Hyperfemininity: Further definition of the construct

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to explicate the definition of hyperfemininity. College women (n = 270, M age = 18) and nursing students (n = 56, M age = 33) completed measures of sexual attitudes and experiences, psychological symptomatology, and antisocial tendencies. In addition, the college women received a measure of assertiveness, read scenarios describing sexually coercive men, and responded to rationalizations for the man's behavior. Women high in hyperfemininity held more permissive sexual attitudes, had more antisocial tendencies, and had more consensual sexual experiences but were not different than women low in hyperfemininity on a measure of assertiveness. Hyperfemininity was negatively correlated with giving socially desirable responses and positively correlated with self‐reported symptoms of psychopathology in the college sample. Women low in hyperfemininity were less likely to rationalize the behavior of sexually coercive men in certain situations and reported being less likely to date a man who used levels of force to obtain sex.