Benevolent Sexism

Foucault famously remarked that “the homosexual” became a species in the nineteenth century. Queerness ceased to be feature of particular sexual acts; participants were transformed into a class of person. In this sense, “the transgender person” is presently becoming a species. Like queerness, transness has been subject to expanding forms of discipline through speciation. I argue that “benevolent transphobia” comprises one such disciplinary force. This concept draws from Glick and Fiske’s theorization of benevolent sexism, which demonstrated that ostensibly positive attitudes and behaviors may reinforce gender inequalities. I argue that benevolent transphobia promotes a gender binary and restrictive understandings of gender variance, often under the guise of supporting transgender individuals and communities. To illustrate processes of speciation and benevolent transphobia, I provide a layered autoethnographic account drawing upon my personal archive of academic and other writings over 13 years of living as an openly transmasculine person who is consistently read as a female-assigned woman. Whereas I have long been challenged to defend my enactments of “masculinity” and “man,” I am now also routinely pressured to defend my enactments of “transgender.”

Across two studies, we examined the extent to which popular anime series contained sexist content and tested whether anime consumption and genre preference were associated with viewers' ambivalent sexism. In Study 1, we content-coded episodes from nine of the most popular anime series and found that women (vs. men) were underrepresented in anime and were more likely than expected to be sexualized (vs. men), curvaceous (vs. secondary characters), and provocative (vs. secondary characters), while men (vs. women) were more likely to use a weapon but were not typically portrayed as hypermasculine. In Study 2, we measured anime consumption, genre preference, and ambivalent sexism in a group of self-identified anime fans. Anime consumption was positively associated with both benevolent and hostile sexism. Preferences for the drama and hentai drama genres mediated the relationship between consumption and hostile sexism, while preferences for drama, slice of life, mecha, and action mediated the relationship between consumption and benevolent sexism. The results support the notion that anime contains sexist content and that consumption of this content is related to sexist beliefs. The findings also illustrate genre-specific differences, likely driven by genre-specific content, a finding that is consistent with other research on media exposure effects (e.g., violent media and aggression).

Mihrişah was the headwoman of Sultan Mustafa III (1757-1774) and the mother of Sultan Selim III (1789-1807) in the Ottoman State, and served as a valide sultan between 1789-1805. Mihrişah Valide Sultan became one of the people with the highest income after the sultan, thanks to the has she ran. He was introduced in the literature as "kind, benevolent and religious", and was generally discussed in the context of the foundation works he had commissioned or the charity he had done. In this study, the has income of the valide sultan and the places of spending them were examined in accordance with the archive documents. The socio-economic status of Mihrişah Valide Sultan has been tried to be revealed through the expenditures she made for herself, her employees, the dynasty, the poor and the state. However, it has been tested whether there is a personality as it is said in the literature. Thus, it was aimed to shed light on the lives of other valide sultans, especially Mihrişah Valide Sultan. The study covers the income expenses of Mihrişah Valide Sultan for about eight years (1213-1220/1798-1805). However, the 21 month expense records during this period could not be reached. As a result, it was understood that the valide sultan was elegant as well as being kind, benevolent and religious. In this context, it can be said that he uses a large part of his income for charity and spends the rest of his income for the place and clothing he lives in. During the period in question, he did not take any debt, although he made a loan. It is possible to say that he made great efforts for the continuation of the Ottoman dynasty and was a supporter of his son in every way. In addition, it can be claimed that he performed religious, customary and harem ceremonies within the framework of the rules of ceremony, similar to the sultan.

This paper describes how the use of Rasch Analysis (RA), compared with the Classical Test Theory (CTT) and other Item Response Theory (IRT) approaches, could enhance the study and interpretation of attitudinal scales. This is illustrated with data from 197 students from the University of Costa Rica who answered the Benevolent Sexism (BS) Scale (Glick & Fiske, 1996). Besides providing estimations of the measure’s specific accuracy at different levels of the construct, the RA, thanks to the person versus item map, allowed us to generate respondents’ profiles describing particular aspects of the construct and according to their estimated scores in the scale. The analysis indicated that construct categories for participants with scores between [-0.30, 0.5] in the logit scale are the most accurately represented, with more items covering this interval, and reflecting the three aspects of the scale described by the theory. On the other hand, results showed less measurement accuracy for a c...

The recent adoption of bathroom bills restricting trans* people’s access to public bathrooms of their choice in the United States has elicited a vigorous public debate invoking benevolent sexism, heteronormativity, and partisanship. This analysis includes 9,764 online comments posted on the 13 most-shared articles or blog posts about trans* bathroom accommodation from September 2015 to September 2016. The common themes in such discussions were arguments promoting benevolent sexism, including that women and girls need protection by men and from men, and that sex differences are natural. Results showed that support for trans* access to public bathrooms was most prevalent in discussions on left-leaning sites, while opposition was most prevalent in discussions on right-leaning sites. Most, but not all, benevolent-sexism themes were prevalent in comments on right-leaning sites. The results are discussed in the context of their theoretical implications for the literature of benevolent sexism and heteronormativity.

This study was designed with a purpose to map the existence of benevolent sexism in television commercials by using content analysis and focus group interview research methods. ‘An Ambivalent Alliance’ (Glick & Fiske, 2001) documented that benevolent and hostile sexism contributes to gender inequality and both the kinds though pernicious, are prevalent across cultures and are very often expressed and accepted, knowingly or unknowingly. The present research, for the purpose of mapping the traces of benevolent sexism, analysed the content of 10 most viewed television commercials of 2016 and interviewed a group of final year undergraduate media students. Some of the findings of the study suggest: i) existence of benevolent sexism in television commercials; ii) portrayal of females in conventional roles including dependent and caretaker indicates benevolent sexism; iii) viewers believe that commercials influence behaviour and therefore reinforce benevolent sexism. This paper, by exploring the nearly unexplored research problem, offers a new perspective to researchers working in the domains of media, culture, and gender studies.

This qualitative study explores how urban middle-class north Indian women from the states of Haryana and Delhi practise their reproductive agency within collective and patriarchal settings. Snowballing was used to recruit participants; 45 married urban middle-class women who have children were interviewed. Analysis was conducted using Pierre Bourdieu's concept of capital. Many studies take the view that Indian women's reproductive choices are controlled by their husbands and in-laws, suggesting that women are oppressed and without agency. However, this study indicates that women do receive support within their affinal families that influences their choices but does not necessarily indicate they are oppressed. These women, while practicing their agency, aim to achieve their interests through strategies of resistance and/or negotiation within the patriarchal settings of their affinal families. Their ability to both negotiate and resist suggests that agency is at once transformative and reproductive.

Grounded in the theory of ambivalent sexism, this study tested the speculation that women's benevolent sexist attitudes may be, in part, a self-protective response to environments they perceive as hostile to women. Data that have indirectly supported this conjecture thus far have been correlational. The current study involved a more powerful, experimental test of the hypothesis. Women (N = 105) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, which differed only in what participants were told about research findings on men's attitudes toward women (negative or positive attitudes, or no information). As predicted, benevolent sexist attitudes—but not hostile sexist attitudes—were strongest for women told that men hold negative attitudes toward women. This effect is consistent with a benevolent sexism-as-protest explanation and was statistically significant even while controlling for attitudes toward feminism. The differential effect of beliefs about men's attitudes on these two types of sexism lends further support to the idea that, although hostile and benevolent sexism are related, they may serve different functions.