Fig. 2. Percentages of women and men who chose each communication condition as their least preferred one.

Saguy T et al. Psychological Science 2010;21:178-182

Copyright © by Association for Psychological Science

Physiological Disconnect

• Insensitivity to body sensation• Women are less accurate in

estimating their heartbeat, blood glucose levels, and stomach contractions than are men.

• Women’s subjective experience of arousal correlated to a lesser degree with their physiological sexual arousal than men.

Measuring Up-Where does shame come from?(Fallon & Rozin, 1985)

• Ratings of their current size, the ideal, what they think is attractive to opposite sex

• Women thought they were heavier than the their perceptions of men’s ideal

• Men actually prefer heavier women than women believe

– Men thought they were about the same as ideal

• Women actually prefer smaller than men think

• What are the implications?

Why do we care about appearance?• Appearance is often paired with

ROMANCE and RELATIONSHIP SUCCESS

• Women hear that men value appearance over all else!

Testing the link

• Exposed men and women to relationship primes or neutral primes

• Relationship primes: marriage, romance, relationship, partner

• Neutral primes: door, house, gate, brick

• Measured SO

Romance Primes Self-Objectification Among Single Women

Basing SE in Relationships• Contingencies of self-worth• The extent to which SE is

connected to relationship status

• For Men and Women Alike

GENDER

Gender

• We are hardwired to notice sex– Single most remembered characteristic

• This may lead us to assume many sex differences.

• However, men and women are more alike than they are different

• Differences between men and women are smaller than intragroup differences

How big are gender differences?• .80 = LARGE DIFFERENCE• .50 = MODERATE

DIFFERENCE• .20 = SMALL DIFFERENCE

ON SIMILARITIES (Hyde, 2005)

Bem’s Typology

• Sex (biological) v. Gender (social)• In 1970s, Sandra Bem argued that

people were not necessarily sex = gender

• Instead, masculine, feminine, a mix of both, or neither– Androgynous– Undifferentiated

• Psychologically gendered on a continuum

1970’s research

• Men and women fell into sex-typed quandrants

• She found relatively few androgynous people

• How did she measure it?• Predetermined list of attributes

known to be gender-stereotyped!

Bem Sex Role Inventory

• Confident• Leadership• Athletic• Opinionated• Decisive• Risk Taking• Aggressive• Masculine

• Compassionate• Likes Children• Agreeable• Cheerful• Nurturing• Modest• Gullible• Feminine

Contemporary Research

• Given no other choice, men and women sex typed themselves

• Better idea is to let people report the attributes they identify with.

• Then, men and women report the same, positive traits

Evolution of Gender Roles

• Assertiveness (Twenge, 2001)– Sociocultural– Meta-Analysis

• Social Status– Education/Work Opportunities

Women’s Assertiveness (Twenge, 2001)

Degrees Awarded to Women

Median Age of Marriage

Social Role Theory (Eagly, 1987)

• Origin of sex differences • Differences evolve from societal

roles• Divisions of labor create gender-

role expectations• Socialization Reinforcements

World War II

Sex differences in emotion?• Women are believed to be more

emotionally expressive than men

• They are expected to emote more, to show more sadness, fear, and guilt.

• There is only one emotion men are expected to show more! Can you guess?

Is this true?

• The evidence for stereotyped beliefs is strong, but not necessarily accurate

• Jussim asked people about stereotyped beliefs

• Both men and women believed women were more open emotionally expressive but few, if any, reported differences.

Why do we believe these differences exist?• Gender norms and expectations• Feeling does not mean

expressing• We often don’t see gender role

reversals• Believing in gender ideals and

following rules often reduces autonomy (Sanchez et al., 2005; Sanchez et al., 2006)

Gender Norm Violations

• Backlash =

• Consequences fear of backlash?

Fear of Backlash for Women• Harsh sanctions for gender role

violators• Competence v. Likable

– Women who self-promote are seen as more competence but less hireable and less socially attractive

Backlash

• Creates a vicious cycle of gender stereotyping

• Double bind

Backlash as Identity Misclassification and the Masculinity Police• Fear of Identity

Misclassification– Being perceived as a social

identity that you are not

Study

• All heterosexual men• Engaged in feminine/masculine

task• Confirm heterosexuality v. No

confirmation• Public v. Private

Bosson et al. (2005)

Precarious Manhood (Bosson & Vandello, 2011)

• Masculinity is something you need to earn, and it is difficult to do so it is:

• How do you earn it?

Fig. 1. Percentages of physical reasons (e.g., “Grew weak with age”) and social reasons (e.g., “Behaved badly”) that people generated to explain either how a man might lose his manhood

or how a woman might lose her womanhood.

Bosson J K , and Vandello J A Current Directions in Psychological Science 2011;20:82-86

Copyright © by Association for Psychological Science

Fig. 2. Percentages of stems completed as aggressive words (e.g., fight vs. right; punch vs. lunch) by men and women who received feedback that either threatened or boosted their

gender status.

Bosson J K , and Vandello J A Current Directions in Psychological Science 2011;20:82-86

Copyright © by Association for Psychological Science

Sexism: Ambivalence and Double Standards• Blatant displays of sexism are

less socially acceptable than in the past– But do continue to persist today

• Gender stereotypes are distinct in that they are not only descriptive, but also prescriptive– They tell people what they should

do or be

Sex Discrimination

• Seems to have diminished over time, but discrimination based on sex is still prevalent today

Women in Specific Occupations

Ambivalent Sexism

• Form of sexism characterized by attitudes about women that reflect both negative, resentful beliefs/feelings as well as affectionate and chivalrous but potentially patronizing beliefs/feelings– Hostile sexism– Benevolent sexism

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Ambivalent Sexism(Glick & Fiske)

• Consists of two elements:

– Hostile sexism, characterized by negative, resentful feelings about women’s abilities, values and ability to challenge men’s power.

– Benevolent sexism, characterized by affectionate, chivalrous, but potentially patronizing feelings of women needing and deserving protection.

People Typically Don’t Recognize

• Exposure to BS (or Other Forms of Complimentary Stereotypes) Increases Support for Status Quo (Jost& Kay, 2003)

What is the Danger in Benevolent Sexism (BS)?• Aside from being relatively undetectable

and making people believe that status quo is fine……

• Victims of BS tend to perform worse on competence tasks (Dardenne et al., 2007)