Globalization, sexism and uncertainty
Recently, I came across an article entitled Loving Those Who Justify Inequality: The Effects of System Threat on Attraction to Women Who Embody Benevolent Sexist Ideals. It found that when men felt like their country was being criticized by a foreigner, they were more attracted to women who clearly had incorporated belevolent sexism than to women who had not. (Benevolent sexism is the class of ideas that women are ‘‘pure creatures who ought to be protected, supported, and adored and whose love is necessary to make a man complete’’; Glick & Fiske, 2001, p. 109; in Lau, G.P., Kay, A.C., & Spencer, S. J. (2008) ) Glick & Fiske also found that benevolent sexism is positively correlated with both high levels of gender inequality and with malevolent sexism, interestingly but not surprisingly. Anyway, they had Canadian men read one of two possible articles. One was supposedly written by a Brit who was arguing that Canada was in a sorry state and the other was apolitical. After reading the article, the men were asked to rate their attraction to some women. In their descriptions it was made clear that some had internalized benevolent sexism and some not. There was a positive correlation between having their country insulted and being attracted to women who affirmed the system of that country. That’s rather interesting, especially in light of recent theorizing on the connection of being threatened and retreating into extreme conservatism.
Anthony Giddens touches on this in his book Runaway World. In the chapter on the family, he says
The family is a site for the struggle between tradition and modernity, but also a metaphor for them. There is perhaps more nostalgia surrounding the lost haven of the family than for any institution with its roots in the past. Politicians and activists routinely diagnose the breakdown of family life and call for a return to the traditional family.
(Giddens, 2003, p.53)
Giddens also observes that the inequality of men and women is intrinsic to the traditional families, and that equality of the sexes and especially sexual freedom of women is anathema to fundamentalist groups. Giddens also notes that fundamentalism is a new phenomenon, arising as a fearful response to modernity and globalization. Giddens defines fundamentalism as “(…) beleaguered tradition. It is tradition defended in the traditional way – by deference to ritual truth – in a globalizing world asking for reasons.” (Giddens, 2003, p. 59)
I think Lau et al’s findings tie in nicely with the idea of people rejecting reason because of anxiety over change, in this case globalization exemplified by foreigners having negative opinions of your country. You would have to be incredibly irrational and unjust to consicously believe that men are better than women and that old gender roles are good, but both men and women can temporarily use such irrationality when they feel like they’re losing their identity to globalization. I think you can see the same phenomenon in many debates around the world about women, the family and identity.
References
Giddens, Anthony. Runaway World. Routledge, New York, NY, 2003.
Glick, P., & Fiske, S.T. (2001). An ambivalent alliance: Hostile and benevolent sexism as complementary justifications for gender inequality. American Psychologist, 56, 109–118.
Lau, G.P., Kay, A.C., & Spencer, S. J. (2008) Loving Those Who Justify Inequality: The Effects of System Threat on Attraction to Women Who Embody Benevolent Sexist Ideals. Psychological Science, 19, 20-21.
There was a positive correlation between having their country insulted and being attracted to women who affirmed the system of that country.
Is this a statement about sexism or about human nature? It seems natural that a man (or woman, but it was a man in the study) would be defensive after an attack on something that that he takes as part of his identity. For most people this would include their home countries. If instead of asking the subject about his attraction to women, one asked him about his taste in food or preference in architectural styles, I imagine one would find the same correlation. I’m unsure how this is supposed to relate to benevolent sexism. Are you suggesting that increased multiculturalism causes some people to feel threatened, and so those people cling to ideas that are traditional in their countries, and those traditional ideas often include some form of benevolent sexism?
“Are you suggesting that increased multiculturalism causes some people to feel threatened, and so those people cling to ideas that are traditional in their countries, and those traditional ideas often include some form of benevolent sexism?”
Yes, I am.
Relating to your point about the link between system identity and benevolent sexism, I think previous research has found that it’s a common and/or effective way to bolster system identity, and I’m taking their word for it, basically. Here’s the into paragraph of the paper.
“People are often faced with threats to the legitimacy of their sociopolitical system. According to system-justification theory, when faced with such threats, people are motivated to restore their faith in the status quo by engaging in psychological processes that bolster its apparent legitimacy (Jost, Banaji, & Nosek, 2004). How might such processes of system justification manifest themselves in everyday interpersonal functioning?
One way that system justification is revealed in social psychological functioning has been well-documented—through the endorsement and cognitive activation of stereotypes whose specific content justifies social inequality (e.g., Kay et al., 2007). Stereotypes of men and women, in particular, can serve as psychological tools that justify and maintain social inequality.
For example, Jackman (1994) has suggested that ascribing favorable and flattering, but clearly stereotypical, traits to women reduces resistance to gender-based role divisions (also
see Hoffman & Hurst, 1990) by subtly implying that women are well suited to the roles they have traditionally occupied, and that
stereotypically feminine traits are valued by society (also see Jost & Kay, 2005).
Elaborating on this idea, Glick and Fiske (1996) developed a measure of such stereotypes and demonstrated, across 19 countries, that the tendency to engage in this form of ‘‘benevolent
sexism’’ (i.e., viewing women as ‘‘pure creatures who ought to be protected, supported, and adored and whose love is necessary to make a man complete’’; Glick & Fiske, 2001, p. 109)
was (a) highest in countries with the greatest level of gender inequality, but was also (b) positively correlated with explicitly negative, hostile views of women (Glick et al., 2000). It has also been demonstrated that exposure to benevolent sexist stereotypes leads to strengthened beliefs in the fairness of the status
quo (Jost & Kay, 2005).
Does the psychological link between benevolent stereotyping and system justification influence how women are treated and judged? We argue that it does, and specifically that when people
experience a threat to the legitimacy of the social system, one factor that affects their attraction to a potential romantic partner
is whether that partner embodies system-justifying stereotypes, such as those that align with benevolent sexist ideals.
We hypothesized that male participants whose faith in the federal system was threatened would show greater romantic interest in women who embody benevolent sexist ideals than in
women who do not embody these ideals. We also hypothesized that they would show greater interest in women who embody benevolent sexist ideals than would male participants whose
faith in the system was not threatened.”
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