Masculinity and feminity – Myths and Stereotypes

Gender is not the same as sex Gender – non physiological aspects of being male or female – the cultural expectations of being masculine or feminine. Gender identity – An individuals private experience of the self as female or male Gender role – set of behaviors socially defined as appropriate for one’s self.

Stereotype Stereotypes are socially shared beliefs that certain qualities can be assigned to individuals based on their membership in a particular group – gender, race, national origin, social class, age, religion or even height.

Gender Roles

Williams & Bennett, 1975 Women: Affected, affectionate, appreciative, attractive, charming, complaining, dependent, dreamy, emotional, excitable, feminine, fickle flirtatious frivolous, fussy, gentle, high-strung, meek, mild, nagging, prudish, rattlebrained, sensitive, sentimental, softhearted, sophisticated, submissive, talkative, weak, whiney.

Williams & Bennett, 1975 Men: Adventurous, aggressive, ambitious, assertive, autocratic, boastful, course, confident, courageous, cruel, daring, disorderly, dominant, enterprising, forceful, handsome, independent, jolly logical, loud, masculine, rational, realistic, robust, self-confident, severe, stable, steady, stern, strong, tough, unemotional, unexcitable.

DeLisi & Soundaranayagam, 1990 There were agreement on the following: Female core traits: Niceness/nurturance dimension Male core traits: Potency/power dimension Differences: Females saw themselves as capable, competent, dependable, intelligent and responsible. Males saw females as attractive, good-looking, sexy and sofe.

Do stereotypes imply prejudice? Prejudice: The negtive valuation of persons or their activities because of thei memebership in a particular group. Sexism: The brand of prejudice that is based on a person’s sexual category. Discrimination???

Feminist

In Africa men wear the finery Kukuku Tunisia

Masai

Self-image

Stereotypes of African Americans

Asian stereotypes

Arab women the veil

Gender Schema Schemas are cognitive structures that derive from the integration and organization of particular types of knowledge.  Once developed, they influence the categorization, interpretation, and comprehension of social events and behaviors.  Self-schemas, in particular, are those cognitive structures that contain integrated and organized information about the self--the unique aspects of people's personality, abilities, achievements, interests, and appearance

How are stereotypes maintained Childrearing practices Toys and clothing Media – ads, stories, movies, sit-coms Other

Self–fulfilling prophecy The concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy can be summarized in these key principles: We form certain expectations of people or events We communicate those expectations with various cues. People tend to respond to these cues by adjusting their behavior to match them. The result is that the original expectation becomes true. This creates a circle of self-fulfilling prophecies.