Masculine Women Research Articles

A study of Belarusian women’s perceptions of safety and its relationships with victimization and social gender

The differences between Belarusian women’s perceptions of safety, as well as the links between these perceptions with victimization and social gender have been analyzed. The purpose of the study is to identify the peculiarities of women’s perceptions of safety, considering its relationship with victimization and social gender. Methods used: analysis and synthesis, method of interview and psychological testing, results processing and generalization, tabular, etc. The psychological safety perceptions assessment has been studied with the help of N.E. Kharlamenkova’s psychological safety questionnaire and victimization with the help of V.P. Sheinov’s methodology, to determine gender-role peculiarities the masculinity-femininity scale from the Freiburg Personality Inventory (FPI) was used. The sample included 590 women aged 18 to 60 years old. Differences in perceptions of psychological safety among women of different age groups have been revealed. It has been shown that for women security is associated with such concepts as peace in their country, reliability, health, and control of the situation. Adult women also associate safety with compliance with norms and rules, possession of information, and a reliable companion. For young girls, security is also associated with a sense of comfort, trust, and lack of anxiety. Perceptions of safety differ between feminine and masculine women. It has been shown that feminine-type women associate safety with their qualities and abilities, and masculine-type women associate it with the attitude to solving personal safety problems with the help of psychological strength and orientation to independence.

Social evaluative implications of sensory adaptation to human voices.

People form social evaluations of others following brief exposure to their voices, and these impressions are calibrated based on recent perceptual experience. Participants adapted to voices with fundamental frequency (f o; the acoustic correlate of perceptual pitch) manipulated to be gender-typical (i.e. masculine men and feminine women) or gender-atypical (i.e. feminine men and masculine women) before evaluating unaltered test voices within the same sex. Adaptation resulted in contrastive aftereffects. Listening to gender-atypical voices caused female voices to sound more feminine and attractive (Study 1) and male voices to sound more masculine and attractive (Study 2). Studies 3a and 3b tested whether adaptation occurred on a conceptual or perceptual level, respectively. In Study 3a, perceivers adapted to gender-typical or gender-atypical voices for both men and women (i.e. adaptors pitch manipulated in opposite directions for men and women) before evaluating unaltered test voices. Findings showed weak evidence that evaluations differed between conditions. In Study 3b, perceivers adapted to masculinized or feminized voices for both men and women (i.e. adaptors pitch manipulated in the same direction for men and women) before evaluating unaltered test voices. In the feminized condition, participants rated male targets as more masculine and attractive. Conversely, in the masculinized condition, participants rated female targets as more feminine and attractive. Voices appear to be evaluated according to gender norms that are updated based on perceptual experience as well as conceptual knowledge.

More like a woman: Activa/Pasiva subjectivities in Cuba

This article explores the gender and sexuality of activa/pasiva women in Cuba. The construction of activa and pasiva is very similar to other masculine/feminine female relationships around the world, often referred to in English as ‘butch’ and ‘femme’. In 2017, I interviewed 33 self-identified lesbian and bisexual women and 23 policymakers, officials, cultural contributors, and activists, in the cities of Havana, Santa Clara, and Matanzas. The women I met enjoyed and found power in their masculine/feminine partnerships. However, in contrast to a view of Cuba as increasingly tolerant and progressive towards LGBT people, my case study analyses how other lesbian and bisexual women vilify activas and pasivas in order to elevate themselves through distance, as a route to social inclusion. It demonstrates how political and social tolerance for lesbian and bisexual women is a gendered discourse that relies on their correct performance of white, middle-class, feminine gender normativity. I explore how feminine lesbian presentation is attached in Cuba to ideas of whiteness, modernity, education, and progressiveness, while masculine presentation is denigrated as old-fashioned, patriarchal, and replicating heterosexist norms. I analyse this discourse, showing it to be embedded in racist and traditional ideas of femininity which themselves uphold the gender binary. In particular, I argue that masculine women are made into abject others, using homonormativity theory and the black politics of respectability to show how gender normativity underpins social and political tolerance for lesbian and bisexual women.

Особенности мыслительной деятельности в связи с гендерной идентичностью личности

Background. The article deals with the problem of gender differences in the organization of cognitive processes, which is extremely relevant in theoretical and practical terms. The problem is considered on the example of interpretation and generalization of gender-relevant material by representatives of different gender identity and sex. Objective. The aim is to identify the features of thinking activity which are based on different gender identities, as well as to study the content of such features in case they are found. Methods. To form a sample, a test method for diagnosing gender identity was used (S. Bem, modified by V.A. Labunskaya and M.V. Burakova). Experimental methods were used to study thinking. The method «Interpretation of Proverbs» analyzed the results of interpretations of metaphorical sayings. The method «The Extra Fourth» analyzed the results of generalization of the images’ meaning. Sample. 78 people with at least an incomplete higher education, 39 female and 39 male subjects took part in the study. Results. Androgynous subjects demonstrate the least semantic, evaluative and aggressive distortions of the meaning of gender-relevant proverbs and the highest metaphorical level of their interpretation. Masculine subjects show a decrease in the level of generalization and the predominance of situational interpretations of proverbs based on their personal experience. Masculine women are more likely to have a misunderstanding of the meaning of the proverb. Masculine men are more likely to show aggressive distortions of meaning and evaluations. Conclusions. There are features of mental activity associated with the GI of the subjects. They are selective in nature and are associated exclusively with the understanding and interpretation of gender-relevant material. The tendency to violate the objectivity of thinking is most clearly manifested in masculine subjects, especially in women ⸻ due to their discovery of clearer contradictions between their own social situation and the content of the material. A smaller percentage of selective distortions in feminine subjects may be explained by possible conformity, which reduces the importance of gender material, and in androgynous subjects it may be a sign of their internal non-conflict, meaningful harmony of this topic for them.

The relationship between Chinese college students' mate preferences and their parents' education level.

Parents have an influence on the formation of their children's mate preferences. This research conducted two studies to test the relationship between parents' education level and the gender role characteristics (masculinity and femininity) of ideal mate for college students, and the moderating role of urban-rural residence on this relationship. In study 1, 1,033 participants (627 females) reported their explicit attitude toward gender role characteristics for an ideal mate via the Chinese Sex Role Inventory-50. In study 2, we recruited 130 participants (66 females) and used an implicit association test to measure their implicit attitude. Regression-based analyses showed that the higher education level of parents was significantly associated with female students' mate preferences with high-femininity but low-masculinity traits. For male students, the higher education level of parents was associated with their explicit (not implicit) preferences of mates with high-masculinity but low-femininity traits. The significant moderating effect of urban-rural residence was observed in explicit preference, with the different patterns in gender groups. In conclusion, parents with higher educational attainment might bring up children who are more likely to embrace a partner with non-traditional gender roles (e.g., androgynous individuals, feminine men or masculine women).

Introduction: Global TV Images of Female Masculinity in the 2010s

Abstract This introductory article to the special Forum “Global TV Images of Female Masculinity in the 2010s” offers a reflection on the concept of “female masculinity” in global media and gender studies. Witnessing a growing number of TV representations of masculine girls and women worldwide, we present a summary of the four articles which comprise this themed Forum and address a number of key issues in their case studies, including televisual imaginaries of heterosexual, masculine women, the cultural legitimization of global female masculinities on reality TV, and the racialization and stigmatization of masculine women in White heteronormative societies. The Forum thus promotes a critical dialogue that aims to stimulate further interest in this interdisciplinary field by emphasizing the mutual implications of gendered TV genres and tropes, cross-cultural currents of gender, sexual, and racial knowledge and politics, and the intersectionality of female gender, sexuality, race, and nationality in TV representations.

Editorial Introduction

Editorial Introduction

Effect of women entrepreneurs’ gender-role orientation on new venture performance in China: the role of organizational legitimacy and obtaining investments

ABSTRACTThe effect of womenʻs gender-role orientation (GRO) on their entrepreneurship remains under-researched. Using a survey conducted with Chinese women entrepreneurs, this study examined the effect of different GRO types on new venture performance through the mediating role of organizational legitimacy. The results revealed that women entrepreneurs with an androgynous GRO have higher new venture performance than others. Additionally, organizational legitimacy played a mediating role in the relationship between women entrepreneursʻ GROs and their new venture performance. When obtaining investments, the level of organizational legitimacy is significantly higher for androgynous GRO women entrepreneurs than that of feminine, masculine, or undifferentiated GROs women entrepreneurs. These findings both theoretically and practically contribute to the extant literature on women entrepreneurs.

ГЕНДЕРНАЯ СПЕЦИФИКА ОБРАЗА Я СОВРЕМЕННЫХ МОЛОДЫХ ЛЮДЕЙ

The study of the self-image and its gender specificity is presented in the article. It is stated that gender socialization, having global changes in terms of modern social and cultural transformations, is one of the components of the positive or negative gender identity, which is in turn correlated with self-image, understood as a set of the depth of self-knowledge (cognitive component), self-relation (affective component) and the relevance consistency of behavior patterns (behavior component). There are 38 women and 9 men who took part in our research, aged between 18-28 years. Among them, there are 21 participants with the harmonical gender identity, 13 participants with the androgyny and 13 participants with the disharmonic gender identity (such as gender-unidentified men and women, masculine women and feminine men). It is shown that androgyne participants have the independent (II) type of interpersonal relationship and the lowest level of internal conflictness. The group with the disharmonic gender identity shows the aggressive (III) type of interpersonal relationship. The group with the harmonical gender identity shows the dependent (VI) type of interpersonal relationship. The results illustrate the correlation between gender socialization and the positive selfimage.

“O'erwhelmed with noise”: Abject Female Speech in Epicene; or, The Silent Woman

This article discusses Ben Jonson's 1609 play Epicene; or, The Silent Woman, with a particular focus on Morose's excessive solitude and aversion to noise. The article begins by demonstrating how Epicene ostensibly relies on early modern discourses of female speech. The ideal woman of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century conduct literature was silent, a quality inseparable from the associated virtues of chastity and modesty. Morose takes this imperative to its extreme in his search for a bride of “thrifty speech,” who “spends but six words a day” (1.2.28-9). In contrast, excessive female speech is associated with women's proverbial corporeal leakiness, “hermaphroditic” or “epicene” gender, and uncontrolled sexual desire. Above all, the play insists that noisy, desiring, masculine women are a product of the emergent consumer culture located in the city. This raises a contradiction: are women all inherently prone to noisiness, or does female noisiness trouble the boundaries of gender? If women are naturally noisy, what is it about early modern London that, according to the play, exacerbates this? How we understand the nature of noise has profound implications for our reception of Morose. Rather than defining Morose solely in terms of his apparent agoraphobia and miserly character, as earlier criticism tended to do, attention to the ways in which both Morose and Epicene attempt to construct intolerable noise as an innate feature of urban womanhood can illuminate the structure of social abjection at work in policing the boundaries of masculinity and male communities.

Exploring the sex and gender correlates of cognitive sex differences

The correlates of cognitive sex differences are yet to be fully understood. Many biological and psychosocial factors modulate these cognitive abilities leading to mixed results in the scientific literature. The current study aims to explore the different parameters potentially influencing cognitive abilities acting in synergy. Sex and gender correlates of cognitive functioning were assessed in a sample of individuals ages 18 to 45 years (N = 87) from diverse sexual orientations. Sex hormones were assessed via saliva samples at four timepoints throughout the testing. Gender roles, sexual orientation and socio-demographics were measured via self-report questionnaires. Participants completed mental rotation and verbal fluency tasks. Men performed better than women at mental rotation, while no significant difference was found for verbal fluency. Significant positive associations were observed between estradiol and word fluency for the naturally cycling women compared to the women using oral contraception. While controlling for sex hormones, a significant interaction effect of sex by gender roles was identified for mental rotation among masculine women. These exploratory results suggest an effect principally driven by sex and sex hormones on cognitive performance that will need to be furthered with larger studies.

Nongayindoda: moving beyond gender in a South African context

ABSTRACT In her groundbreaking text, Male Daughters, Female Husbands, Ifi Amadiume offers an ethnographic account which depicts, among others, gender in the making in Nnobi society in Nigeria. This paper, drawing from Amadiume’s work, looks at three related specific moments of understanding gender and sex categories in a South African context. Through empirical research based on a qualitative study; a literary text; as well as visual arts, the paper tracks the notion of nongayindoda, a Nguni term for (gender) fluidity to offer new insights that go beyond Western gender binaries. Nongayindoda has been used to refer to masculine women or men-like women. In some contexts, it has been assumed to relate only to women who have chosen not to have relations with men. Some have considered the term derogatory and thus shied away from using it. In this paper, the term is turned upside and interrogated to reveal broader meanings. In the end, I argue that nongayindoda offers an opportunity to move beyond gender.

Not man enough! Queer Asian masculinities at the field site

ABSTRACT In this article, we grapple with the ways in which our embodied masculinity affects how we learn about and tell the stories of our older lesbian respondents. Our encounters at the field site have prompted us to think through our methodological practices and epistemological positions, a prompting conditioned by the feminist and queer methodological traditions we are schooled in. Following queer feminist methodological emphasis on attending to the shifting subjectivities of researchers and participants and the concomitant affective registers of the field site, we explore what we call the ‘masculine dynamic’ between researchers and respondents that hover playfully at the contours of our research encounter. Using ethnographic vignettes and reflection notes, we ask after the interplay of masculine embodiments and performativity at the field site, and what this dynamic might mean for producing a ‘knowable’ yet largely ‘invisible’ group of older masculine women in Asia.

Performing Gender: Female Masculinity in D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow

This paper analyses Ursula, the female protagonist of D. H. Lawrence’s the novel The Rainbow, who reflects her masculinity. Many feminist critics have perceived this novel as man-centered. In response to this analysis of the novel, the paper tries to look at the novel from the perspective of Judith Halberstam’s theoretical concept of female masculinity, especially Ursula as a masculine woman who acts like a man. Female masculinity is not an identity but a site for identification where different identities can flourish, but masculine women possess confidence, assertiveness, and independence. Lawrence gives justice to women’s role by presenting Ursula as a new woman who seeks her individual identity in the traditional world. Through the reading of the novel as its theoretical tool, the research concludes that females can be as males and males can be like females. She acts like a man and that means she has masculine qualities. The novelist portrays Ursula as a woman with masculinity because she can flourish different identities of her life. She plays the role of an independent woman, a liberated woman, a Lesbian woman, and a new woman, etc. She behaves like a tomboy who refuses to accept the Victorian conventions of society. So, she is a masculine woman rather than a feminine woman. This paper emphasizes how a woman can perform like a man; this suggests masculinity is not the private property of a male; it is a social position that can be practiced in an individual way.

Be a Man, do not Cry like a Woman: Analyzing Gender Dynamics in Pakistan

Contrary to the view that gender is fluid, as concurred by several social scientists, in traditional Pakistani understanding, gender is seen in fixed binaries, i.e., either you are a man or a woman. The third category is known as the third gender in Pakistan. It is interesting to note that although gender is seen as fixed in Pakistani cultures, in informal discussions, varied shades of gender are highlighted by informants based on gender performativity. By drawing on the postmodern feminist theory of gender performativity, this paper does a discourse analysis of informant’s views about gender construction and dynamics in rural Sindh. Ethnographic fieldnotes have been used as primary data to analyze gender nuances implicit in Pakistani men's informal discourse. This paper argues that contrary to unchanging gender identities as endorsed by Pakistan society's patriarchal structure, men dismiss these fixed identities during an informal discussion. Instead, they shuffle gender identities by branding men and women as feminine men and masculine women, respectively, based on their gender performativity. We conclude that irrespective of physical outlook, the power lies in hegemonic forms of agency. Gender relationships and gender performance shape the sexual and gender identity of subjects.

" Soul, Body, and Masculine Women in Margaret Cavendish’s Blazing World"

Reading Margaret Cavendish’s fiction The Blazing World (1666) alongside her philosophical tract Observations upon Natural Philosophy, which was published together as a companion piece, this article examines Cavendish’s unique view on the relationship of soul and body as well as its gendered implications. In Observations, Cavendish puts forth her philosophy of nature, now called “vitalist materialism,” which suggests that everything in nature is corporeal, self-moving, self-knowing, and self-living. In The Blazing World, Cavendish complements Observations and uses the genre of fiction to explore uncertainties and ambiguities regarding the questions of the gendered nature of the body and soul. Firstly, this essay focuses on the difference between immaterial spirits and corporeal human souls as explained in The Blazing World and draws a tentative conclusion that Cavendish views the mind and soul as gendered. However, through a close reading of two scenes where female souls merge together in one body, and two female souls enter into the male body, this article argues that Cavendish comes up with a fictional human body that rejects gender essentialism as a way to envisage a more empowered mode of women’s existence. Therefore, Cavendish’s creation of a “hermaphroditical” body, justified by her system of natural philosophy, functions as an effective counter-attack on the seventeenth-century discourses that had accused masculine women as unnatural and monstrous.

ХРОМАТИЧЕСКАЯ ИНТЕРПРЕТАЦИЯ ИКОНИЧЕСКИХ КОДОВ В КАРТИНАХ ТАТЬЯНЫ АПРАКСИНОЙ

Авторы осуществили актуальную для «иконического поворота» попытку представить и обосновать лингвистические возможности интерпретации иконического мышления на примере живописных работ Татьяны Апраксиной. Соотношение между сознательными и бессознательными предикатами изобразительного творчества привело к анализу понятия «образ». Показано, что сознательность с необходимостью является выборочной и частичной, тогда как образы бессознания включают множество неосознаваемой информации внешней среды и путем сублимации могут быть материализованы в цветовой среде живописных картин.
 Хроматический анализ цветовой семантики по гендеру (психологическому полу) продемонстрировал существенные отличия для фемининного и маскулинного интеллекта с еще более явной дифференциацией для нормальных и экстремальных условий существования художницы. В творчестве нормативный аспект ее женственности за счет «трансцендентного перехода» в экстремальное состояние оказался менее существенным, чем сублимирующая функция бессознания.
 Это согласовывалось с общепризнанной характеристикой творчества гениальных художников, которым приходится постоянно вынашивать свои образы идеального плана в женственном плане сознания, только после чего и рождаются истинные идеи; поэтому, именно маскулинным женщинам наряду с фемининными мужчинами удавалось достигать запредельных высот истинного творчества.
 Хроматический анализ картин художницы показал гармоничное сочетание предикатов обоих полов в образе, иконика которого изменялась в зависимости от граничных условий так, что проявлялся весь опыт интеллектуального воплощения в переживаниях духа своего времени как предиката и идеала в сублимированном сочетании материи и духа. Высказано предложение, что такое подчинение приоритетов станет способствовать плодотворному развитию живописи.
 Ключевые слова: Татьяна Апраксина, живопись, цвет, образ, иконика, хроматизм, сознание и бессознание.

The Force of Habit / La fuerza de la costumbre by Guillén de Castro

Reviewed by: The Force of Habit / La fuerza de la costumbre by Guillén de Castro Sarah Grunnah Guillén de Castro. The Force of Habit / La fuerza de la costumbre. Edited with Introduction and Notes by Melissa Reneé Machit. Translated by Kathleen Jeffs. LIVERPOOL UP, 2019. 382 PP. FOLLOWING A HANDFUL OF ENGLISH-LANGUAGE performances of Guillén de Castro's The Force of Habit in her own translation, Kathleen Jeffs, with Melissa R. Machit, delivers a fine English-language translation of Castro's play, which is about two siblings raised separately—the brother as a girl and the sister as a boy—whose gender identities are ultimately reversed by the end of the play. Jeffs, who authored the translation, has created a blank verse version that is close to the Spanish, while the materials written by Machit render the comedia accessible as both a literary text and for performance. While the play was written nearly four hundred years ago, likely in the 1610s, Machit and Jeffs present it as a story that engages with modern notions of gender through its use of cross-dressing as well as "gender and identity categories in general" despite "a serious cultural anxiety about the instability of gender/sex categories" in the period (26–27). The introduction covers biographical information on Castro, a plot summary, the play's textual history, editorial methods, and a metrical analysis. Following this introduction, a four-part critical essay, "Bad Habits: Gender Made and Remade in La fuerza de la costumbre," contextualizes the play, addressing issues of gender in both it and the Spanish Golden Age more generally. The introductory material closes with a bibliography, a translator's note, and production stills; following the translation itself is a list of textual variants. In each part of the critical essay, Machit addresses different aspects of gender in relation to the play's contents and reception. These materials all serve to introduce a play that, as Jeffs argues, "examines the performative aspects of gender" (94). [End Page 167] Machit first introduces the dramatic tradition of cross-dressing in early modern Spain. She points to examples of other plays from the period in order to reveal how the practice ultimately caused controversy and raised fears of emasculation and effeminization, the "masculinity crisis" (84), citing Ursula Heise's foundational essay on the subject, yet ultimately prevailed as a popular subject among playwrights. Machit then turns to the notion of masculine perfection—the historical belief that masculinity was the more perfect version of femininity—in order to better understand "the allure of female actresses in men's clothing" (34). She reminds us that cross-dressing in daily life was seen as immoral, citing the trials of Eleno/a de Céspedes and Catalina/Alonso/Antonio de Erauso as real-life examples in the period. She concludes that Félix's feminine performance, which dips into effeminacy, "puts his life and the family name at risk" (43). As his father Don Pedro says, "He is, in short, a chicken. / And for a Moncada, by God, / this is unheard of. / It will be necessary to change him / back to his own nature" (1.460–64). Hipólita, on the other hand, becomes "a source of quiet pride for her father" (43); in his words, his daughter's manly feats "are the miracles performed / by the force of habit" (1.269–70). In essence, Machit argues that a greater unease over effeminate men compared to masculine women motivated Castro to create a more ambiguous gender identity for Félix than for Hipólita. Machit's next focus is on modern notions of gender in relation to the play, where gender "is shown to be constructed, heavily regulated, and violently imposed" (50). Drawing on the writings of Plato, Juan Luis Vives, and Lope de Vega, as well as Judith Butler's notion of gender as performative, Machit shows how the play interrogates the relationship between one's outward gender "performance" and internal "identity," pointing out, ironically, that it is "when Félix and Hipólita attempt to bring their exterior gender signs into conformity with their assigned genders … that they become completely illegible" (48). Their gender performances...

Femininity in men and masculinity in women is positively related to sociosexuality

Sociosexuality, i.e. individual's willingness to engage in uncommitted sex, is systematically higher in men than in women, and can be considered a male typical trait. However, intrasexual variation in sociosexuality is considerable, with individual femininity/masculinity being one of the factors influencing sociosexuality. The aim of our study was to test, in heterosexual and homosexual men and women from Brazil and the Czech Republic, whether childhood gender nonconformity (CGN) and continuous gender identity in adulthood (CGI) are associated with individual sociosexual orientation (SOI-R). A sample of 1336 heterosexual and homosexual men and women completed questionnaires on CGN, CGI, and SOI-R. In general, correlations show that higher masculinity in heterosexual women and higher femininity in both heterosexual and homosexual men are related to higher sociosexuality. Higher sociosexuality in masculine women can be explained by prenatal or actual androgen effects on sexual libido and can reflect a fast life history strategy. In feminine men, this result might reflect female preferences for feminine characteristics in men and an overall shift towards male femininity which can increase individual fitness. Also, gender nonconforming individuals can be more liberal adopting behaviors which are considered as non-traditional. This study challenges the widely association between masculinity and unrestricted sociosexuality.

Grammatical Gender in German Influences How Role-Nouns Are Interpreted: Evidence from ERPs

ABSTRACTGrammatically masculine role-nouns (e.g., Studentenmasc.‘students’) can refer to men and women but may favor an interpretation where only men are considered the referent. If true, this has implications for a society aiming to achieve equal representation in the workplace since, for example, job adverts use such role descriptions. To investigate the interpretation of role-nouns, the present ERP study assessed grammatical gender processing in German. Twenty participants read sentences where a role-noun (masculine or feminine) introduced a group of people, followed by a congruent (masculine–men, feminine–women) or incongruent (masculine–women, feminine–men) continuation. Both for feminine-men and masculine-women continuations a P600 (500 to 800 ms) was observed; another positivity was already present from 300 to 500 ms for feminine-men continuations but critically not for masculine-women continuations. The results imply a male-biased rather than gender-neutral interpretation of the masculine—despite widespread usage of the masculine as a gender-neutral form—suggesting that masculine forms are inadequate for representing genders equally.