HYPERFEMININITY - FURTHER DEFINITION OF THE CONSTRUCT

The purpose of the current study was to explicate the definition of hy perfemininity. College women (n = 270, M age = 18) and nursing student s (n = 56, M age = 33) completed measures of sexual attitudes and expe riences, psychological symptomatology, and antisocial tendencies. In a ddition, the college women. received a measure of assertiveness, read scenarios describing sexually coercive men, and responded to rationali zations for the man's behavior. Women high in hyperfemininity held mor e permissive sexual attitudes, had more antisocial tendencies, and had more consensual sexual experiences but were not different than women low in hyperfemininity opt a measure of assertiveness. Hyper femininit y was negatively correlated with giving socially desirable responses a nd positively correlated with self-reported symptoms of psychopatholog y in the college sample. Women low in hyperfemininity were less likely to rationalize the behavior of sexually coercive men in certain situa tions and reported being less likely to date a man who used levels of force to obtain sex.