Deck 7: Inequality: Women and Femininities

Question 1

Which of the following concepts is defined as the attribution of positive traits to women that justify their subordination to men?

A) feminist utopia
B) double bind
C) gender equivocation
D) benevolent sexism

Answer 1

D

Question 2

According to Wade and Ferree, the main types of patriarchal bargains available to women are

A) gender equivocation, feminine apologetic, emphasized femininity.
B) benevolent and hostile sexism.
C) feminism, hegemonic masculinity, and emphatic sameness.
D) emphasized femininity, emphatic sameness, and gender equivocation.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What defines the ideal woman in the contemporary United States?

A) She is a perfect picture of pure femininity.
B) She performs masculinity and femininity in a balanced way.
C) She is committed to being a wife and mother above all else.
D) She challenges male dominance and the matrix of domination.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following is evidence of women performing emphasized femininity?

A) Combat positions in the U.S. military have been opened to women.
B) Stay-at-home moms are being committed to performing unpaid work at home.
C) Parents are encouraging their daughters to aspire for traditionally male occupations.
D) Women are teaching men to use makeup to appear more attractive, too.

Question 5

Why do women make patriarchal bargains?

A) in order to be viewed as self-sacrificial
B) in order to limit the behavioral freedom enjoyed by men
C) in order to maximize their autonomy and well-being in the face of sexism and subordination
D) in order to embrace anything associated with masculinity at all

Question 6

A deodorant advertisement claims that its product offers both "Secret strength" and "Olay conditioning" for women who are both "one of the guys" and a "heartbreaker." This is an example of

A) The injection model of socialization
B) The association of femininity with powerlessness
C) The intersection of gender and advertising
D) The rule that women balance masculinity and femininity

Question 7

A woman holds the door open for a man who is hurrying into a building behind her, he hesitates to go through it. The fact that men resist being on the receiving end of chivalry reveals that is about power and inequality, not just being nice or gentlemanly.

A) emphasized femininity
B) hegemony
C) gender equivocation
D) benevolent sexism

Question 8

In the contemporary United States, individual women have more freedom than men to do gender as they like because

A) they are free to reject gender rules since they don't have to live up to hegemonic masculinity.
B) they are free to be just like men.
C) they are free to perform both masculinity and femininity.
D) none of the above are true; women do not have more freedom than men to do gender as they like.

Question 9

The feminine apologetic is

A) sitting folded up on oneself with the legs crossed at the knee.
B) the habit of saying "I'm sorry" before stating an opinion.
C) a requirement that women balance their appropriation of masculinity with femininity.
D) a common portrayal of women in the media where they cover their mouths or indicate staying silent.

Question 10

All of the following statements are true EXCEPT

A) the strategy of emphatic sameness has limited advantages.
B) most women alternate between different gender strategies to gain empowerment.
C) a double bind is a situation in which cultural expectations are noncontradictory.
D) benevolent sexism isn't about kindness but a trap to keep women in debt to men.

Question 11

According to philosopher Sandra Lee Bartky, feminine ways of using the body can be described as

A) a language of subordination.
B) an embodiment of the potential for both men and women to be graceful.
C) naturally maternal, since female bodies are designed to attract sex, nourish babies, and give comfort.
D) a way of signaling her age.

Question 12

What is the main purpose of gender policing?

A) to challenge a patriarchal society
B) to create a benevolently sexist society
C) to promote conformity to or support for gender rules among both women and men
D) to foster chivalric behavior among men

Question 13

Which of the following statements expresses the No. 1 gender rule?

A) A woman needs to embrace femininity and masculinity.
B) Parents experience anxiety when their girls exhibits gender-nonconforming behavior.
C) An individual has to identify as male or female and perform gender in a way that's consistent with that identity.
D) The model man does not ever behave femininely.

Question 14

Street hassling is an example of the relationship between hostile sexism and benevolent sexism because

A) friendly inquiries are sometimes followed up with angry or threatening ones if the woman doesn't properly respond.
B) it is harmless unless a woman decides she doesn't like it.
C) it dilutes hegemonic masculinity.
D) it happens to both women (hostile) and men (benevolent).

Question 15

According to their statements, George Sodini and Elliot Roger engaged in mass killing of women because

A) they thought that women should be less sexually promiscuous.
B) they succumbed to peer pressure.
C) they considered themselves as inferior to women.
D) they had a sense of entitlement to sex and affection from women and got aggressive when they did not get this response.

Question 16

Women who perform femininity tend to be more well-liked on the job, but seen as less competent; whereas women who don't tend to be regarded as competent, but not well-liked. This is an example of

A) gender equivocation
B) benevolent sexism
C) a double bind
D) the importance of doing gender

Question 17

While documenting parents' nervousness about their son's performance of femininity, the sociologist Emily Kane found that

A) parents discouraged their boys from playing with girls for more than one hour a day.
B) parents encouraged their sons to embrace femininity by doing things like painting their fingernails.
C) as masculine activities are valued, parents endorsed their girl's interests in "icons of masculinity" like trucks.
D) parents were deeply troubled by their girls' gender-nonconforming behavior.

Question 18

What is the nature of the relationship between hostile sexism and benevolent sexism?

A) Positive correlation: If one type is present in a society, so is the other.
B) Inverse correlation: If one type is present in a society, the other is not.
C) Direct causal relationship #1: Hostile sexism leads to benevolent sexism.
D) Direct causal relationship #2: Benevolent sexism leads to hostile sexism.

Question 19

All of the following statements describe the strategy of emphatic sameness EXCEPT

A) some women try to downplay the fact that they are female by making their femininity as invisible as possible.
B) men's negative stereotypes of women are strategically used to ensure women's subjugation to men.
C) thinking you are "one of the guys" undermines attempts to empower women as a group.
D) being good friends with men is also a mode of gaining power in a patriarchal society open to women.

Question 20

When a female bodybuilder wears a sparkly pink bikini, she could be said to be performing

A) androcentrism.
B) the feminine apologetic.
C) the All-American Girl strategy.
D) emphatic sameness.

Question 21

Why do the authors call benevolent sexism and hostile sexism Plan A and Plan B. respectively, as strategies to ensure women's subordination?

Question 22

Explain the phenomenon of double bind. Why do the authors highlight media treatment of Hillary Clinton (who ran for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination in the United States) as an example of double bind? Provide another example of a double bind placed on women in public life and discuss how it fits this concept.

Question 23

Both women and men are constrained by the binary gender system. How do the constraints they face differ systematically? Why are women more likely to experience their constraints as unfair?

Question 24

In contemporary American society, men are encouraged to avoid femininity and women are strongly encouraged to embrace both femininity and masculinity. With the help of three examples, explain this phenomenon in your own words.

Question 25

In what ways do women make patriarchal bargains in order to promote their well being and autonomy? When and how do men also engage in such bargains? Compare and contrast a pair of patriarchal bargains―with one for women and one for men―in their purposes and usefulness for people of each gender.

Question 26

Feminists argue that we are in the middle of a stalled gender revolution in which

A) about half of women embrace feminism and the opportunities it has brought them, but the other half are resisting these changes.
B) women have increasingly embraced opportunities that masculinity and masculine arenas provide, but few men have moved toward feminine options.
C) women have gotten halfway toward equality with men because they've become successful in service professions like medicine and the law, but have yet to match men's success in science and technology fields like physics and computer programming.
D) all of the above.

Question 27

The idea of a matrix of domination is intended to solve what problem for feminism?

A) A double bind in which women are damned-if-they-do and damned-if-they-don't
B) If one cared strictly about gender inequality, feminism was compatible with other forms of inequality.
C) Difficulty theorizing a relationship between hostile and benevolent sexism
D) The need to capture how the nature of women's oppression varies across different contexts

Question 28

In contemporary U.S. society, men suffer more from gender inequality as individuals, while women are harmed more as a group. This is because

A) men are harmed by androcentrism alone and women by androcentrism, sexism, and subordination.
B) men are harmed by androcentrism and women by sexism and subordination.
C) women are harmed by androcentrism, sexism, and subordination and men benefit from all three.
D) men are harmed by androcentrism and reverse sexism and women by androcentrism, sexism, and subordination.