Methodology for studying discrimination based on sexual orientation and social sex-role stereotypes

This article presents the methodology used in collecting data for the study of the relationship of sexual orientation and social sex-role to the protection of civil liberties. The methodology is designed to determine how departures in sexual orientation and social sex-role are the basis for the abridgment of civil liberties. Departure in sexual orientation is defined as physical sexual activity involving individuals of the same sex. Departure in social sex-role stereotypes is defined as departing from or conforming to the feminine stereotype for men, the feminine stereotype for women, the masculine sterotype for men, and the masculine stereotype for women.     

The relationship of departures in social sex-role to the abridgment of civil liberties

This article examines the relationship of departures from the feminine stereotype for women and the masculine stereotype for men to the abridgment of civil liberties. The methodology is described for determining conformity to and departures from social sex-role stereotypes. Results show that: (a) there was more conformity than departure from social sex-role stereotypes; (b) there were proportionately more violations of the right of equality for those who departed; (c) sexual orientation was more often known for those who departed; (d) biological sex was not related to the violations of particular civil liberties for those who departed; and (e) for modes of conflict resolution, there was proportionately more use of avoidance by those who departed.     

Witnessing a body in decline: Men’s and women’s perceptions of an altered physical appearance

ABSTRACT

There has been a tendency within the literature to ignore how men and women who are very ill and at the end of life perceive and experience their visibly altered bodies. This article aims to provide new insights about this matter. A qualitative research approach was adopted. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 hospice patients, 20 family members, and 20 members of hospice staff. Findings reveal that because of masculine and feminine norms, physical appearance is more a matter of concern to women than to men who are close to death. This contradicts theories that suggest that patients experience a disinvestment on their sense of masculinity and femininity alongside the process of bodily deterioration and decay prior impending potential death.     

Absent Non-Fathers: Gendered representations of voluntary childlessness in Swedish newspapers

This article applies a media frame analysis in order to highlight representations of voluntary childlessness in Swedish newspapers. The analysis identifies how childfree couples are framed as carefree, fulfilled and content. Childfree women on the other hand are framed as struggling with problems, stereotypes and doubts. Childfree men are absent and implicitly framed as unconcerned and unaffected. Even in the only newspaper article that draws attention to men and voluntary childlessness the voice of the childfree man is absent. Instead of a childfree man a father of six is interviewed and presented as an exception. To explain these different frames this article argues that gender stereotypes, maternalism, pronatalism and heteronormativity influence who is constructed as newsworthy when news media report on voluntary childlessness. While the feminine identity and women's social role is conflated with motherhood, the link between fatherhood and masculinity is weaker. Because men's parenthood roles are indistinct so are men's roles as non-parents. As a result a father to a daughter in a previous relationship can be represented as part of a carefree and childfree couple. Consequently, childfree women are more newsworthy than childfree men, and a father of six is more newsworthy than a non-father.     

“You Look Like a Dude,Dude”: Masculine Females Undoing Gender in the Workplace

ABSTRACT

Interviews with 49 masculine females from diverse identities and occupations suggest that their workplace interactions undo gender, that is, breach rather than revise gender parameters. In this study, participants reveal that, although they were acknowledged as women in the workplace, their treatment was often more similar to men. Their classification as “like men” sometimes accrued advantage such as male camaraderie, access to information and opportunities, and greater assumed competence relative to gender-conforming women. Participants’ interactions with coworkers, supervisors, and customers suggest that, rather than a pariah femininity, masculine females may more accurately be described as a subordinate masculinity. Interactions that classify masculine females as predominantly masculine or “like men” denaturalize gender. By visibly countering gender’s anatomical basis and the notion of coherent gendered selves, masculine females might, in one small way, undo gender.     

Components of sexual identity

This paper examines the four components of sexual identity: biological sex, gender identity, social sex-role, and sexual orientation. Theories about the development of each component and how they combine and conflict to form the individual's sexual identity are discussed. As defined here, social sex-role includes the individual's femininity and masculinity. Sexual orientation includes the individual's physical and affectional sexual preferences for relationships with members of the same and/or opposite biological sex. This paper may help to clarify meanings of the following terms used in research on sexual identity; sex, gender, femininity, masculinity, heterosexuality, and homosexuality.     

Heterosexual masculinity and homophobia: a reaction to the self?

Heterosexual masculinity is the cultural pressure exerted on males to be masculine in traits and heterosexual in orientation or else be viewed as feminine and socially unacceptable. The current study investigated the link between heterosexual masculinity and homophobia in 74 college males. Specifically, gender self-discrepancy (how well males think they fit cultural expectations of how they should act as a man), attribute importance (perceived importance of possessing masculine attributes), and self-esteem were examined as predictors of homophobia. Attribute importance, self-discrepancy along masculine traits, and their interaction significantly predicted degree of homophobia in this sample.     

Psychometric and Faciometric Support for Observable Facial Feminization in Gay Men

ABSTRACT

Though male homosexuality appears to be evolutionarily paradoxical, phenotypic feminization has been offered as a route for three current models positing a genetic basis for male homosexuality. We tested whether facial feminization is observable in gay men in two studies. In Study 1, using two composite images of gay and of heterosexual men, naive participants (N = 308) rated the “gay” face more highly on stereotypically feminine traits and actual femininity and the “heterosexual” face more highly on stereotypically masculine traits and actual masculinity. In Study 2, faciometrics of 428 Internet images of gay (N = 219) and heterosexual men were analyzed along six sexually dimorphic ratios. The faciometrics of gay men were more feminine, both in gestalt terms and for five of the six individual traits. The studies offer objective support for a more feminized facial phenotype in gay males that is difficult to explain through cultural or behavioral cues.     

“You Bring Great Masculinity and Truth”: Sexuality,whiteness, and the regulation of the male body in motion

This study contributes to analyses of how heterosexuality and whiteness work together in the embodied social practice of dance and the representational realm of television. It does so by attempting to destabilize theories of sexual difference dependent upon the concept of a stable, “natural,” and unitary body by highlighting the representational work that underpins heteronormative (white) masculinity within the first season of the syndicated reality dance television series So You Think You Can Dance Canada. The paper argues that though the presence of male dancers in the (often feminized) representational realm has the potential to challenge simple heteronormative dichotomies of masculine/feminine, reality dance television in this case plays with, yet ultimately reaffirms, heteronormative masculinity and does so relationally, through the juxtaposition of racialized male and female dance contestants over the span of a series. While it is not surprising that a reality show depends heavily upon heteronormative stereotypes, these discursive mechanisms are rendered invisible, in this case, when couched in a discourse of authenticity, technical ability, and dance aesthetics, resonating beyond the context of television, into the ways we think about dance practice.     

An Interrupted Postcolonial/Feminist Cyberethnography: Complicity and Resistance in the "Cyberfield"

Informed by Foucault's theorisation of the docile body, the gaze, and the Panopticon, we analyse how the gaze is operationalised in the popular makeover show How to Look Good Naked (HTLGN). We explore how a regime of discipline is (re)produced through the drawing of boundaries constructing the feminine/masculine and straight/queer binaries. We analyse the delineation of rules and the performance of practices to maintain these boundaries, which support emphasised femininity and hegemonic masculinity. Whilst HTLGN claims to challenge the “body fascism” prevalent in the fashion, beauty, and advertising industries and rid women, and more recently men, of the shame associated with not meeting these ideals, we argue that the show's resistance is far from radical, functioning instead as a mediated ritual of rebellion, endorsing and sustaining key elements constituting prevailing constructions of femininity and masculinity.     

A Comparison of Trans Women,Trans Men,Genderqueer Individuals,and Cisgender Brothers and Sisters on the Bem Sex-Role Inventory: Ratings by Self and Siblings

A U.S. national sample of 295 transgender adults (trans women, trans men, and genderqueer individuals) and their cisgender siblings completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory about their siblings as well as themselves, which enabled a comparison between self-perceptions and sibling’s perceptions of personality characteristics. Self-reported personality characteristics scored as feminine of trans women were not statistically different from those of their cisgender sisters, but they were significantly higher than self-reported femininity scores of trans men, genderqueer individuals, and cisgender brothers. Self-reported personality characteristics scored as masculine of trans men did not differ significantly from those of their cisgender brothers, but they were higher than those of trans women. Trans men and cisgender brothers were viewed by their siblings in a more sex-typed way than they rated themselves, whereas trans women and cisgender sisters were rated by their siblings in a less sex-typed way than they viewed themselves.     

The “Sassy Woman” and the “Performing Man”: Heterosexual casual sex advice and the (re)constitution of gendered subjectivities

Media forums that provide “sex advice” are a rich source of (sexual) information for heterosexual individuals and have been critically examined for the ways in which they construct heterosexuality (and sexual subjectivities). The representations of (heterosexual) casual sex are also prevalent across the mass media. This paper uses a Foucauldian/poststructuralist mode of discourse analysis to explore how casual sex “advice” in three self-help books (two aimed at women, one aimed at men), and online advice articles, constituted casual sex and masculine and feminine heterosexual subjectivities. Four main (profoundly gendered) subject positions were identified in the texts: the “strategic man”; the “performing man”; the “sassy woman”; and the “vulnerable woman.” It is argued that although some alternative ways of constituting heterosexual identities were provided (particularly for women), gender difference was not only implicated in such advice but also, at times, crudely exaggerated. The implications of these representations are discussed in relation to contemporary heterosexualities, heterosexual sexual identities, and heterosexual power relations.     

Chicks with dicks, men in dresses: what it means to be a drag queen

One of the burning questions about drag queens among both scholars and audiences is whether they are more gender-revolutionaries than gender-conservatives. Do they primarily destabilize gender and sexual categories by making visible the social basis of femininity and masculinity, heterosexuality and homosexuality? Or are they more apt to reinforce the dominant binary and hierarchical gender and sexual systems by appropriating gender displays and expressing sexual desires associated with traditional femininity and institutionalized heterosexuality? We address this question through a case study of drag queens at the 801 Cabaret in Key West, Florida. On the basis of life histories, observations of their performances, and focus groups with audience members, we examine the role of gender and sexuality in the process of becoming a drag queen and in the personal identities of drag queens. We find that transgenderism, same-sex sexuality, and theatrical performance are central to the personal identities of these drag queens, who use drag to forge personal and collective identities that are neither masculine nor feminine, but rather their own complex genders.     

The relationship of masculinity,femininity, and well-being in Taiwan college graduates

The relationship of sex role orientation and psychological well-being was assessed in a group of 214 Taiwan male and female college graduates. The 32-item Femininity scale of the California Psychological Inventory was empirically divided into two independent subscales: the Femininity (consisting of items more frequently endorsed by women) and the Masculinity subscales (consisting of items more frequently endorsed by men). Well-being is assessed by absence of depressive symptomatology and level of self-actualization. For women, lower levels of femininity significantly predicted to decrease in depressive levels and higher actualization. For men, low femininity and moderately high masculinity scores predicted to low depressive symptomatology, while low femininity and low masculinity levels predicted to high actualization. The findings were discussed in the context of modern day Taiwan culture.     

Sexistential Crisis: An Intersectional Analysis of Gender Expression and Sexual Orientation in Masculine Overcompensation

ABSTRACT

Masculine overcompensation—a phenomenon where men react to masculinity threats by endorsing hypermasculine ideals—has been demonstrated among straight men but has yet to be examined among gay men. The current study therefore proposed to examine whether gay men overcompensate similarly to their straight counterparts by providing participants with randomized feedback that threatened their masculinity. Overcompensation was measured in 867 online respondents by administering a series of questionnaires regarding views of pornography, rape, sex roles, and political orientation. Although our hypothesis was not confirmed, results revealed the intersectionality of both sexual orientation and self-reported gender expression regarding the formation of different views and beliefs. Specifically, masculinity was differentially related to homophobic attitudes, more callous views toward victims of sexual assault, and various components of attitudes toward pornography in gay and straight men. Masculine gay males held stereotypically masculine views less strongly than their masculine straight counterparts, providing evidence that gay males adopt a different type of masculinity than straight males—something of a “masculinity lite.” Such findings point to the converging influence of sexual orientation and gender expression as contributors relevant to the attitudes of gay and straight men. This information adds to a growing body of literature on differences between gay and straight men and can be used to inform theory, education, and clinical practice, particularly in settings where men grapple with the implications of their masculinity.     

Femininity in men and masculinity in women: American psychiatry and psychology portray homosexuality in the 1930's

Two influential studies of homosexuality are reviewed. Both were conducted in the United States in the 1930s and involved rather large samples of homosexual men and women. Each investigation concluded that homosexuality was linked to cross-gender identification. Consequently, these studies served as a justification for perpetuating a clear distinction between masculine and feminine roles. Consideration is given to the intellectual and social context within which the association of gender deviation and homosexuality was promulgated.     

Between conformity and transgression: Chinese women’s gendered discourse of fan authenticity for European football

This essay explores Chinese women’s discourse of fan authenticity for European football. Conceptualizing Chinese female fans as the readers of the transnational text of European football, I conducted in-depth interviews with fifteen self-identified female fans in Shanghai, China. The analysis shows that in their discursive formations of gendered fan authenticity, these women simultaneously reproduce and contest the patriarchal dominance and female stereotypes in European football fandom. As a result, they articulate an ambiguous relation between fan authenticity and themselves as women. Instead of regulating feminine identity to fit into the masculinist fandom, these fans still hold up to the traditional Chinese expectations of femininity in their fan experience.     

Gender mobility: survival plays and performing Central American migration in passage

Bandits, corrupt officials, travel companions and smugglers rape Central American migrants during their clandestine journey across Mexico. However, migrants do not passively accept this violence; they devise performances of gender to arrive at their destination. Based on over two years of ethnographic fieldwork from El Salvador through Mexico to the United States, this article examines how men and women improvise new understandings of masculinity and femininity as they travel the migrant trail. In the transient social field of the transnational migration route, migrant narratives of the journey are ‘survival plays’ that re-imagine gender.     

Gender Role Violations and the Sexual Double Standard

ABSTRACT

The sexual double standard (SDS) suggests that women are evaluated negatively and men positively for engaging in similar sexual behaviors. According to social role theory, the SDS exists due to gender role structures. Consequently, perceived violations of women’s sexual behavior are associated with the SDS. In addition to gender role violations of sexual behavior, two additional violations of gender roles exist: heterosexual sexual orientation norms and gender role characteristics. The current study aims to investigate whether the SDS persists for sexual orientation–violating and gender role characteristic–violating targets, and to examine which of the three gender role violations influence evaluations of others’ sexual behavior. A U.S. sample of 483 participants evaluated target individuals who were either female or male, heterosexual/gay man or lesbian, feminine or masculine, and had 1 or 12 sexual partners. Results indicate that SDS persists for gender role–violating targets but is exhibited differently for targets violating heterosexual sexual orientation norms and gender role characteristics.     

Feminine Purity and Masculine Revenge-Seeking In Taken (2008)

The 2008 film Taken depicts the murderous rampage of an ex-CIA agent seeking to recover his teenage daughter from foreign sex traffickers. I argue that Taken articulates a demand for a white male protector to serve as both guardian and avenger of white women's “purity” against the purportedly violent and sexual impulses of third world men. A neocolonial narrative retold through film, Taken infers that the protection of white feminine purity legitimates both male conquest abroad and overbearing protection of young women at home. I contend that popular films such as Taken are a part of the broader cultural system of representing social reality that elicit popular adherence to common-sense myths of white masculinity, feminine purity, and Orientalism.