Gender: Feminism and Masculinity Essay -- essays research papers fc

In a recent meta-analysis by Kite and Whitley in 1996, it was confirmed that men hold more negative attitudes toward homosexuality than do women. They also determined that men's attitudes toward homosexuality are particularly negative when the person being rated is a gay man rather than a lesbian. Their review of the literature also highlighted the complex nature of attitudes toward homosexuality noted by others. In order to understand the constructive attitudes of homosexuality, there are several factors that include beliefs that gay people are threatening or dangerous, etc. I reviewed Millham, San Miguel, & Kellogg, 1976; Plasek & Allard, 1984. These complexities, and how they influence sex differences in attitudes toward homosexuality, remain largely unexplored. The present research examines two issues: (1) whether sex differences in attitudes toward homosexuality vary by attitude component and (2) whether, within each component, the sex of the person being rated influences these attitudes. Kite and Whitley's (1996) have reviewed data that heterosexuals' evaluations of gay men and lesbians are influenced by a generalized gender belief system. According to this model, we as humans have already have characterized gender reflect the belief that gender-associated attributes are bipolar: What is masculine is not feminine and vice versa. We also tend to possess stereotypically masculine physical characteristics and to adopt stereotypically masculine roles. Similarly, the knowledge that a person is stereotypically feminine on one dimension leads to the inference that the person is stereotypically feminine on other dimensions I think that as a society, our beliefs about homosexuality are influenced by a gender belief system. Men are in stereotypically feminine terms are more likely to be judged homosexual than are men described in stereotypically masculine terms. At a lesser note, women are described too as sterotypes in masculine terms and are judged lesbian than women describ ed in stereotypically feminine terms In some gender-based judgments of gay people reflect the belief that male homosexuals are similar to female heterosexuals and that female homosexuals are similar to male heterosexuals (e.g., Kite & Deaux, 1987; Storms, Stivers, Lambers, & Hill, 1981). As Kite (1994) has argued, separating gender-role beliefs from attitudes toward homose... ...not want their tough side invaded they way I see it. This was a tought subject to write about, but I felt that the issue of gender with being Gay and Lesbian needed to be written. Works Cited Batson & Burris, 1994; Herek, 1988 Esses, Haddock, & Zanna, 1993   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.cpa.ca/cjbsnew/1996/ful_esses.html Herek, 1986b   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://en.web-blaster.org/www.lds-mormon.com/hldsss.shtml Kite & Deaux, 1987; Storms, Stivers, Lambers, & Hill, 1981   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/lablouin/psych200/project_fall01/stereotyping.htm   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.womenandsociety.buffalo.edu/bibliog/articles/bib/sj-sz.htm   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Louderback & Whitley, 1997   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.highbeam.com/library/doc0.asp?docid=1G1:112247853&refid=ink_puballmags&skeyword=&teaser= Kite and Whitley   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  psychology.ucdavis.edu/Rainbow/ html/poq_2002.pdf Millham, San Miguel, & Kellogg, 1976; Plasek & Allard, 1984   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.lesbianinformationservice.org/attrl.htm Whitley, 1987