Narcissistic Women Favor Sexism

[crabby_lioness]

Women who feel entitled more likely to endorse benevolent sexism, study finds.

Duh, people.  My adoptive mother could have been Exhibit A.

Comments

[swordznsorcery]

That's interesting. I've always wondered about the astonishing sexism of my grandmother, and up to a point, this idea would help explain it. She was certainly very vain and self-centred. Her sexism was truly astounding, but her mother appears to have been a very strong, independent woman (I never met her, but she sounds that way), and her mother certainly was. My grandfather didn't encourage her beliefs either, as he was very careful to ensure that their daughter (my mother) didn't grow up sharing them.

Having said that, the article identifies two types of sexism, benevolent and hostile, and refers to narcissism encouraging the former. My grandmother definitely came into the latter camp though. She firmly believed that men are more intelligent than women, and wanted nothing to do with female doctors. She also greatly opposed the idea of female priests, on the grounds that they wouldn't be able to do the job as well. As I said, astounding. It's possible that she may have somehow cultivated the idea of women needing special care to extremes, though.

Interesting notion, anyway.

[crabby_lioness]

I'm not sure they tested hostile sexism, but my mother was both narcissistic and very mush a hostile misogynist. She was also lazy and hated any woman who showed her up by being good at anything.

[swordznsorcery]

They only mention benevolent sexism in the article, certainly. It warrants further study. It's certainly an interesting line of research, as it's difficult to understand what would make any woman believe herself to be inferior to men; at least without having been conditioned to think that by their upbringing. There certainly doesn't seem to have been anything in my grandmother's past that would have led her to truly believe such a thing, and yet it wa s a belief that she clearly expressed many times.

It does seem illogical though. If you're that vain, why would you think so much less of yourself? Maybe that's where some of their anger comes from.

[crabby_lioness]

Ah, but you're not a lesser creature so much as an alien creature. An angel, not an ape in the 19th century parlance; a "special snowflake" in modern terms.

[swordznsorcery]

Yes, I suppose that works; and you certainly have the experience to analyse the situation, more's the pity. It still seems an illogical, and rather wasteful, way to live a life though. Far simpler to assume equality.

[crabby_lioness]

It's wasteful and illogical, but if you've got an authoritarian framework stuck inside your head filtering your perceptions you don't have any choice. Equality literally threatens everything you believe in. It's the end of your world -- or at least your worldview.

Take Pat Buchanan calling on the Tea Party to destroy America "like Samson" rather than fund Obamacare. His ideal of America is predicated on the moral and legal superiority of the few over the many. Anything that advances equality will tear down "his" America anyway, so why shouldn't he tear down "our" America in retaliation?

Or for an even more ludicrous example, here's a story from yesterday about why conservative Jews spent $60,000 to have a man kidnapped and tortured until he agreed to divorce his wife rather than reforming their divorce laws. From their perspective it was a bargain. Reforming the divorce laws would end their unquestioned power within their community, and anything was better than that.

[swordznsorcery]

Bloody hell. I think I'm glad I don't understand their thinking, in that case. Actually, speaking of the Tea Party, and being threatened by notions of equality - this story popped up on Twitter earlier today. Apparently the Tea Party want to sue homosexuality.

Well, it's ambitious. You've got to give them that.

[crabby_lioness]

Next thing you know, they'll sue left-handedness.