Do men have a gender?
Social psychologist Peter Hegarty commented on a post from last December on the "male-norm effect." Last year's post discussed Hegarty and Buechel's 2006 content analysis of gender difference psychology articles from 1965-2004, which found that men were reported as the norm. An experiment by Hegarty (2006) suggests this effect can be manipulated, but was unable to distinguish possible gender differences in susceptibility to the experimental manipulation (few partipants were men). Pratto, Korchmaros & Hegarty (2007) found that participants rarely listed race or gender of celebrities when these were career-typical (e.g. mentioning that Dan Rather is male) but did when it was atypical (e.g. Barbara Walters is female) -- even though they were instructed to list ways in which these celebrities were typical of their professions. This effect appeared to be stronger for race than gender.
Hegarty's research is not so much about gender differences, but rather about the way that society frames gender, race, and sexuality in order to study it. In my own experience, I've actually questioned how much this societal framing influenced my transition. Most of the time, I don't feel particularly gendered at all. In a mythical gynocentric society, would I have defaulted to female?
Hegarty's research is not so much about gender differences, but rather about the way that society frames gender, race, and sexuality in order to study it. In my own experience, I've actually questioned how much this societal framing influenced my transition. Most of the time, I don't feel particularly gendered at all. In a mythical gynocentric society, would I have defaulted to female?