Madonna or the Whore.

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27/05/2012 by Josephine Rose

Hey BrainBreakers!

Whew! Uni’s been crazy lately, and I’ve just finished submitting my last homework for the semester! Yay! Before I get a little bit too caught up on exams, I’d just like to share with you a little something we’ve been learning about in Social Psychology lately. This post may lean a little towards the serious side as well, as I tend to have a sort of feminist perspective on things.

There’s been a lot of discussion on stereotypes, and now we’ve moved on to sexism. This is usually a hot topic between my boyfriend and I, because on the one side, while he wants to believe that women can manage in this world if only they put enough effort into it, I keep telling him there exists a real problem, lying outside a woman’s control. And both sides of the sexes have played a role in it of course, because a process wouldn’t continue on without the participation of both groups.

There are two types of sexism when it comes to women: hostile or benevolent. 

Hostile sexism is the overt type, the in your-face-kind, where men openly fire insults to women, through words or actions. Benevolent sexism, I believe, is the scarier type of prejudice, because here, people praise you when you obediently stick to what they tell you to do. Men who endorse benevolent sexism believe that women are weak, powerless, and incapable, needing a man’s protection in the world. They adore women too, and that’s what makes it so hard to pinpoint.

That’s where the title of this post comes in. The Madonna/Whore Complex, describes two ways in which a woman is usually portrayed. You are playing the role of the Madonna when you comply with all of society’s stereotypes: you are warm, caring, sympathetic… and stick with “household” chores like cooking, cleaning, taking care of children, or being the female secretary of the office to the male boss. When you are playing a Madonna role, men would love you, and they would want to cherish and protect you… at the same time, keep their power over you, which is what benevolent sexism is all about.

You are the Whore when you do not comply with the stereotypes. Women in business, competing with men against the top spots are not seen as warm, they’re perceived as cold and threatening. Feminist groups who are not the usual obedient sort, who aggressively rally for equal rights, are seen as a threat to power and resources, and men don’t like these types of women. Ergo, the whore. Because they are trying to break away from the rules of society, these women are usually the target of hostile sexism. They are criticized, they are challenged with “glass ceilings” (the theory that women can only attain a certain position in a company…almost always, never the top position), they are looked down upon, even by other women. It is only when they begin to fit the “ideal woman” role once again that the hostility stops, and they are rewarded for keeping in their place.

Now you might think that between hostility or benevolence, you’d rather go for the option where in people are at least nice to you. Think again. The reason why I said earlier that benevolent sexism may be the scarier type of prejudice is because of this study that our professor shared with us.

Under the context of a job interview, women were exposed to either an interviewer who was mean (hostile interviewer, implying that women are weak, easily upset, and always wanting to get unfair advantage over men), nice (benevolent interviewer, implying that although the women might be less competent than the men, they will be patient with her and offer her help and support when she needs), and finally, a neutral interviewer. 

 

The women thought the hostile interviewer was the worst, and the benevolent interviewer the best. But (and for emphasis, I say again, BUT!) after the interview, they were asked to do a cognitive task and this is where things get really interesting. 

 

Across all three conditions, the women had attempted  similar number of items on the cognitive task, and actually had the same level of motivation. One would assume that because they were all equally motivated, they’d have similar performances as well… right? 

 

The researchers, Dardenne et al. (2007), found that women in the hostile interviewer condition actually had the best performance… and the women in the benevolent interviewer condition performed the worst! 

 

Seems like the women who were insulted by the hostile interviewer did well because they probably wanted to prove him wrong. But even with the same kind of motivation, the women with the benevolent interviewer were seen to be affected by stereotype threat (which I’ve previously blogged about here). The benevolent interviewer had successfully implied in their minds that they were much weaker and less competent than the men. These thoughts had distracted the women from the tasks, leading them to perform much, much worse, than those who had the hostile or neutral interviewer. 

 

Hostile sexism and benevolent sexism work hand in hand in keeping these kinds of inequality alive. Women are praised and rewarded for doing what is expected of them, and when they start to challenge the status quo, they are met with hostility. 

There are big improvements in today’s world though, and while we are seeing more  opportunities opening up for us women now a days, I urge you to keep your eyes open. Know when you are being cleverly manipulated, no matter how sugar-coated or nice it is. Lest you let others keep you from your full potential.  

 

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*The study I described today was from Dardenne, Dumont, & Bollier (2007) entitled “Insidious Dangers of Benevolent Sexism: Consequences for Women’s Performance”