Feminine Women Research Articles

Sex Typicality and Attractiveness in Childhood and Adulthood: Assessing their Relationships from Videos

Prior research suggests that sex typicality (especially femininity of females, but also masculinity of males) relates to perceptions of attractiveness, for both heterosexual and homosexual individuals. Using videos from childhood and adulthood, we investigated how different components of sex typicality contributed to this effect, whether the sex of the evaluator or of the target moderated the effect, and how the relationship of attractiveness with sex typicality varied across the lifespan. In Study 1, videos of 45 female and 50 male heterosexual and homosexual adult targets (ages 18-30 years) were judged by 56 female and 65 male heterosexual and homosexual raters (ages 18-30 years). Results suggested that both heterosexual men and lesbians viewed more feminine women as more attractive. Femininity of appearance was a primary contributor to this relationship. Masculinity was not related to men's attractiveness. Study 2 used similar methodology (44 male and 46 female heterosexual and homosexual targets and 22 male and 20 female heterosexual raters). Study 2 replicated results of Study 1. In addition, Study 2 included ratings of childhood videos of targets (ages 0-15). Results suggested that childhood femininity related to attractiveness of both young girls and young boys and that the relationship became stronger for girls as they got older. The impact of femininity on attractiveness may, therefore, depend on both targets' sex and their maturity.

The Pedagogy of (In)Visibility

As teachers who use both our theoretical (academic) and practical (empirical) knowledge to entice our students to peer outside of the seemingly clear-cut boxes of the two-and-only-two dichotomies of sex, gender, and sexuality, we attempt to problematize not only sexuality categories but also gender categories (specifically, the category “woman”). While “coming out” complicates heterosexuality, it does little to question how non-normative sexual identities continue to be rendered and re-negotiated once sexual identity claims are made or are perceived to have been made. Moreover, as teachers concerned with gendered identities, we find it imperative in both our classroom and other academic settings to make the connection between gendered identities and sexual(ized) identities. For example, if a feminine woman who is married to a man comes out as bisexual, she may disrupt students' assumptions about the lives of bisexual people. The pedagogical effects of such a performance of bisexuality are clear: students can rethink their assumptions about bisexuality. However, if a masculine woman comes out as a lesbian, she may reinforce students' assumptions about the lives of lesbians. The pedagogical effects, therefore, are less clear. These experiences have forced us to rethink how we might continue to eradicate gender and sexuality inequality in the classroom. This has meant that we must deal with the social fact that our bodies embody (in)visibility politics whether we decide to “come-out” to our students and colleagues or if we are intent on “keeping them guessing.”

Women's Perceptions of Alcohol-Related Sexual Disinhibition: Personality and Sexually-Related Alcohol Expectancies

ABSTRACT Young adults frequently use alcohol prior to engaging in sexual activity (Grello, Welsh, & Harper, 2006) possibly due to expectancies relating to alcohol use and sexuality. When women engage in alcohol-use behaviors they are likely to be perceived as sexually available and promiscuous (Blume, 1991; Parks & Scheidt, 2000). The current study examined the relationships between young women's feminine gender-role attributes, erotophobia-erotophilia, and endorsement of sexually-related alcohol expectancies. Using surveys and focus groups, we investigated perceptions of the relationship between alcohol use and women's sexuality. Findings demonstrated a negative relationship between feminine gender-role and sexually-related alcohol expectancies. Free-response data indicated that sexual motives contributed to alcohol use. Participants emphasized that alcohol lowered inhibitions and increased the likelihood of engaging in sexual behaviors. Erotophobia-erotophilia influenced the pattern of qualitative response themes such that erotophobes were more likely to emphasize that alcohol contributed to increased sexual confidence and decreased nervousness.

The Decision to Forgive: Sex, Gender, and the Likelihood to Forgive Partner Transgressions

Certain individuals may have a tendency to offer others forgiveness that is termed forgivingness. This study explored individuals' gender styles, sex, and their likelihood to forgive partner transgressions in romantic relationships. Results indicated feminine women and androgynous men were most likely to forgive partner transgressions. Thus, the interpersonal act of forgiving requires empathy, caring, understanding, and responsiveness as evidenced by self-report items on the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Also, men proved to be more forgiving than women of partner transgressions; however, men also reported experiencing less hurt than women when confronted with partner transgressions. This outcome may indicate that forgiveness is a complex process in which individuals consider many factors before they forgive others.

Media systems and their effects on women's sport participation in Taiwan

This study has attempted to explore media influences on social and cultural change, in particular the impact of the media on individuals and groups’ practice of exercise. It suggests that the media has been in some way successful in gaining male support and has eliminated some gender hostilities, resulting in a little change to the status quo of women. The findings and discussions are attempts to explore how images of femininity/body are perceived and constructed in the mass media and society as a whole. In addition, they present media images and discuss how the latter have influenced women's femininity and their sport participation in Taiwan.

Apuntes sobre la educación de la mujer medellinense de 1920 a 1957

The intended purpose is to show the way in which the patriarchal reason configures the Medellin women's feminine subjectivity from 1920 to 1957, in order to understand that the culture is the one that commands the essence of being a woman ora man. Furthermore, to see how interesting it will be to investigate with the group Ratio Juris of Autonoma Latinoamericana University, about the words said by the legal knowledge and their influence on Colombian women from 1920 to 2008, in the Constitution, Legislation, and Jurisprudence.

Interactions between masculinity–femininity and apparent health in face preferences

Consistent with Getty’s (2002. Signaling health versus parasites. Am Nat. 159:363–371.) proposal that cues to long-term health and cues to current condition are at least partly independent, recent research on human face preferences has found divergent effects of masculinity–femininity, a cue to long-term health, and apparent health, a cue to current condition. In light of this, we tested for interactions between these 2 cues. Participants viewed composite images of opposite-sex faces that had been manufactured in combinations of high and low apparent health and masculinity–femininity. Preferences for masculinity in men’s faces and femininity in women’s faces were stronger when judging the attractiveness of faces with high apparent health than when judging the attractiveness of faces with low apparent health. Similarly, preferences for high apparent health were stronger for judgments of masculine men’s faces and feminine women’s faces than for judgments of feminine men’s faces and masculine women’s faces, respectively. Interactions between apparent health and masculinity–femininity when forming face preferences may function to optimize how masculinity–femininity and apparent health are used to infer the quality of potential mates and highlight the complexity and sophistication of the perceptual mechanisms that underpin face preferences. Key words: apparent health, faces, integration, masculinity, mate choice, signal interactions. [Behav Ecol]

Sexy sons and sexy daughters: the influence of parents' facial characteristics on offspring

Choosing a mate to maximize fitness underlies all sexual selection theories. Key to understanding mate choice is the inheritance of particular traits. Using family photos, we evaluated the predictions made by sexual selection theories for human mate choice concerning the inheritance of facial characteristics and assortment in facial appearance of parents. We found that both fathers' and mothers' attractiveness predicted the facial attractiveness of daughters: ‘sexy daughters’. Fathers and sons were related to each other in facial masculinity but not attractiveness, providing only partial evidence for ‘sexy sons’. Mothers and sons did not relate in masculinity–femininity; neither did fathers and daughters. Parents were similar in attractiveness but masculine men were not partnered to feminine women. Our findings support some predictions of Fisherian selection processes and ‘good genes’ theory but are less consistent with ‘correlated response theory’ and the immunocompetence handicap principle.

Men report stronger attraction to femininity in women's faces when their testosterone levels are high

Many studies have shown that women's judgments of men's attractiveness are affected by changes in levels of sex hormones. However, no studies have tested for associations between changes in levels of sex hormones and men's judgments of women's attractiveness. To investigate this issue, we compared men's attractiveness judgments of feminized and masculinized women's and men's faces in test sessions where salivary testosterone was high and test sessions where salivary testosterone was relatively low. Men reported stronger attraction to femininity in women's faces in test sessions where salivary testosterone was high than in test sessions where salivary testosterone was low. This effect was found to be specific to judgments of opposite-sex faces. The strength of men's reported attraction to femininity in men's faces did not differ between high and low testosterone test sessions, suggesting that the effect of testosterone that we observed for judgments of women's faces was not due to a general response bias. Collectively, these findings suggest that changes in testosterone levels contribute to the strength of men's reported attraction to femininity in women's faces and complement previous findings showing that testosterone modulates men's interest in sexual stimuli.

Marquardt’s Phi Mask: Pitfalls of Relying on Fashion Models and the Golden Ratio to Describe a Beautiful Face

Stephen Marquardt has derived a mask from the golden ratio that he claims represents the "ideal" facial archetype. Many have found his mask convincing, including cosmetic surgeons. However, Marquardt's mask is associated with numerous problems. The method used to examine goodness of fit with the proportions in the mask is faulty. The mask is ill-suited for non-European populations, especially sub-Saharan Africans and East Asians. The mask also appears to approximate the face shape of masculinized European women. Given that the general public strongly and overwhelmingly prefers above average facial femininity in women, white women seeking aesthetic facial surgery would be ill-advised to aim toward a better fit with Marquardt's mask. This article aims to show the proper way of assessing goodness of fit with Marquardt's mask, to address the shape of the mask as it pertains to masculinity-femininity, and to discuss the broader issue of an objective assessment of facial attractiveness. Generalized Procrustes analysis is used to show how goodness of fit with Marquardt's mask can be assessed. Thin-plate spline analysis is used to illustrate visually how sample faces, including northwestern European averages, differ from Marquardt's mask. Marquardt's mask best describes the facial proportions of masculinized white women as seen in fashion models. Marquardt's mask does not appear to describe "ideal" face shape even for white women because its proportions are inconsistent with the optimal preferences of most people, especially with regard to femininity.

The Fruits of Her Labor: Women, Children, and Progressive Era Reformers in the Pacific Northwest Canning Industry

GREG HALL The Fruits of Her Labor Women, Children, and Progressive Era Reformersin the Pacific NorthwestCanning Industry "GIRLS MAKE FOOD FIGHT WAS the Portland News headlineat the outset of a 1913Oregon Packing Company strike. Women at the plant had had enough of low pay, poor working conditions, and an unsympathetic cannery management. The strikers quickly garnered the attention of local socialists, members of the Industrial Workers of the World, religious lead ers, and area residents. Still, the newly formed Oregon Industrial Welfare Commission (OIWC) had themost influence in resolving the strike and addressing the concerns of women workers at the cannery and elsewhere in Oregon. The OIWC ? an institution that epitomized the Progressive Era? and its sister agency to the north in Washington dealt with a host of issues regarding women and children in theworkplace. Studying the rather underdeveloped history of the formative phase of thePacific Northwest can ning industry, itsworkforce, and the Progressives who sought to reform it offers a unique perspective on the changing role ofwomen as wageworkers in society, growing public concern about child labor, and state governments' evolving social and labor policy.1 At the end of the nineteenth century and during the first few decades of the twentieth, fruit and vegetable canneries in states on the Pacific Coast became primary employers of female workers ? adults and children. Canneries, which tended to hire females rather than males formost jobs, were major sources of employment forwomen and girls.At the same time, Progressives sought to improve working conditions, stabilize wages for women in canneries, and end child labor in the industry.2Pacific Northwest Progressives improved conditions, but, in the process, they undermined women's empowerment aswage laborers; whether they did so intentionally 226 OHQ vol. 109, no. 2 ? 2008 Oregon Historical Society IS Oregon was a battleground statefor theeight-hourdayforwomen. Here,Marie Michaels poses inan apron advertising thecauseforworkingwomen. The photographer,Franklyn Sowell,worked inPortland between 1911 and 1915. Hall, Progressive Era Reform in thePacificNorthwest Canning Industry 227 Women tookon temporaryand seasonal work inall sectorsof farm production, especiallyduring harvest.Sorting and packing apples ? such as in this photograph ofwomen and a man taken inYamhill County inabout 1902 ? was a common feature of rural life. or not isunclear in the historical record. They fostered a form of paternal istic government intervention that,on the one hand, helped eliminate child labor in canneries but, on the other hand, sought to discipline women into a compliant and domesticated workforce. Progressives generally assumed thatwomen wage workers would even tually become wives and mothers and leave theworkforce and, therefore, tended to think of them only in terms of temporary workers. They did not encourage women to organize their own unions, seemingly basing their work on the premise thatwomen and children could not defend themselves in theworkplace as well as men could. Labor laws protecting men were sporadic around the country and apparently lacked the comprehensive logic forwhich Progressives advocated regarding women's and children's labor laws. Progressive reformersworked to protect and preserve what they saw as women's femininity and maternalism. In The Wages of Motherhood, Gwendolyn Mink explores the concept of maternalism, an ideology that assumed thatmen (husbands) earning a familywage would solve the prob lem ofwomen having towork forwages. She also explains how Progressive Era reformers chose to lament, rather than to seek empowerment for, wage working women ? that is, they supported paternalistic state intervention 228 OHQ vol. 109, no. 2 rather than clear unionization. One of themost ardent groups associated with such maternalist orientation was theGeneral Federation ofWomen's Clubs, which "opposed the employment of mothers of young children." Operating under similar ideals inOregon was the Consumer's League, an organization that "lobbied for improvements" inworkplace protection forwomen and children, but not formen, in order to preserve "the future health of the race."3 In their efforts to regulate workplaces, western Progressives were follow ing national trends that have been outlined by Susan Lehrer inOrigins of Protective Labor Legislation forWomen, 1905-1925. Progressives, according to Lehrer and other scholars, thought of themselves as bringing order to industrial work life and rationalization to the labor process by demanding an end to the exploitation ? that is,underpayment and long hours ? of...

Shifting Positionalities: Empirical Reflections on a Queer/Trans of Colour Methodology

How can we study ‘Queer’, or indeed, should we? Drawing on fieldwork with people raised in interracial families in Britain and Germany, and reflecting on my own coming out as transgendered/genderqueer during the research, I reflect on the role of difference, similarity, and change in the production of queer knowledges. My entry point is a queer diasporic one. Queers of colour, I argue, have a particular stake in queering racialised heterosexualities; yet differences within diasporic spaces clearly matter. While ‘Queer’ can open up an alternative methodology of redefining and reframing social differences, the directionality of our queering - ‘up’ rather than ‘down’ - is clearly relevant. I suggest the anti-racist feminist principle of positionality as fruitful for such a queer methodology of change. This is explored with regard to a selection of empirical and cultural texts, including the debate around Paris is Burning, Jenny Livingston's film about the Harlem house/ball scene; the appeal that a non-white heterosexual artist such as South-Asian pop singer MIA can have for queers of colour; the camp role model which Thai sex work femininity can represent for queer and trans people from the second generation of Thai migration; and the solidarity of a Southeast Asian butch with feminine women in her diasporic collectivity.

Milton, Spenser and The Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C. S. Lewis Novels (review)

Milton, Spenser and The Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C. S. Lewis Novels Rebecca Davies (bio) Milton, Spenser and The Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C. S. Lewis Novels. By Elizabeth Baird Hardy. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland, 2007. As Elizabeth Baird Hardy acknowledges in her introduction, the manifold literary sources for C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia have provided many critics of children's literature with fertile material for academic analysis. In this detailed and scholarly study, Hardy examines the ways in which Lewis echoes and references various aspects of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen and John Milton's Paradise Lost, while never losing sight of the manner in which Lewis interweaves these elements with both Christian spirituality and a consciousness of more secular twentieth-century cultural references, such as Disney and Father Christmas. Hardy acknowledges the diverse influences involved in the creative process of a writer, touching on the influence Lewis's fellow writers in the Oxford-based group "The Inklings" may have had on his work, particularly the fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien, and occasionally referring the reader to influential biographical incidents. Divided into five distinct sections, the study employs close analysis of specific examples to demonstrate how Spenserian and Miltonic literary tropes inform Lewis's treatment of characterization and geographical setting. Hardy examines the influence of courtly and biblical depictions of evil in feminine form, positive female characters, evil in mortal men, monsters, and "misled" repentant protagonists on Lewis's Chronicles, she also compares comparing the geographical settings of Narnia and its predecessors. In addition, Hardy explores and compares the spiritual and theological standpoints of Lewis and his source writers. Meticulously referenced and supported, Hardy's close examination provides more than just detailed evidence to substantiate her claim for the significance of these two particular literary sources for Lewis's Chronicles; she provides a convincing explanation for Lewis's use of courtly tradition beyond his academic admiration for his sources and a subconscious referencing of favorite literary works. In her discussion of Lewis's treatment of sinful women in chapter 1, Hardy identifies the difficulty faced by Lewis in representing sins of the flesh. By employing recognizable courtly signifiers for sinful women, Hardy argues, Lewis avoids explicit references to lasciviousness in a work for children, a topic touched upon again in chapter 2's discussion of monstrous giants with huge, unnatural, gastronomic appetites. The sensory temptations that the juvenile protagonists find it difficult to resist are presented in the form of comfort—warm baths and beds, good food, and nice clothes. The fantasy genre, Hardy argues, provided Lewis with a form of literature in which the dangers of evil could be represented to children without being too frightening. Less convincingly, and seemingly motivated by her own academic admiration for Lewis, in chapter 2 Hardy employs the justification of courtly [End Page 400] tradition as an explanation for Lewis's negative depiction of the "dark" Calormenes. Hardy's veneration of Lewis, as a writer and a theologian, occasionally leads her to try and defend him against any criticism, and her vindication of Lewis on this point is not a completely persuasive exoneration of him from accusations of racism. However, Hardy's defense of Lewis against allegations of misogyny in chapter 3 is more compelling and more comprehensively supported. She cites Spenser's female warrior, Britomart, a brave yet feminine woman, as the ideal template for Lewis's female warriors. Hardy's emphasis that all of the texts discussed were intended to be allegorical, including the Chronicles—she stresses on a number of occasions that Lewis never intended Aslan to "equal Christ; rather he represents how Christ might appear in a country like Narnia" (112)—provides an explanation for the virgin/whore dichotomy that appears to afflict the representation of many female characters in all the texts, "[s]ubtle character shadings are not suitable for allegory, particularly when characters must represent idealized images of concepts such as chastity and temperance" (101). Chapter 4 examines the roots of Lewis's representation of the geography of Narnia and also addresses the ongoing debate regarding the order the books should be read in—either...

Sensation seeking and men's face preferences

Findings from previous studies suggest that only men who are in good physical condition can afford to pursue high-risk activities and that men who engage in high-risk activities are considered particularly attractive by women. Here, we show that men's interest in high-sensation activities, a personality trait that is known to increase the likelihood of those individuals engaging in high-risk behaviors, is positively related to the strength of their preferences for femininity in women's faces (Studies 1–3) but is not related to the strength of their preferences for femininity in men's faces (Study 2). We discuss these findings as evidence for potentially adaptive condition-dependent mate preferences, whereby men who exhibit signals of high quality demonstrate particularly strong preferences for facial cues of reproductive and medical health in potential mates because they are more likely than lower-quality men to succeed in acquiring such partners.

To Kill a Songbird: A Community of Women, Feminist Jurisprudence, Conscientious Objection and Revolution in A Jury of Her Peers and Contemporary Film

In Susan Glaspell’s Jury of Her Peers, women’s awakening, their feminine bonding, and ideological activism are inseparable from their realization of the gender discrimination and oppression inherent in the existing legal system, and their responsive creation of alternative, feminine justice and judgment. The search for feminist consciousness and the foundation of an informed community of women imply rejection of the legal order as a tool of patriarchal domination, and exploration of feminine legal thought. I suggest that in her 1916 short story, Glaspell anticipates both legal feminist theory that focuses on dominance, oppression, and resistance, and psychological feminist theory that focuses on an ethics of care, women’s voice, and feminine networking. Further, her narrative offers a uniquely coherent, comprehensive world-view, combining the two perspectives, often perceived as contrasting. Quilting serves as a three-dimensional metaphor for feminine social networking, feminist storytelling, and women’s engagement in law (their unique method of piecing evidence together). Quilting thus symbolically mediates between the fundamental structures of feminine community, feminist literature, and feminist legal thought. Introducing jurisprudential rhetoric, I go on to show how Glaspell’s literary quilting of feminine communality and feminist legal thinking represents an episode of emerging feminist consciousness as an act of collective “conscientious objection”—if not potential revolution. My essay concludes with the suggestion, based on personal teaching experience, to include Jury in law-school curriculum, together with contemporary feminist films. Significant issues and motifs link Glaspell’s short story (and play) with contemporary feminist film. Read with Glaspell’s text, feminist films can be seen as modern, influential remakes of her turn-of the-twentieth-century work. Such films, as well as their literary predecessor, are powerful teaching materials in twenty-first-century law school curriculum.

DUIHUA (DIALOGUE) IN-BETWEEN

This paper discusses the recent encounters of ‘feminism’ as a travelling concept in mainland China. Against the backdrop of its century-long women's movement and the more recent establishment of women's studies since the 1980s, questions relating to the meanings of feminism are analysed through the problematic of translation. The different Chinese words deployed have ranged all the way from an earlier more directly political emphasis on women's rights and equality (nuquan zhuyi) to highlighting women's difference or femininity (nuxing zhuyi). In the immediate years following the Beijing Conference of 1995, major debates focused on whether the term ‘feminism’ was meaningful for Chinese women to begin with, but these then shifted from the question of whether it ought to be used at all, to how it should be translated. Three different kinds of translators have been critical during the 1980s and 1990s in shaping the dialogue on feminism – the official state-supported women's organization, the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), with its headquarters in Beijing; Chinese women's studies scholars and activists living in mainland China; and the Chinese Society for Women's Studies (CSWS), based in the United States, whose email discussions have included diverse opinions and viewpoints from other parts of the world.

Implicit attention bias for disgust

Two studies are presented here. The first is a masked presentation Stroop task. Participants were primed with vignettes that were disgust, threat, or neutral themed, and then completed a Stroop task with words in each of those categories. While there was no overall bias for disgust words, it was found that participants primed with a fear story showed enhanced bias for disgust words. It was also found that, overall, more disgust words entered participants’ awareness than other words. It is suggested that cognitive avoidance explains the bias, as participants responded faster to disgust words than to other words in the masked presentation. Study 2 examined the role of sex role on disgust sensitivity, and it was found that femininity in women significantly predicted disgust sensitivity, but femininity in men did not. Recommendations for future research are made.

Gender Role and Feminism Revisited: A Follow-Up Study

In this follow-up to our earlier study (Toller, Suter, & Trautman, Gender role identity and attitudes towards feminism, Sex Roles, 51, 85–90, 2004) we examine the interrelationships among gender role, support for feminism, and willingness to self-label as feminist. Ten percent of college students previously surveyed participated in qualitative interviews, which elicited characterizations of feminists, whether students self-identified as feminist, suggestions for garnering support for feminism, and for interpretation of the initial study’s findings. Students were asked to speculate why we found that highly masculine men and highly feminine women were neither likely to self-identify as feminist nor to support the feminist movement and why more feminine men and more masculine women were found to be more willing to self-label as feminist and more likely to support the feminist movement.

The Power of the Masquerade: Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios and the Construction of Femininity

This paper examines the construction of femininity in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios, Pedro Almodóvar, 1988), exploring the application of contemporary gender and feminist theory to the film's representation of its female protagonists. Specifically, the paper focuses on Judith Butler's identification of gender as both constructed and performative, and on Mary Ann Doane's recuperation of the concept of the masquerade. As feminine excess exposes a gap between the self as subject and object, showing gender as a transitory performance, the very artificiality of female identity becomes a tool of potential resistance; Almodóvar's women, highly stylized and self-consciously manufactured, may reveal the masquerade's hidden power. This paper argues that by presenting complex female characters in a context of acknowledged artificiality, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown actually destabilizes patriarchal positioning, exposing the 'psychic excess' behind feminine performance; at the same time, the film's endorsement of traditional female iconography highlights the ambiguity of Almodóvar's discourse.

Auto Theft and Youth Culture: A Nexus of Masculinities, Femininities and Car Culture

This article draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with young offenders as part of ‘The Automobile of the 21st Century’ (AUTO21) national research initiative. AUTO21 is a Canadian research project that aims to strengthen and improve Canada's automotive industry. As part of this initiative, an exploratory research project was undertaken to examine how young people understand their participation in auto theft. Interviews with young auto thieves revealed different patterns of auto theft between young men and women and different practices of femininity and masculinity. Despite having both participated in the same crime (auto theft), it was found that young men's masculine identities formed in dialogue with hegemonic masculinity while young women's feminine identities formed in dialogue with hegemonic femininity.