Power in Hidden Figures: A critical discourse analysis

This article examines the concept of power in the 2016 movie Hidden Figures. This true story portrays the lives of three mathematicians who prevailed over oppressive racial and gender relations (i.e. as African American women) while working at National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the early 1960s. The method driving this analysis is critical discourse analysis (CDA). The ultimate objective of this analysis is to expose the racial and sexist discrimination experienced by the main protagonists in the movie and, more generally, the inequalities that Black women faced in the post-Second World War era. Several key constructs are emphasized: racial discrimination, sexism and discursive power tools such as word connotations, social semiotics and suppression/lexical absence.

Sexist Discrimination and Women’s Use of Intimate Partner Aggression: Results From a Nationally Representative Sample of Women

Women’s use of intimate partner aggression remains a controversial research topic. Studies suggest that experiences of racism and heterosexism are associated with the use of intimate partner aggression among people impacted by these forms of oppression. Women also have unique experiences of discrimination that may be associated with their use of intimate partner aggression. The current study examined the direct association between women’s experiences of sexist discrimination and intimate partner aggression as well as the indirect relationship through mental health symptoms. All measures were gathered during Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), with data provided by 13,928 women. Structural equation modeling identified a significant direct relationship between women’s experiences of sexist discrimination and their use of intimate partner aggression, β = .04, z = 3.07, p = .002, and a significant indirect path through mental health symptoms (depression and anxiety; ab = .04, 95% CI [0.03, 0.05]). Women who experienced greater sexist discrimination reported greater mental health symptoms and more intimate partner aggression. The findings support the novel hypothesis that women’s intimate partner aggression may, in part, result from experiences of sexist discrimination and the emotional and mental distress associated with these experiences. These results offer important implications for practitioners, researchers, and policy makers by highlighting the need for gender-responsive interventions for women’s intimate partner aggression that consider how sexist experiences and mental health symptoms are associated with women’s relationship behaviors.

Gaining Insight into Violence from Gender Stereotypes and Sexist Attitudes in the Context of Tourism

It is difficult to identify, but there is a type of harassment grounded in gender stereotyping in the context of tourism. It would be useful to discover the hidden relationships between gender harassment and certain beliefs about women as travellers, tourism professionals and sex objects in the field of hospitality. Methodologically, a survey was carried out reaching a sample of ±684 units by means of a convenience sampling procedure. The measuring instruments consisted of a structured questionnaire divided into two kinds of Likert beliefs scales comprising general statements and statements related to tourism. The survey respondent data were also gathered as regards sociodemographic characteristics. This paper presents empirical evidence to identify the causal factors of gender violence by considering general and particular stereotyping in tourism. Firstly, by performing three exploratory factor analyses, three female stereotyping dimensions were labelled in the field of tourism (occupational sexism, ambivalent sexist discrimination, and sex as a commodity), as well as three general prejudices about women (dysfunctional romantic relationships, ethically challenged presumptions, and aesthetical manners conventions) and the gender harassment factor. Secondly, a linear regression analysis was carried out to demonstrate that both general stereotyping related to a broader “life” framework and sectorial prejudices in tourism cause gender harassment. Finally, this research proves that general stereotyping determines sectorial prejudices in the field of tourism. The practical implications could be to enhance gender equality and combat gender harassment by revealing unintentional and unobserved prejudices that occur in a general life setting and in the tourism sphere against women as neglected professionals, under the subtle and ambivalent condition of travellers, and even as objects of consumption.

Racism, Sexism, Universalism

This chapter discusses a hypothesis advanced several years ago by the author and that seems particularly imperiled by the interpretive ambiguities surrounding the idea of universality. This hypothesis concerned the paradoxical relationship between racism and universalism in the modern era. The chapter explains why one should assign central importance to the institution when examining the paradoxical relationship between racist or sexist discrimination and universalist discourse. It then posits a concept of “anthropological difference” that should help to distinguish between several uses of the—inextricably metaphysical and political—notions of identity, human essence or nature, norms, and normativity. Finally, the chapter considers what constitutes the apparently ineluctable paradox underlying the relationship between the politics of emancipation and the political community.

The Role of Interpersonal Sexual Objectification in Heterosexual Intimate Partner Violence From Perspectives of Perceivers and Targets

Sexual objectification is a subtle manifestation of sexist discrimination and violence against women that involves seeing and treating women as sex objects of male sexual desire. The primary aim of this research was to connect sexual objectification experiences with heterosexual intimate partner violence. This set of studies examined the impact of sexual objectification on intimate partner violence for both the female victim (Study 1) and the male perpetrator (Study 2). Female (Study 1) and male (Study 2) participants were asked to rate the extent they are victims or perpetrators of sexual objectification experiences and intimate partner violence. Moreover, women’s self-silencing and men’s ascriptions of humanity and empathy (through empathic concern and perspective taking) toward their partner was assessed. The results of the first study (including 154 heterosexual women) showed that general sexual objectification victimization indirectly leads to higher psychological and physical violence through the internalization of self-silence schemas. The second study (including 165 heterosexual men) demonstrated a link between general sexual objectification perpetration and psychological and physical intimate partner violence. Moreover, the relation between men’s perpetration of objectification and intimate partner violence was mediated by ascriptions of humanity and empathic concern toward their female partner (but not through perspective taking toward her). Results of both studies demonstrate the effect of sexual objectification (as target or perpetrator) on global intimate partner violence and explain the different psychological mechanisms through which it takes place depending on the gendered perspective. Theoretical implications and practical considerations for interventions on intimate partner violence are discussed.

“Behave yourself, woman!”

After a record number of women were elected to the House of Commons in 1997, many incidents of sexism and abusive behaviour were reported. The aim of this article is twofold: on the one hand, to scrutinize the mechanisms and effects of sexist discrimination and stereotyping of women MPs in the House of Commons; on the other, to identify the strategies used by female (and male) MPs to subvert discriminatory representations, and to counteract gender-biased and sexist treatment. The focus of the multi-level analysis is on three recurrent strategies: objectifying women MPs through fixation on personal appearance rather than professional performance (e.g. making trivialising comments about women’s hair and dressing style); patronizing women MPs through the use of derogatory forms of address (e.g. directly addressing them by the terms of endearment “honey”, “dear”, “woman”); and stigmatizing women MPs through abusive and discriminatory labelling (e.g. ascribing to them stereotypically insulting names.

Interpersonal Sexual Objectification Experiences: Psychological and Social Well-Being Consequences for Women

Sexual objectification as a form of sexist discrimination accounts for the higher prevalence of psychological problems among women. More specifically, sexual objectification manifests itself in different ways with different intensities, in turn affecting women’s psychological well-being differently. On one hand, experiences of body evaluation are more subtle and work by perpetuating sexist attitudes among women themselves. On the other hand, more explicit forms of sexual objectification (unwanted explicit sexual advances) are linked to higher levels of anxiety and lower levels of self-esteem. The first study, on a sample of 343 Spanish women, aims to analyze the consequences of different forms of sexual objectification on women’s psychological well-being and the effect of sexism and enjoyment of objectification on these consequences. The second study, on a sample of 144 Spanish women, focuses on analyzing the ideological variables that have an effect on response to acts of sexist discrimination. Both studies reveal the significance of the more subtle experiences of sexual objectification as a mechanism that plays a part in keeping women in a subordinate position, where they end up feeling that this process is positive or pleasing.