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PubMed1978

Masculinity and femininity as factors in feminism.

The relationship between feminism and sex roles was explored in two studies. In female college students, sex-role types were measured by Baucom's (1976) MSC and FMN scales and by Bem's Sex-Role Inventory (Bem, 1974). Feminism was measured by the Attitude Toward Women Scale (AWS, Short Form) (Spence & Helmreich, 1972) and the Women's Liberation Scale (WLS) (Goldberg, 1976). Two groups of women were predicted to be more profeminist than others. (a) those scoring high on both masculinity and femininity and (b) those scoring high on masculinity and low on femininity. Results of the study supported both hypotheses using the AWS but not the WLS. In the second study, MSC and FMN served as the basis for forming sex-role types, and feminism was measured by participation in NOW. Again, a large number of women high on masculinity and low on femininity were feminists: however, women high on both masculinity and femininity were underrepresented in NOW. Different results in the two studies are discussed in terms of the different ways that feminism was measured.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

Constructions of femininity and experiences of menstrual distress.

The purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between constructions of feminine gender identity and experiences of menstrual distress. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to assess the relationship between femininity and PMS. Statistically significant correlations were found between T-scores for femininity on the Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1978) and total distress scores on the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (Moos, 1991). Analysis of the qualitative data suggests that women engage in intense premenstrual bodily surveillance, and the data support Ussher, Hunter, and Browne's (2000) findings that the 'PMS self' becomes lived as an identity position in contrast to a 'real' or 'non-PMS sell.' The authors conclude that our biopsychiatric discourse about PMS functions to legitimize traditional constructions of femininity and that future research should conceptualize menstrual distress as both lived experience and social construction.

Adult↗

PubMed1982

The femininity and masculinity of partners in heterosexual and homosexual relationships.

This research addressed three questions: (1) Did partners in homosexual relationships perceive themselves as less stereotypically feminine or masculine than partners in heterosexual relationships? (2) Did partners complement or match each other in their self-perceived femininity and masculinity? (3) What was the correlation of partners' femininity and masculinity to their views on attachment and autonomy in their relationships? The high level of androgyny (87%) in the sample precluded making the intended comparisons. There was, however, some evidence in the heterosexual partners to support the assumption of feminine-masculine complementarity and some to support the link between masculinity and devaluation of attachment. In the discussion, questions were raised about the atypicality of the San Francisco Bay Area sample, about the validity and reliability of the Personal Attributes Questionnaire as a measure of social sex-role, and the basic adequacy of questionnaires that assume that self-knowledge is easily elicited from respondents.

Adult↗

PubMed1977

The old man as woman: detecting stereotypes of aged men with a femininity scale.

Male and female college students (N = 244), divided into seven experimental groups, rated women in general and men age 65 significantly higher in femininity than men at four younger ages and men in general. Ratings were made on the Broverman, et al. (1970) masculine-feminine (MF) scale. It appears that both women in general and aged men are viewed through the same "femininity" stereotype, which is largely a perception of psychological timidity. Relatively high femininity ratings for men age 55 indicate that these characteristics are believed to increase in men as a function of the aging process. Results also suggest that the students' MF ratings of "men in general" are based primarily on their perceptions of young men.

Adult↗

PubMed1978

Effects of subliminal stimulation on masculinity-femininity ratings of a male model.

The effects of subliminal stimulation on masculinity-femininity ratings of a male model were tested for 100 male undergraduates, randomly divided into four groups and individually shown a slide of a male model. One group received no further stimulation. A second group received a subliminal flash of white light across the image of the model; a third group was presented with the subliminal message "masculine," while a fourth group was presented with the subliminal message "feminine." Subjects were asked to rate the model on a six-point scale of masculinity-femininity. The differences in ratings among groups were not significant, indicating that subliminal stimulation did not influence masculinity-femininity value-norm-anchor judgments. There were no significant differences in the reported perception of additional stimuli or the tendency to be relaxed among the four groups. However, subjects who received the "masculine" message and reported that they were more relaxed did tend to rate the model higher in masculinity.

Gender Identity↗

PubMed1989

Relationship of maternal report of feminine behaviors and extraversion to clinician's rating of gender disturbance.

50 boys, aged 3 to 16 yr., referred for psychotherapy for a gender-identity disorder were assessed by two parent-report instruments completed by their mothers--The Gender Behavior Inventory for Boys for preadolescent subjects and a modified form of the Parents' Evaluation of Child Behavior. Without access to these data, an independent clinical psychologist provided a diagnosis of the severity of a gender disturbance on a 5-point rating scale, based on clinical interviews and a psychological test battery. The gender-disturbed boys scored significantly above the mean of the standardized normal boys on the Gender Behavior Inventory for Boys Feminine Behavior subscale and significantly below the mean on the Extraversion subscale of the Gender Behavior Inventory. The ratings of severity of gender disturbance were significantly correlated .34 with Feminine Behavior subscale scores and -.50 with the Extraversion subscale scores. On the Parents' Evaluation the number of observed feminine behaviors listed was significantly correlated .57 with rated severity of gender disturbance but not with the Feminine Behavior subscale scores on the Gender Behavior Inventory.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Femininity as a barrier to positive sexual health for adolescent girls.

OBJECTIVES: To introduce a new model of female adolescent sexual health based on feminist principles and to investigate the extent to which adolescent girl's beliefs about femininity are associated with three specific elements of their sexual health. METHODS: 148 eighth-grade adolescent girls completed a survey with questions about sexual self-concept, sexual agency, attitudes toward romance conventions, femininity ideology, and demographic background. Correlational and regression analyses were conducted. An illustrative case study is drawn from a subsample of 46 girls interviewed in depth about gender and relationships. RESULTS: A statistically significant association was found between early adolescent girls' espousal of more conventional beliefs about femininity and diminished positive sexual health. To illustrate the ways in which a girl's femininity ideology interplays with her sexual health, selections from an interview with a 13-year-old Latina girl are presented as a case illustration.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Masculinity and femininity in nursing.

The concept of the "ideal nurse" was rated by 186 undergraduate and graduate nursing students on the 24-item Personal Attributes Questionnaire. PAQ contains independent subscales that measure masculinity and femininity as well as a bipolar subscale in which masculinity and femininity represent opposite endpoints on a single continuum. The ideal nurse was rated as being highly masculine, highly feminine, and midway between masculine and feminine endpoints on the bipolar subscale. Compared to undergraduate females, graduate and male nursing students rated the ideal nurse as being more masculine. Implications of these findings in the field of nursing are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1979

Negative and positive components of psychological masculinity and femininity and their relationships to self-reports of neurotic and acting out behaviors.

Negatively valued masculinity (M-) and femininity (F-) personality scales were developed to supplement the positively valued Masculinity (M+) and Femininity (F+) scales of the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ; Spence & Helmreich). M- consisted of traits that had been judged to be (a) more typical of males than females, (b) undesirable in both sexes, and (c ) agentic or instrumental in content. Two F- scales were developed, both containing stereotypically feminine, undesirable traits, one set of traits referring to communionlike characteristics (Fc-) and the other to verbal passive-aggressive qualities (FVA-). Significant sex differences in the predicted direction were found on all scales. In both sexes, low and typically nonsignificant correlations were found between parallel positive and negative scales, but highly significant negative correlations were found between positive and negative cross-sex scales. These findings provide additional evidence for the multidimentionslity of masculinity and femininity. Scores on a self-esteem measure were positively correlated with M+ and F+, uncorrelated with M-, and negatively correlated with the F- scales. Different patterns of scores were associated with two types of problem behaviors. In both sexes, neuroticism was most highly correlated (in a negative direction) with M+, and acting out behavoir was most strongly correlated (in a positive direction) with M-. The next highest correlation in both instances was with FVA-.

Acting Out↗

PubMed1996

Freud and the repudiation of the feminine.

This paper begins with a discussion of Freud's central ideas on the feminine in his landmark paper, Female Sexuality (1931), written within months after his mother's death. It then traces the evolution of these ideas from the perspective of his own history from childhood to old age. Using some of his letters and clinical papers as reference, one sees that his experience of the feminine in himself, and especially his repudiation of the female components of his own identity, contributed to his belief that such repudiation of the feminine in males was a universal, biologically rooted phenomenon. His personal evolution, enriched by self-analytical insights, is reflected in changes in the nature of his understanding of, and in his ability to accept, his women patients' representations of him as feminine and maternal.

Austria↗

PubMed1977

Further factor-analytic investigation of the Thorne femininity study.

The responses of 512 undergraduate women to 198 items of the Thorne Femininity Study were factor analyzed in order to isolate the dimensions of femininity represented among the items of this instrument. The procedure used isolated 11 orthogonal factors that accounted for 21.1% of the total variance. Three additional samples of women were tested (total N=222) and compared to the college age samples on the 11 factors. The various samples differed in many systematic and statistically significant ways. Suggestions were made as to the possibility of developing new items to measure some aspects of femininity not represented completely among the items analyzed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Sexual orientation and eating psychopathology: the role of masculinity and femininity.

OBJECTIVE: Previous research suggests that eating disorders are related to homosexuality in men, although links with female sexual orientation are less clear. Appearance factors have generally been implicated in this relationship. However, previous studies have failed to consider the role of femininity, even though evidence suggests that this is a more critical factor than sexual preference. The aim of this study was to consider the relationship between gender-role orientation and eating psychopathology in nonclinical men and women of different sexual orientations. METHOD: One hundred university students (40 homosexual; 60 heterosexual) completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory and the Eating Attitudes Test. RESULTS: For the group as a whole, there were links between femininity and high levels of eating psychopathology, whereas masculinity was associated with relatively healthy eating-related attitudes and behaviors. When considering the role of sexual orientation, these links were specific to homosexual men and women. CONCLUSIONS: In relation to homosexual men and women, the results support a model where femininity might be seen as a specific risk factor for eating disorders, whereas masculinity is likely to be a protective factor. Methodological and conceptual implications are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Fraternal birth order and birth weight in probably prehomosexual feminine boys.

The purpose of this study was to confirm a previous finding that homosexual males with older brothers weigh less at birth than do heterosexual males with older brothers. The subjects comprised 250 feminine boys referred to a child psychiatry service because of extreme cross-gender wishes or behavior and assumed, on the basis of previous research, to be prehomosexual, plus 739 control boys and 261 control girls referred to the same service for reasons unrelated to sexual orientation or gender identity disorder and assumed, from base-rate probabilities, to be preheterosexual. The feminine boys with two or more older brothers weighed 385 g less at birth than did the control boys with two or more older brothers (P = 0.005). In contrast, the feminine and control boys with fewer than two older brothers did not differ in birth weight. This finding suggests that the mechanism by which older brothers increase the odds of homosexuality in later-born males operates prior to the individual's birth. We hypothesize that this mechanism may be immunologic, that antimale antibodies produced by human mothers in response to immunization by male fetuses could decrease the birth weight of subsequent male fetuses as well as increase their odds of homosexuality.

Antibodies↗

PubMed1993

Studies in feminine psychology 6: Kundry.

The problem of feminine rage, feminine psychology, and feminine self-destruction must be understood as multiply determined and not merely an appropriate manifestation of social inequality in a male-dominated culture. This is illustrated by a study of pathological and borderline women, in the present paper represented by Wagner's creation from Parsifal, Kundry. Kundry suffers from pathological splitting, in which she oscillates from mature nurturing service to hatred, seduction, and destruction of men. What is most emphasized is her misery and guilt, which is a consequence of her reality testing being sufficiently intact for her to be aware of this splitting and its consequences for her. She receives no understanding from the men around her; even the hero or "pure fool" Parsifal at first attempts to strangle her like an animal. But Wagner's intuition emphasizes her conflict and guilt rather than the splitting and deficits, making her redemption possible. This approach to borderline psychopathology has a more hopeful prognosis, given the presence of a dedicated, determined, and competent psychoanalytic psychotherapist.

Borderline Personality Disorder↗

PubMed1985

Preadult feminine behaviors of male transvestites.

Feminine behaviors during the childhood and adolescence of volunteer male transvestites who had shown a period of fetishism were investigated. The transvestites were categorized into two groups. Twenty who were satisfied with cross-dressing were termed nuclear transvestites, and 14 who desired at least a partial feminization were termed marginal transvestites. It was found that during their preadult years marginal transvestites showed significantly more feminine behaviors than nuclear transvestites, and both transvestite groups reported significantly more feminine behaviors than "normal" controls.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

To be seen and not heard: femininity ideology and adolescent girls' sexual health.

This study used a feminist developmental framework to test the hypothesis that internalizing conventional ideas about femininity in two domains--inauthenticity in relationships and body objectification--is associated with diminished sexual health among adolescent girls. In this study, sexual health was conceptualized as feelings of sexual self-efficacy (i.e., a girl's conviction that she can act upon her own sexual needs in a relationship) and protection behavior (i.e., from both STIs and unwanted pregnancy). A total of 116 girls (aged 16-19) completed measures of femininity ideology, sexual self-efficacy, sexual experiences, and protection behavior. Results revealed that inauthenticity in relationships and body objectification were associated with poorer sexual self-efficacy and sexual self-efficacy, in turn, predicted less sexual experience and less use of protection. Further, the two components of femininity ideology were associated with different forms of protection. The importance of a feminist developmental framework for identifying and understanding salient dimensions of sexual health for female adolescents is discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1982

Development of feminine sexual behavior in the rat: androgenic and temporal influences.

The contributions of prenatal and postnatal androgen exposure upon the development of sexual behavior in rats were examined by prenatal treatment of pups with an androgen antagonist (flutamide) and postnatal androgenization or castration. Male and female rats were exposed to the androgen receptor-blocker flutamide (FLU) in utero via prenatal injections to the mother on Days 10 through 22 of gestation. At birth (Day 1) males were castrated. Both males and females were injected with either 100 micrograms testosterone propionate (TP) or oil on Day 1. In adulthood all gonadectomized animals were tested for the display of feminine sexual behavior (lordosis) in response to a range of estrogen dosages. Prenatal exposure to FLU enhanced lordosis in both sexes when compared to vehicle-treated controls. Postnatal TP treatment decreased lordotic potential as expected. However, in animals given TP postnatally, those receiving prenatal flutamide had higher lordosis quotients than animals receiving vehicle treatment. These data confirm (1) that the development of feminine sexual behavior is inhibited by androgen exposure, (2) that such exposure occurs prenatally, (3) that the potential for feminine behavioral differentiation occurs prenatally as well as postnatally, and (4) that androgen acts perinatally to affect estrogen sensitivity in adulthood.

Aging↗

PubMed1984

Olfactory cues from the female can affect feminine behavior in the male rat.

The aim of this work was to study the influence of the hormonal milieu on the facilitory effects of olfactory stimuli originating from female urine on lordosis behavior in orchidectomized (ORCH) feminized rats. Urine from ovariectomized (OVX) rats was shown to increase the proportion of ORCH rats displaying lordosis behavior, an effect which was enhanced if the OVX rats had been given progesterone. Treatment of OVX rats with estradiol benzoate did not affect the pheromonal activity of their urine. Dexamethasone treatment of OVX rats completely suppressed the facilitory effects of their urine on the feminine behavior in males. A higher proportion of feminized rats displayed lordosis following exposure to urine collected from pseudopregnant rats than did their unexposed counterparts. Dexamethasone treatment of pseudopregnant rats did not abolish this effect. These results suggest that the adrenal cortex is capable, in the absence of the ovaries, of manufacturing some pheromonal substance which stimulates feminine behavior in the male rat. The nature of this substance remains unknown. Furthermore progesterone itself is involved in the emission of olfactory signals which control feminine behavior in the male rat.

Androstenedione↗