The (Continuous) Nature of Perceived Gender Counter-Stereotype: A Threshold Model of Gender Stereotype Maintenance

What do men and women envy each other for?

Introduction

This study explores the phenomenon of envy directed towards the opposite sex. Envy is a complex emotion that can manifest in various forms, often reflecting societal and biological influences. Previous research suggests a potential imbalance in the domains where men and women experience envy.

Methods

The research was conducted in the Czech Republic using a demographically representative sample of 1,769 individuals (867 men and 902 women). Respondents were asked what they envied about the opposite sex, and qualitative analysis was performed on their answers. A total of 32 distinct categories of envy were identified.

Results

The analysis revealed significant differences between men and women in the nature of their envy. Women expressed envy towards men in domains linked to biological conditions and social advantages, such as salary, prestige, physical strength, and the absence of menstruation, childbirth, and menopause. Men, on the other hand, envied women for their physical attractiveness, ease of seduction, ability to perform traditionally female tasks, and motherhood. Some categories, such as safety and tolerance, were shared by both genders, but the underlying reasons differed. For instance, women envied men for not having to fear being alone, while men envied women for being protected by men.

Discussion

These findings confirm existing evidence of a gender imbalance in envy. The study also uncovered a novel form of envy, termed “ablative envy”, which refers to the desire for the absence of an unpleasant quality. This suggests that envy between the sexes is deeply rooted in both biological and social factors, offering new insights into gender dynamics.

The Effect of Face-Voice Gender Consistency on Impression Evaluation

Face and voice are important information cues of interpersonal interaction. Most previous studies have investigated the cross-modal perception of face and voice from the perspective of cognitive psychology, but few empirical studies have focused on the effect of gender consistency of face and voice on the impression evaluation of the target from the perspective of social cognition. Based on the two-stage model of stereotype activation and the stereotype content model, this research examined the effects of face-voice gender consistency on impression evaluation (gender categorization and warmth competence evaluation) by using a cross-modal priming paradigm (Study 1, 20 males and 23 females, M_age = 21.00, SD_age = 2.59), a sequential presentation task (Study 2a, 57 males and 70 females, M_age = 18.54, SD_age = 1.54; Study 2b, 52 males and 51 females, M_age = 18.54, SD_age = 1.36), and a simultaneous presentation task (Study 3, 51 males and 55 females, M_age = 23.58, SD_age = 3.20), respectively. The results showed that: (1) there was a face-voice gender consistency preference in gender categorization, and the response of face-voice consistent condition was faster than that of inconsistent condition; (2) compared with the face-voice gender-inconsistent individuals, the participants showed a higher and more stable evaluation of the warmth and competence of the gender-consistent individuals, indicating the effect of matching preference of the face-voice gender consistency on the impression evaluation; (3) people paid more attention to the gender information of faces in the impression evaluation, and the female face could improve people's evaluation on the target's warmth and competence; (4) males were more intolerant of face-voice gender inconsistency when presented sequentially; the "voice needs to match face" effect was stronger for females when presented simultaneously. These findings, on the one hand, enrich and expand previous theories and research on cross-modal processing of face and voice from the perspective of social cognitive impression evaluation; on the other hand, these findings have important practical implications for impression management and decision-making in social interaction.

The Relationship Between Gender Self-Stereotyping and Life Satisfaction: The Mediation Role of Relational Self-Esteem and Personal Self-Esteem

Individuals voluntarily internalize gender stereotypes and present personality characteristics and behaviors that conform to gender role requirements. The aim of the current study was to explore the reasons people internalize gender stereotypes. We conducted surveys with 317 college students in China to examine the relationship between gender self-stereotyping and life satisfaction. We also analyzed the mediating roles of relational self-esteem (RSE) and personal self-esteem (PSE) and the moderation role of gender. The results of path analysis showed that gender self-stereotyping directly affected life satisfaction and indirectly affected life satisfaction through RSE and PSE in a serial pattern; however, the serial mediation model was only significant in the male sample. Higher gender self-stereotyping was associated with male participants’ higher level of RSE and PSE and further correlated with higher life satisfaction. This study addressed the questions: “What are the benefits of gender self-stereotyping?” and “What are the major barriers to counter-stereotyping?” The results enrich our understanding of these issues, especially relative to the collectivist culture in China, and may be used to create more effective interventions to help people break through the stereotypes.

Repressive Moralism: World Making and Petty Fascism in Transgender Politics

The past decade has seen a shift in the way that minorities exert their influence in society. Where in previous decades the emphasis was on winning the hearts and minds of the population at large, a recent strategy has been to ignore general public discourse and only to target specific influential bodies. In this paper we use the example of transgender issues to analyse the socio-psychological dimensions of this approach. We show how some groups promoting these issues eschew a wider social discourse and debate in the mass media, and how their strategy rests on a self-construction as victims of the hetero-normative society, with a concomitant appeal to moral rather than factual argumentation. This is combined with a programme of aggressive challenge to opponents through social media, and sometimes direct action, which effectively closes discussion on the topic. We conclude that these methods have much in common with the oppressive politics of fascist rule.

Culture influences the development of children's gender-related peer preferences: Evidence from China and Thailand

Current understanding of how culture relates to the development of children's gender-related peer preferences is limited. To investigate the role of societal acceptance of gender nonconformity, this study compared children from China and Thailand. Unlike China and other cultures where the conceptualization of gender as binary is broadly accepted, individuals who identify as a nonbinary "third" sex/gender have been highly visible and tolerated in Thai society for at least several decades. Chinese and Thai 4- to 9-year-olds (N = 458) viewed vignettes of four hypothetical peers who varied on gender (i.e., boy vs. girl) and gender-typed toy play behavior (i.e., masculine vs. feminine), and were asked to give a friendship preference rating for each peer. Chinese, compared with Thai, children evidenced gender-related peer preferences that emerged earlier, remained more stable across age groups, and were relatively more biased against gender-nonconforming behavior. The only cultural similarity was in children's preference for peers who were of the same gender and/or displayed same-gender-typed behavior. Thus, while preference for peers who are of the same gender and/or display same-gender-typed behavior is common among children across cultures, the developmental onset and course of these preferences vary by culture. Moreover, societal acceptance of gender nonconformity might be key to limiting children's bias against gender-nonconforming peers.