Do most people recognize sexism in their daily lives? And what does it take to get them to shake their sexist beliefs?
In a recent study titled "Seeing the Unseen" psychologists Janet Swim of Pennsylvania State University and Julia Becker of Philipps University Marburg, Germany, set out to answer these questions.
Over the course of three separate, seven-day-long trials, Swim and Becker asked 120 college undergraduates (82 women and 38 men, ranging from 18 to 26 years old, some from the U.S., some from Germany) to record in a journal sexist comments they encountered on a daily basis. According to Swim, she and Becker hoped to determine whether forcing people to pay attention to less obvious forms of sexism could decrease their endorsement of sexist beliefs.
During the trials, subjects were instructed to note instances of sexist behavior toward women, ranging from unwanted sexual attention to blatantly sexist jokes and derogatory comments.
They were also asked to record subtler actions that many would consider harmless: men calling women "girls, " complimenting them on stereotypically feminine behavior and sheltering them from more "masculine" tasks. Swim and Becker described this less obvious sexism to participants as “benevolent sexism,” a term coined by psychologists Peter Glick and Susan Fiske in a 1996 study to refer to "a paternalistic attitude towards women that idealizes them affectionately," Glick told The Huffington Post.
Overcome with emotion and unable to truly convey his feelings while speaking at Ryan Dunn's memorial service last Wednesday, Johnny Knoxville wrote a touching blog post to his late friend and "Jackass" co-star, who died in a high speed car crash last week.
Dunn was buried in his hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania. Earlier in the week, another friend and "Jackass" co-star, Bam Margera, broke down while visiting the site of the accident.
Below is an excerpt of the blog entry; the whole thing can be read over at Dickhouse.tv, the official production company website of the "Jackass" crew.
I felt 34-percent funnier when I was with Ryan, but I guess everyone did. He had such a hair trigger laugh reflex. He lived his life wanting to laugh and wanting you to laugh with him. He would cackle really f*cking loud, too, and it wasn't uncommon that he would fall over from it. Sometimes I would fall with him because his spirit was very contagious.
He wasn't incapable of seriousness, though. Ryan was a great listener. If you were having troubles, he was always someone you could go sit down and talk to. Granted, most of our sitting down was actually standing up playing pool together, but he was always there if you were sad about something. That's why all this is even harder because right now I really need to talk to him but I can't.
Ryan also had an enormous capacity to love. His friends and family got a lot, but a lion's share of that went to his sweet and beautiful Angie. If he wasn't with her he would be talking about her. More times than not he would smile wide through that filthy ass beard of his and say something along the lines of, "How did I ever luck up and land her?" Well, it sure wasn't because of the way he smelled that's for sure. (Dunn despised water and rarely bathed.) It was because he had a pure, open heart, and many other qualities of which I am writing about now.
Want a successful marriage? Make sure you have sex when you're ready.
According to a new study, women who are sexually active early in their adolescence--specifically, before age 16--are more likely to divorce.
Researchers at the University of Iowa used the responses of 3,793 women who are married or have been married at some point in their lives from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to examine the relationship between the age at which they had their first sexual experience, and the success of their first marriage.
At first glance, the findings seemed alarming: multiple outlets (including this one), reported that up to 47 percent of women who lost their virginity during their teen years divorced within 10 years of getting married--implying that women who lose their virginity during adolescence will inevitably face conflict in their later adult relationships.
In fact, while the age at which sex first occurred was significant in determining women’s likelihood to divorce, more important was whether that sex qualified as “wanted." That's because the earlier women had their first sexual experience, the less frequently the sex was actually wanted. In short, the study's conclusions were less about the correlation between when a girl loses her virginity and her risk of divorce than it was about how the nature of the first sexual experience affects later romantic relationships.
While some of the initial reports about the study alluded to this point, they often did not explore it completely, so we decided to go to the source--lead researcher Anthony Paik--to shed more light on this surprisingly complicated study.
Even in the aftermath of a "mancession," it's the women that say they are most struggling most mightily.
Women report experiencing nearly twice as much “high or overwhelming” financial stress as men, according to a new survey by Financial Finesse Inc. Indeed, 28 percent of women reported experiencing “high or overwhelming financial stress" during the first quarter of 2011, while only 17 percent of men reported having that same level of stress.
Women also are three times as likely to experience “overwhelming” financial stress -- the highest level listed -- at a rate of 9 percent. And of all employees surveyed, 65 percent reported experiencing some financial stress, the study added.
Women were most likely to feel a higher level of stress because of their larger sense of obligation to raising their children and safeguarding their home, said Gregory Ward, head research analyst at Financial Finesse Inc., according to Bloomberg News.
That additional obligation has adverse health effects. Financial stress causes an estimated 60 percent of illnesses, directly or indirectly, and the American Psychological Association has identified it as the leading cause of unhealthy behaviors such as overeating, smoking, and alcohol and drug addiction, according to the report.
The situation for women could get worse before it gets better. Deficit reductions that are currently being considered by Congress would hurt women’s Social Security benefits even more than men’s Social Security benefits, since women live longer and rely more on Social Security, according to a new report by the National Women’s Law Center.
Since older women already are more economically vulnerable than men, the report says, deficit cuts would leave elderly women unable to meet many basic needs.
The dim economic situation seems to have even changed the way women think about marriage. Three out of four women would not marry a jobless man, and 65 percent said they would feel uncomfortable marrying someone else if they themselves were unemployed, according to a recent ForbesWoman survey.