scholarly journals Children can control the expression of masculinity and femininity through the voice

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 190656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Cartei ◽  
Alan Garnham ◽  
Jane Oakhill ◽  
Robin Banerjee ◽  
Lucy Roberts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Objective Measure ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Sexually Dimorphic ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Child Characters ◽  
Masculinity And Femininity ◽  
Vocal Apparatus ◽  
Voice Fundamental Frequency ◽  
The Voice

Pre-pubertal boys and girls speak with acoustically different voices despite the absence of a clear anatomical dimorphism in the vocal apparatus, suggesting that a strong component of the expression of gender through the voice is behavioural. Initial evidence for this hypothesis was found in a previous study showing that children can alter their voice to sound like a boy or like a girl. However, whether they can spontaneously modulate these voice components within their own gender in order to vary the expression of their masculinity and femininity remained to be investigated. Here, seventy-two English-speaking children aged 6–10 were asked to give voice to child characters varying in masculine and feminine stereotypicality to investigate whether primary school children spontaneously adjust their sex-related cues in the voice—fundamental frequency ( F 0) and formant spacing (Δ F )—along gender stereotypical lines. Boys and girls masculinized their voice, by lowering F 0 and Δ F , when impersonating stereotypically masculine child characters of the same sex. Girls and older boys also feminized their voice, by raising their F 0 and Δ F , when impersonating stereotypically feminine same-sex child characters. These findings reveal that children have some knowledge of the sexually dimorphic acoustic cues underlying the expression of gender, and are capable of controlling them to modulate gender-related attributes, paving the way for the use of the voice as an implicit, objective measure of the development of gender stereotypes and behaviour.

scholarly journals Voice Cues Influence Children’s Assessment of Adults’ Occupational Competence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Cartei ◽  
Jane Oakhill ◽  
Alan Garnham ◽  
Robin Banerjee ◽  
David Reby
Keyword(s):  
Social Environment ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Voice Pitch ◽  
Masculinity And Femininity ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
Male Occupations

AbstractThe adult voice is a strong bio-social marker for masculinity and femininity. In this study we investigated whether children make gender stereotypical judgments about adults’ occupational competence on the basis of their voice. Forty-eight 8- to 10- year olds were asked to rate the competence of adult voices that varied in vocal masculinity (by artificially manipulating voice pitch) and were randomly paired with 9 occupations (3 stereotypically male, 3 female, 3 gender-neutral). In line with gender stereotypes, children rated men as more competent for the male occupations and women as more competent for the female occupations. Moreover, children rated speakers of both sexes with feminine (high-pitched) voices as more competent for the female occupations. Finally, children rated men (but not women) with masculine (low-pitched) voices as more competent for stereotypically male occupations. Our results thus indicate that stereotypical voice-based judgments of occupational competence previously identified in adults are already present in children, and likely to affect how they consider adults and interact with them in their social environment.

scholarly journals Prejudice and discrimination in the everyday life of same-sex couples raising children

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mário Augusto TOMBOLATO ◽  
Ana Cláudia Bortolozzi MAIA ◽  
Anna Paula UZIEL ◽  
Manoel Antônio dos SANTOS
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Protective Measures ◽  
Raising Children ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Prejudice And Discrimination ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Parenthood Status

Abstract The present study investigated the experiences of prejudice and discrimination in the everyday lives of five same-sex couples raising children. Data were collected using a questionnaire and an interview and were analyzed by thematic analysis. Participants attributed meanings to their experiences of being homoparental families: they assumed their social role as they managed to develop their own conjugality and parental projects in the struggle within a social context permeated by the hegemony of heteronormative values. The participants experienced prejudice related to their lifestyle and attained parenthood status, challenging social norms and gender stereotypes. However, it was also found that attitudes of willingness and perseverance in their fight for their rights proved to be protective measures against prejudice and social intolerance. A limited number of studies have examined the prejudice and discrimination towards same-sex families in Brazil; therefore, there is a need for greater visibility and further discussion about this phenomenon.

Same-sex and cross-sex siblings: Activity choices, roles, behavior, and gender stereotypes

Sex Roles ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 15 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 495-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zolinda Stoneman ◽  
Gene H. Brody ◽  
Carol E. MacKinnon
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Activity Choices ◽  
And Gender

Why Trump and Clinton won and lost: the roles of hypermasculinity and androgyny

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary N. Powell ◽  
D. Anthony Butterfield ◽  
Xueting Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
General Assumption ◽  
Political Preference ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Masculinity And Femininity ◽  
Us Presidential Election

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine perceptions of the “Ideal President” (IP) and presidential candidates in the 2016 US presidential election in relation to gender stereotypes and leader prototypes. Design/methodology/approach In all, 378 business students assessed perceptions of either the IP or a particular candidate on measures of masculinity and femininity. Androgyny (balance of masculinity and femininity) and hypermasculinity (extremely high masculinity) scores were calculated from these measures. Findings The IP was perceived as higher in masculinity than femininity, but less similar to the male (Donald Trump) than the female (Hillary Clinton) candidate. IP perceptions were more androgynous than in the 2008 US presidential election. Respondents’ political preferences were related to their IP perceptions on hypermasculinity, which in turn were consistent with perceptions of their preferred candidate. Social implications Trump’s high hypermasculinity scores may explain why he won the electoral college vote, whereas Clinton’s being perceived as more similar to the IP, and IP perceptions’ becoming more androgynous over time, may explain why she won the popular vote. Originality/value The study extends the literature on the linkages between gender stereotypes and leader prototypes in two respects. Contrary to the general assumption of a shared leader prototype, it demonstrates the existence of different leader prototypes according to political preference. The hypermasculinity construct, which was introduced to interpret leader prototypes in light of Trump’s candidacy and election, represents a valuable addition to the literature with potentially greater explanatory power than masculinity in some situations.

scholarly journals Left-handedness is associated with greater fighting success in humans

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Richardson ◽  
R. Tucker Gilman
Keyword(s):  
Objective Measure ◽  
Selective Advantage ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Sexually Dimorphic ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
Fighting Ability ◽  
Left Handedness ◽  
Left Handed ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Female Fighters

AbstractLeft-handedness is a costly, sexually dimorphic trait found at low frequencies in all human populations. How the handedness polymorphism is maintained is unclear. The fighting hypothesis argues that left-handed men have a negative frequency-dependent advantage in violent intrasexual competition giving them a selective advantage. In support of this, many studies have found that left-handed men are overrepresented among modern professional fighters, but studies typically find no difference in fighting success between left and right-handed fighters. We studied over 13,800 professional boxers and mixed martial artists of varying abilities in three of the largest samples to test this hypothesis to date, finding robust evidence that left-handed fighters have greater fighting success. This held for both male and female fighters, and for both percentage of fights won and an objective measure of fighting ability. We replicated previous results showing that left-handed fighters are strongly overrepresented in professional combat sports, but left-handed fighters did not show greater variance in fighting ability, a hypothesis suggested in previous studies. Overall we find strong evidence consistent with the fighting hypothesis.

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