The contingency of feminine victimization

Abstract

Women continue to be disproportionally affected by sexual and intimate partner violence. Moreover, accumulating evidence indicates that women who are perceived as deviating from prevailing gender role norms are at increased risk for the receipt of physical aggression. Patriarchal aggression of this type begs identification of the mechanisms by which gender norms fashion and reinforce social hierarchies that subordinate women. Therefore, in the current study, a sample of 170 collegiate men participated in a sham aggression paradigm against a female confederate who projected either a restricted or nonrestricted socio-sexual orientation. Aggression was measured in terms of frequency, intensity, and duration of electric shocks ostensibly administered by the participant to his fictional opponent. Results suggest the potentiating effects of ambivalent sexism and abstract ideological attitudes on misogynistic aggression. These findings are discussed in terms of the construction and contingency of male aggression and female victimization.