Here is the abstract from Psychology of Women Quarterly (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122352953/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0). Despite the popular belief that feminists dislike men, few studies have actually examined the empirical accuracy of this stereotype. The present study examined self-identified feminists' and nonfeminists' attitudes toward men. An ethnically diverse sample (N = 488) of college students responded to statements from the Ambivalence toward Men Inventory (AMI; Glick & Fiske, 1999). Contrary to popular beliefs, feminists reported lower levels of hostility toward men than did nonfeminists. The persistence of the myth of the man-hating feminist is explored.
It is unclear to me as to why researchers felt the need to conduct a study to determine that feminists do not hate men. In fact, according to the study it has been determined that "'non-feminists believe in traditional gender roles such as men being breadwinners and women being caregivers. At the same time, these non-feminists actually appear to resent the confines of the traditional roles they advocate, which presents a paradox for women and men in traditional heterosexual relationships,' says researcher Melinda Kanner."
I give a warm nod and wink to Feministing.com for posting information on this study.
this isn't necessarily proof of anything. the study sounds correlational. what is the measure of the attitudes attitudes in study? what consistutes, in the researchers' operational definition, a pejorative attitude towards men. i think the myth that feminists are man haters is silly, but i think purposely framing and distorting the tenets of what social science does is equally dishonest.
ReplyDelete-Anonymous
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback. I agree with your above statements and I probably should have voiced that in the post.
I do not have access to the entire research article so I am unable to see how they measured anything. I have only read the abstract.
However, it was a surprise to me that anyone would attempt to conduct such a study as it does not seem necessary. These researchers obviously submitted their study for approval and the board apparently found a need for such a study. While it seems obvious to you and I that feminists are not man-haters there is a wider audience who does not.
Again, it just seemed strange, a bit comical and also a bit offensive that such a study be carried out.
Again, thank you for your thoughts.