September 19, 2018
THERE'S A REASON WE HOLD MR. KAVANAUGH COMPLETELY RESPONSIBLE...:
Why women - including feminists - are still attracted to 'benevolently sexist' men (Pelin Gül & Tom R. Kupfer, 9/19/18, The Conversation)
If a man offers to help a woman with her heavy suitcase or to parallel park her car, what should she make of the offer?Is it an innocuous act of courtesy? Or is it a sexist insult to her strength and competence?Social psychologists who describe this behavior as "benevolent sexism" firmly favor the latter view.But researchers have also revealed a paradox: Women prefer men who behave in ways that could be described as benevolently sexist over those who don't.How could this be?Some say that women simply fail to see the ways benevolent sexism undermines them because they're misled by the flattering tone of this brand of kindness. Psychologists have even suggested that benevolent sexism is more harmful than overtly hostile sexism because it is insidious, acting like "a wolf in sheep's clothing."As social psychologists, we had reservations about these conclusions. Aren't women sophisticated enough to be able to tell when a man is being patronizing? [...]In our recently published research, we asked over 700 women, ages ranging from 18 to 73, in five experiments, to read profiles of men who either expressed attitudes or engaged in behaviors that could be described as benevolently sexist, like giving a coat or offering to help with carrying heavy boxes.We then had the participants rate the man's attractiveness, willingness to protect, provide and commit, and their likelihood of being patronizing.Our findings confirmed that women do perceive benevolently sexist men to be more patronizing and more likely to undermine their partners.But we also found that the women in our studies perceived these men as more attractive, despite the potential pitfalls.So what made them more attractive to our participants? In their responses, the women in our study rated them as more likely to protect, provide and commit.
...and not Ms Ford not at all. Men have a higher standard of care.
MORE:
Many men are sexually harassed in the workplace - so why aren't they speaking out? (Robin Bailey, 3/13/18, The Conversation)
Academic research supports the idea that women do experience more sexual harassment in the workplace than men. However, emerging evidence suggests that sexual harassment against men in the workplace also exists and is on the rise.When all reported complaints of sexual harassment to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Fair Employment Practices agencies was analysed between 1997 and 2011, most of the cases were reported by women, however, the percentage of cases filed by men between these dates increased by 15%.In a similar long-term study of 522 workers, up to 58% of women and 37% of men reported experiencing some level of sexual harassment. This sample seems to indicate that the gap is not as wide as some believe.Overall, sexual harassment against men is not as widely studied as sexual harassment against women; this has called into question whether the reported figures of men who have been sexually harassed may actually be much higher than currently stated. On top of this, men may be more reluctant to report sexual harassment than women. There are a number of suggested reasons for this - stigma being one of them. Many men may be too embarrassed to report sexual harassment, or they may consider it to be "unmanly" to report such behaviour.Another reason may be perceptual differences. What is deemed to be sexual harassment may differ between men and women. A number of findings indicate that men can view certain behaviour, deemed as sexual harassment by women, as less threatening or serious - and sometimes even flattering.
Posted by Orrin Judd at September 19, 2018 8:09 AM