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By globalistgirl, on January 27th, 2008

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.

January 27th, 2008 | Tags: , , | Category: Feminism, Fragmegation, Global Culture | 345 comments

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