androgyny

• What does it mean to be androgynous?

  • Being androgynous means having a balanced mix of both masculine and feminine characteristics, regardless of biological sex.
• How is androgyny conceptualized in gender studies?


  Androgyny is viewed as a spectrum between masculine and feminine traits rather than two opposite categories.
• What is the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI)?

  • The BSRI is a questionnaire developed by Sandra Bem to measure an individual’s masculinity, femininity, or androgyny.
• How was the BSRI developed?


  Bem asked 50 male and 50 female students to rate 200 traits for desirability for each gender. She then selected 20 masculine traits, 20 feminine traits, and 20 gender-neutral traits.
• Describe the scoring process in the BSRI.


  Participants rate each of the 60 traits on a scale from 1 (never true) to 7 (always true). Scores may reveal a masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated gender identity.
• What was Bem’s view on psychological health and gender roles?


  Bem suggested that highly sex-typed individuals (who strongly conform to traditional gender roles) may have poorer psychological health compared to androgynous individuals.
• What are some critiques of the BSRI?


  Critics argue that the BSRI, created in the 1970s, is outdated and may lack temporal validity, as societal views on gender have evolved significantly.
• What is an extraneous variable associated with the BSRI?


  Since many traits on the BSRI are positive, high scores on masculinity and femininity may indicate high self-esteem rather than true androgyny.]
• The BSRI was groundbreaking in measuring androgyny, a concept that suggests psychological well-being is highest when individuals embody both masculine and feminine traits. Bem’s (1974) research showed that individuals with androgynous traits often report higher self-esteem and better psychological health.
• Supporting this, Prakash et al. (2010) found that women with high masculinity scores on a masculinity-femininity scale had lower levels of depression and better physical health. These findings imply that individuals who are flexible in gender expression may be better equipped to adapt to varied social contexts, thus enhancing psychological well-being.
• However, the BSRI faces criticisms for its lack of temporal validity. A replication study by Holt and Ellis (1998) with 400 students found that many BSRI traits no longer aligned with contemporary views of masculinity and femininity, suggesting that the BSRI reflects outdated stereotypes from the 1970s.
• The issue of temporal validity highlights an important ethical implication: using outdated measures may reinforce harmful stereotypes rather than promote healthy self-expression. Furthermore, as most BSRI traits are desirable, scores may reflect high self-esteem rather than balanced androgyny, complicating its validity as a measure of gender.
• f androgyny is better for psychological and physical wellbeing, then there are real-world applications for this. For example, parents could be encouraged to raise their children free to assume either gender traits without sex-role stereotypes imposed on them. There are some individual cases where this has occurred with parents raising their children in a gender-neutral manner (Time Magazine, 2012) however, there was significant protest about this from people. This demonstrated how strongly people felt that such stereotypes were important to healthy development.