An article in this morning’s Rocky sent me over to the Understanding Prejudice site, which includes a survey to determine your degree of sexism along two axes: hostile sexism (women are vile, deceptive bitches who seek to rule over men) and what they call benevolent sexism (women are lily-pure alabaster spirits that should be cherished and protected and sought after for moral and cultural guidance) — whore and madonna imagery, respectively.
I came out, in a scale of 0-5, as 2.00 on hostile sexism, and 2.18 on benevolent sexism. Oink. This makes me actually better than the world-wide results for both genders, but, in the US, only better than the average man (see standard disclaimers for self-selection and all that).
Still, it would seem that I have a ways to go before I am wholly unsexist. Maybe. The survey instrument itself has a few, to my mind, glaring problems that keep it from working the way I think it’s intended to:
- There are a couple of questions on whether the love of a woman is necessary for a man to be fully actualized. I think that love of (with, toward, from) another is part of that for most people, but I’m also aware that, in some cases, that love might be from/with/toward another man. So I expressed only moderate agreement.
- There were some statements along the lines of “men should cherish and protect women.” I think that’s true. I think women should cherish and protect men, too, but that wasn’t asked for.
- There were a lot of universal statements like “Women claim sexual discrimination when they lose in fair competition with a man.” Well, I don’t think most women act that way, but I think some women do. So if I disagree with the universality of the statement, but think it applies in some cases, should I utterly disagree (it’s not universal), or should I only somewhat disagree (it happens)?
As a result, I think I come up higher in both axes than is probably fair. I do acknowledge that there are some manipulative, scheming, and/or oversensitive women out there — but I think the same’s true for men. I think that love and intimacy and partnership with my wife has made me a better person than I was or was likely to be, and, with large caveats, am willing to generalize from that and other cases I’ve seen in my life.
And I’ll admit to a chivalric prejudice toward “women and children first,” so I guess that gives me a frisson of benevolent sexism, regardless. Though I hold the door open for anyone who needs it.
You be the judge.
Same out come’s with lower scores (1.05, 1.15). I guess you have to get exactly 0’s or something.
Well, to be a truly goodthinker, at least.
Hm. 1.73 and 2.09.
I had to wonder which sort of feminists they meant though. The current membership of NOW or that from when they were actually influential, say the ’70s? By the old standards, nearly all current women are feminists (equal pay for equal work, etc.) though few think of themselves as such.
Well, you see, Randy, that sort of attitude about feminism is what nets you a 1.73 …
Hostile Sexism Score: 1.18
Benevolent Sexism Score: 0.64
I must say that I disliked the questions, but I’d agree that I’m more likely to think women are manipulative than they are saints. Pregnant women, on the other hand–give them all the chivalry they’ll let you.