THE MALE-ROLE AND AVOIDING FEMININITY

When confronted with males and females deviating from society's sex-ba sed gender role prescriptions, people tend to respond more negatively to the males' transgressions. In order to develop an understanding of the reasoning behind this phenomenon, two theories were tested. The so cial status model predicts that males are punished because feminine be havior is lower in status than masculine behavior. The sexual orientat ion hypothesis predicts that, for males, there is a stronger perceived link between gender roles and sexuality and that a male acting in a f eminine way is more likely to be considered a homosexual than a female acting in a masculine way. A group of mostly Caucasian participants w ere asked to rate a male or female target, performing in either a male - or female-valued manner, on variables assessing social status and pe rceived homosexuality. The results suggested that the basic assumption of the social status model (i.e., higher male role status) could not be upheld; hence this hypothesis could not adequately be tested. Howev er, strong support emerged for the sexual orientation hypothesis. The functions of homophobic attitudes and the idea that these two models m ay not be mutually exclusive, especially from within a developmental f ramework, are discussed.