Research involving American graduate students reveals that different types of sexist traits can be identified easily among men.
The study by Jin Goh and Judith Hall of Northeastern University, as reported by The Huffington Post, talks about how day-to-day conversation between men and women are often affected by implicit sexism that often goes unnoticed.
The researchers brought together 27 pairs of American undergraduate men and women, asking them to perform a trivia quiz, and then converse with each other afterwards. The behaviour of the participants was monitored and thoroughly studied in great detail as Goh and Hall intended to peruse the expressions and speech of the men while they interacted with women they had just met.
As this study is the sole research that investigates both the choice of words, and the body language of the men, it was concluded that the approach of a man to a woman corresponds perfectly with the kind of sexism he expresses.
Men who were more ‘hostile sexist’ came off as quite insensitive and aggressive, and tended to smile a lot less during the inter-gender interaction, while men that portrayed ‘benevolent sexism’ were perceived as more respectful, friendly and generally gave off warmer auras as they didn’t seem as impatient and discouraging as those that practiced ‘hostile sexism’. Both of these types are a sub category of ‘ambivalent sexism’.
According to Hall, 'benevolent sexism' is as dangerous as hostile sexism -- if not more -- as it often views women in stereotypical conditions, and therefore, goes hand in hand with the gender inequality that women find in every-day relationships. However, since most of the gestures that are made by the men come off as nice and welcoming, it fools society into accepting it.
