The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

78 Chapter 3

TAKE HOME POINTS

■ Traditional sexism is a blatant disregard for women,

whereas modern sexism is a more subtle indicator of

devaluing women, for example, by denying that women

have any disadvantages in society compared to men.

■ Hostile sexism reflects a negative feeling toward

women, whereas benevolent sexism reflects a positive

feeling toward women based on their sex.

■ Benevolent sexism is less likely to be regarded as sex-

ist because it focuses on positive beliefs about women

and results in prosocial behavior (i.e., men helping

women).

■ Hostile and benevolent sexism are positively correlated,

however, reflecting the fact that both are rooted in the

belief that women are less competent than men.

■ Women in countries that are more sexist are more

likely to endorse benevolent sexism toward women.

■ Sexism toward men is less well studied compared to

sexism toward women and is more accepted in some

sense. Women score higher than men on hostile sexism

and transphobia is associated with aggres-

sion proneness in men.

Negative attitudes toward transgender

people are higher than negative attitudes

toward gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals

(Kosciw et al., 2009). Thus, not surpris-

ingly, transgender people face high rates

of physical assault, sexual assault, and

harassment—and not only from strangers

but from people they know (Stotzer, 2009).

Male-to-female transgendered persons are

much more likely to be victims of crime

than female-to-male transgendered per-

sons. The psychological and physical abuse

received by transgendered persons is asso-

ciated with depression and suicide, the rela-

tion being stronger during adolescence and

young adulthood than later years (Nuttbrock

et al., 2010). Conduct Do Gender 3.2 to

examine transphobia and its correlates at

your school.

TABLE 3.3 TRANSPHOBIA SCALE

1. I don’t like it when someone is flirting
   with me, and I can’t tell if that person is a
   man or a woman.


2. I think there is something wrong with a
   person who says that he or she is neither a
   man nor a woman.


3. I would be upset if someone I’d known a
   long time revealed to me that he or she
   used to be another gender.


4. I avoid people on the street whose gender is
   unclear to me.


5. When I meet someone, it is important for
   me to be able to identify that person as a
   man or as a woman.


6. I believe that the male/female dichotomy
   is natural.


7. I am uncomfortable around people who
   don’t conform to traditional gender roles
   (e.g., aggressive women or emotional men).


8. I believe that a person can never change his
   or her gender.
   Source: Nagoshi et al. (2008).

DO GENDER 3.2

Transphobia among

College Students

Administer the Transphobia scale shown in

Table 3.3 to a group of female and male col-

lege students. Do males score higher than

females? Consider some of the correlates of

transphobia and examine those relations.

Some possibilities might be demographic

variables such as parent education and in-

come, or personality characteristics such

as the gender-related traits you studied

in Chapter 2, a measure of conservative/

liberal ideology, or a measure of cognitive

complexity.

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