Low-Key Misogyny Sexism

Misogyny can often be hard to detect. Benevolent Sexism, a more curbed form of misogyny, views women as a wonderful species, but a weak species. According to benevolent sexists, women need to be protected by men due to fragility. Huang, Davies, Sibley, & Osborne (2016) state that Benevolent Sexism even affects role such as motherhood, as a woman’s “highest calling” is often considered to be motherhood and that this role “completes” her as a woman. Due to the confining restraints of Benevolent Sexism, women are restricted to mere conventional roles.

Though these may seem like a common and tolerable perception of women, these beliefs are misogynistic nonetheless. Benevolent Sexism is harder to detect rather than the malice of hostile sexism, as Benevolent Sexism uses a superficially positive tone to disguise its ill intent. The commonality in Benevolent Sexism urges for answers concerning the underlying roots of misogyny. Both a Benevolent Sexism and Hostile Sexism scale will be used in this study.

Although misogyny has a detrimental impact on women, the underlying causes of misogyny are not clearly established. The possible attributes that contribute to misogynistic attitude and behavior have not been thoroughly researched. Studies instead focus on how to change existing sexist attitudes instead of identifying the preliminary causes of misogyny. Social interventions and suppressing sexist humor are recommendations by researchers on how to deter misogyny, but little research has been conducted that suggests how to stop the provenance of misogyny. To better understand the reasons for misogynistic attitudes, several surveys will be given to participants through undergraduate psychology courses.

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The purpose of the present research is to identify a pattern of responses on a number of personality and attitude dimensions that will allow us to define misogyny empirically.

Participants’ responses to views on spirituality, Big Five personality traits, political orientation, Moral Foundations Theory, traditionalism, Benevolent and Hostile Sexism will be studied. These constructs may possibly identify causes of misogynistic attitude. The general objective of the present research is to examine the different characteristics that may contribute to misogyny, and if there are any possibly underlying causes of it. The variables specifically studied will be spirituality, Big Five personality traits of compassion, agreeableness, and altruism, and the Moral Foundations Theory. Spirituality and degree of spirituality can directly relate to how women are perceived and the treatment of women. Many religions dictate that women should be considered secondary to men. Religion’s influence can directly create misogynistic attitudes. Some research has indicated that Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religiosity are positively related to benevolent sexism. The degree of spirituality is expected to be correlated with misogyny.

Similar to spirituality, the morals tied to political ideologies can also possibly be related to misogyny. Political affiliation has a strong connection to beliefs and perceptions of morality. Therefore, it is expected that political affiliation will be correlated with misogyny. Similarly, Big Five personality traits may also dictate misogynistic beliefs. Altruism, Compassion, and Agreeableness are the specific Big Five personality traits that will be assessed. By definition, Altruism, Compassion, and Agreeableness strongly reflect personal beliefs on how other people should be treated. If there is a low score on the compassion scale, it can be expected that the participant does not believe people should be highly respected, which in turn could result in a higher susceptibility to misogyny. Research by Akrami, Ekehammar, & Yang-Wallentin (2011) has indicated that sexism, as a form of prejudice, can originate from a combination of personality and social psychology variables. This result suggests that personality traits influencing sexism should be further researched. Benevolent and hostile sexism also will be assessed.

These scales will most directly relate to degree of misogyny, as they give an explicit look into intensity of sexism. The terms Benevolent Sexism and hostile sexism were coined by Glick and Fiske in 1996, who introduced the Ambivalent Sexism Theory. As stated previously, Benevolent Sexism is a more controlled form of sexism that views women as complementary companions to men, stating that they women are pure creatures that must be protected by men. They divided Benevolent Sexism into three subcategories: protective paternalism (the desire to protect and cherish women), heterosexual intimacy (intense desires for women), and complementary gender differentiation (the differences between men and women). Benevolent Sexism is favored over hostile sexism, as it is seen as chivalrous rather than misogynistic. Contrarily, Hostile Sexism is the perception that women seek control over men through feminist ideology and/or sexuality.

They also divided Hostile Sexism into three subcategories: dominative paternalism (desire to dominate women), hostile heterosexuality (backlash towards women), and competitive gender differentiation (favoring men over women in terms of differences). The Benevolent Sexism and Hostile Sexism surveys should clearly suggest variables and attitudes that influence misogyny. Finally, the Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), which proposes that several innate and universally available psychological systems are the foundations of “intuitive ethics” obviously gives an indication of how other people should be treated. In a study by Vecina & Piñuela (2017), benevolent and hostile sexism were positively correlated with moral foundations. Due to the sample population of their study (domestic violence convicts), they suggested that further research should be conducted using a more diverse population. Their findings indicate that misogyny is deep rooted in moral foundations. Specifically, the respective dimensions of MFT will be assessed: Care/Harm, Fairness, Ingroup, Authority, And Purity.

The Care/Harm dimension assesses the degree to which someone cherishes or protects others. The Fairness dimension assesses beliefs on justice. The Ingroup dimension assesses the feeling of belonging within a group, family, or nation. The Authority dimension assesses the degree to which someone submits to tradition and legitimate authority. The Purity dimension assesses the degree to which someone detests physical or spiritual contamination Misogyny is a familiar concept in the workplace, politics, classroom, and even home. The prevalence of misogyny is still at an alarming level despite the modernity of today’s culture. The primary purpose of this study is to determine a relationship between misogyny and spirituality, Big Five personality traits, Moral Foundations Theory, traditionalism, and Benevolent and Hostile Sexism. Several