College Men’s Concerns About Sharing Dormitory Space with a Male-to-Female Transsexual

Abstract

We examined male college students’ attitudes toward sharing dormitory space with a male-to-female (MTF) transsexual. Participants read three scenarios, in a sequence of either increasing or decreasing contact with the transsexual, in which they imagined sharing dormitory space with a MTF transsexual as a roommate, in the bathroom, and at a residence hall meeting, after each of which they answered open-ended questions about how they would feel or act, or what they would do if they were a resident advisor, in the imagined scenarios. Participants then rated statements measuring their attitudes toward transsexuals and toward masculine norms. Whether they imagined increased or decreased contact, participants expressed comparable transphobia, and made numerous negative and neutral statements and fewer positive statements about how they would feel or act. However, many students made positive statements about how they would act toward the transsexual, particularly in the roommate situation. Adherence to masculine norms and transphobia were so highly positively correlated that they apparently measured a common attitude, but regression analyses indicated that transphobia mediated the association between adherence to masculine norms and frequencies of positive, negative and neutral responses to the open-ended questions. Men who were Christian, from middle to high SES families, and heterosexual were more transphobic and adhered more to masculine norms than those who were nonChristian, from lower SES families, and gay, respectively. Black and white men were equally transphobic and adhered equally to masculine norms. The men’s recommendations when imagining themselves as a resident advisor typically concerned making connections between the men and the transsexual and controlling the situation.