Turns out, feminists actually like men just fine.

[terriko]

One of the more irksome problems when it comes to being a feminist is constantly explaining that no, feminism is not being about anti-men. So I have to say, I'm rather enamoured of this study that shows that feminists aren't that hostile to men -- Not a surprise, it's just going to be hilarious the next time someone's throwing accusations about and I'll be able to say, "actually, they did a study and showed that that's not true." (Surprisingly, being able to cite random studies actually does stop some folk in their tracks, particularly geek folk who like to believe that they respect science.)

What's much weirder is that the study actually implies that some of the real man-haters are non-feminists. I'm not sure I quite buy the theory for this put forward in the blog article I've linked, but it's interesting food for thought.

Comments

feminists

[dnivie.livejournal.com]

If I wanted to nitpick, I could point out that the study actually doesn't say, or even claim to say, that feminists aren't hostile to men. All it says is that one the -average- they don't seem more hostile to men than women who -don't- self-identify as feminists.

Women who self-identify as feminsists are probably more likely to enter into discussions about gender-roles than women who do not, so it could be that the impression is simply because those feminists which are critical of men are more outspoken and thus more visible thand those non-feminists which are critical of men.

I've found a good lithmus-test is to ask for someones opinion on gender-roles in some area traditionally dominated by females, say childcare. Sensible feminists will say that's an example of similar mechanisms, restricting people to their "traditional" roles, making unwarranted assumptions etc.

A few less sensible ones will insist it's not a problem at all.

Re: feminists

[terriko]

There's plenty of ways to nitpick the study. But I think you chose the wrong one: They rate people on a hostility-to-men scale of 0-6. With the highest hostility coming in at 2.7, and assuming that scores under 3 are likely not a highly hostile response, I'd say that says none of their groups is hostile to men on average. (I'd guess it's along the lines of "periodically irked by" as opposed to "hostile")

In case you're curious, I think the most obvious nitpick from those tables is that it didn't include standard deviations or other information which would indicate whether the differences are actually statistically significant. For example, I'll bet that the 2.6 vs 2.7 among non-white women is not a statistically significant difference. They hopefully have this information elsewhere, but it's hard to draw specific conclusions from what's in that blog post as a result.

Still, even if the differences aren't statistically significant, that lack of difference does point to the perfectly reasonable "feminists aren't man-haters" conclusion.

Re: feminists

[(Anonymous)]

Pet peeve: people who discuss studies without referencing the study in question. Cite your sources, people! (Not directed against you - you linked your source, it just wasn't the original)

The blog you link to is particularly egregious: they reproduce tables from the original study, so they've obviously seen it, but they don't name the lead author, the journal, the title of the study or any identifying information other than the institutional affiliation (U. of Houston). For goodness' sake, even the Ottawa Citizen usually does better than that.

Anyway, using the named source for a quote about the study, I was able to track down the original:

Kristin J. Anderson, Melinda Kanner and Nisreen Elsayegh, "ARE FEMINISTS MAN HATERS? FEMINISTS' AND NONFEMINISTS' ATTITUDES TOWARD MEN," Psychology of Women Quarterly 33(2):216-224. 2009.

Abstract: 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.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122352953/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 (Full-text is readable if you're on a Carleton IP.)

I, too, have a couple of methodological and philosophical concerns with the study (mostly related to the inclusion/exclusion criteria and the choice of operant definitions), but I'm supposed to be working right now, so that'll have to wait.

Alex

[(Anonymous)]

On the subject of studies...I seem to recall reading one that stated that the couples with the most active and satisfying sex lives were the ones where the woman was a feminist and the man was secure in his masculinity...so go figure!

Silvia

Unpossible

[(Anonymous)]

No this cannot be this does not make sense when a feminist and a man accidentally touch enormous waves of universe-destroying radiaton are released because this is due to the Pauli exclusion principle of feminons and guyons.

Or something.

Asad.