Feminist ≠ Feminine? Feminist Women Are Visually Masculinized Whereas Feminist Men Are Feminized

AbstractMany people hold negative stereotypes about feminists. Verbally, feminist women are often described in masculine terms whereas feminist men tend to be described in feminine terms. Here, we demonstrate that these effects extend to a fundamental perceptual level, more specifically, to the domain of face perception even in Norway, the most gender-egalitarian country of the world. Four studies were conducted using a data-driven reverse-correlation technique to test how feminist women and men are visually represented. In Studies 1 (n = 123) and 2 (n = 61), Norwegians had more masculine-looking and less feminine-looking visual representations of feminist women as compared to women with moderate gender-related beliefs or other activist identities (i.e., the control conditions). These effects, which were particularly pronounced among male par ticipants and those with stronger hostile sexist beliefs, further explained why feminist women were perceived as threatening. In Studies 3 (n = 131) and 4 (n = 74), participants had a less masculine-looking visual representation of feminist men as compared to the control condition. This effect was especially pronounced among female participants. In addition, effects were again moderated by hostile sexism, such that participants with stronger hostile sexist beliefs visualized the feminist man as less masculine than the man in the control condition. In sum, the results suggest that people have asymmetrically gendered visual...
Source: Sex Roles - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research