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.