Tarryn Priestly
Nov. 3rd,
2014
WGST 202
Professor Currans
Blog Topic: The
Feminist Movement
Article Review #2
Vernet,
Jean Pierre, Jorge Vala, and Fabrizio Butera. "Can Men Promote
Feminist Movements?: Outgroup Influence Sources Reduce Attitude
Change toward Feminist Movements." Group Processes &
Intergroup Relations 14.5 (2011): 723-33. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.
In the article “Can
Men Promote Feminist Movements?”, Jean Pierre Vernet, Jorge Vala
and Fabrizio Butera perform a research experiment to test the stigma
against women's rights and the feminist movement as a whole. They
test the conception people have about feminism and their association
of it with either a negative idea or the ideas that it actually
stands for. Through this experiment, Vernet, Vala and Butera are
trying to prove that while anyone can promote the feminist movement,
it all depends on who is doing the promoting and to whom they are
promoting to.
The authors go on
to test their hypotheses of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, the first
testing the hypothesis that a less threatening experimenter, in this
case a female, “should elicit in female participants greater
attitude change in favour of feminist movements when reassociation
was presented in less threatening terms (forgetting) than when it was
presented in more threatening terms (discrimination), while a male
experimenter should elicit equally lower levels of attitude change
because of his threatening status” (726). 'Forgetting', in this
sense, is to mean that the unknown information given to participants
is not known to them because either they or people around them had
'forgotten' to bring it to light. The second experiment tested the
hypothesis that the person's mind is to be more easily changed if a
person from their ingroup (e.g. a female talking to females) is to
present the reassociation of feminist ideals in a non-threatening
manner, such as saying how the information presented is commonly
forgotten instead of not being known due to discrimination. These two
hypotheses were proven true after they had groups of males and
females fill in three questionnaires during the experiments, the
participants clearly being in favour of women's rights but not
feminist movements. When it came time for the experimenters to tell
the group about the connection between feminism and women's rights,
the participants had a more positive view if an ingroup member were
to tell them (a female to a group of females) rather than an outgroup
member (a male to a group of females). The outgroup member, as
Vernet, Vala and Butera had hypothesised before the experiment had
begun, was seen as a threat by the other ingroup members, confirming
their thoughts that ingroup members were less likely to trust
outgroup members. The same goes for the second variable of the
experiments, the reassociation part, where the experimenters told
about the reason for disassociation as either being from forgetting
or discrimination. Participants were more likely to be positive with
a less-threatening word ('forget') than a harsher, threatening word
('discriminate').
The authors did
indeed answer their main question: can men promote feminist
movements? And the answer is yes, but due to their findings, only
under specific conditions, such as only with male-influenced targets.
'In sum, the reassociation procedure can be used effectively to
promote positive attitudes toward feminist movements, but within the
framework of intragroup, not intergroup, social-influence
communications' (730). Of course the experiment conducted had its
limitations of only presenting male-female relations, excluding the
possibility of a perceived threat and only focusing on the change of
attitude in targets, leaving the possibility to test whether or not
there has been a change in behaviour as well. But this experiment is
considered a stepping stone for the ability of minorities to have
their voices heard.
When it comes to
the feminist movement, people normally think of the prototype of a
woman supporting it. But this article shows that the movement doesn't
have to be based on one gender, or more specifically doesn't have to
be taught from one gender. While issues such as this are best to be
heard from the oppressed themselves, it can be beneficial in ways to
have the oppressor speak as well (within their limits, of course).
When this article is juxtaposed with the first article, 'Debating
Trans Inclusion in the Feminist Movement' from Eli R. Green, the big
comparison made is people's misconceptions about the feminist
movement. These two articles show how people believe in
misconceptions such as trans people not belonging in the feminist
movement as learnt from Green's article, and the missed message of
the feminist movement being for and fighting for women's rights.
Although it's clear that Vernet, Vala and Butera did not perform
their experiment with the belief that men are excluded from the
movement as trans people are, both articles help to educate people on
the true idea of what feminism is and promote the ending of its
multiple misconceptions. Before reading “Can Men Promote Feminist
Movements?”, I had not considered men being involved in, let alone
promoting, feminism. I had always seen them to be just on the
sidelines, but now with this idea that they can promote the movement,
granted under certain conditions to be taken seriously, it takes away
the stigma that I'm used to and I'm sure other people are used to as
well that feminism is a woman-only movement when really, anyone can
take part and especially promote its ideals.
I have always found it interesting that so many individuals tend to shy away from the word feminism, so I think that experiments and research like this example are very important in helping to educate people and remove the negative stigmas that are often associated with feminism. One key reason that I think this research is important is that it helps to show that feminism is not about hating men (seeing as how the men in the experiment are clearly pro-feminism), but rather that it is about equality between all people, and that anyone can be a feminist--no matter what their gender identity might be. I think that if more people viewed feminism as a movement for equality and justice, then maybe more people would be open to supporting feminism.
ReplyDelete--Melissa Condon
It makes me sad that a lot of guys will be all like "feminism is bad blah blah blah" but they don't really understand it as bad, A lot of guys will consider it "Man-hating" without even bothering to try and find out what it's really about. I think it's a great point that people in the "In-group" have more influence than that of a person on the outside. If more guys were turned on to feminism and tried discussing it with their not-so-informed guy friends it might help change a lot more people's minds.
ReplyDelete-Casey Coulter
I think it's a really interesting point that this article makes about changing people's viewpoints in general -- that people will be more likely to change if they're hearing it from someone from the ingroup. Which is something that makes sense when thought about and applied. But I see a lot of anti-men feminist posts around the internet, and then celebrities who are male that have signs promoting feminism (Tom Hiddleston, for example), as well as other famous people that are feminists such as Patrick Stump and Andy Hurley.
ReplyDeleteIn short, the Ingroup is important and that's why the feminist movement will need men involved just as they will need women.
-Elijah Zagorski
This article makes a lot of sense to me, because some of my friends who are "anti-feminist" just think they know that feminists hate men. However, I've told them that feminists just want equal rights for women and how women are treated unfairly. Those anti-male feminists are the few giving the whole movement a bad rep. Having someone that you can relate to tell you about the movement can change your whole view on the subject. As Elijah said, many male celebrities support the feminist movement. One that stands out to me in particular is Aziz Ansari who is very outspoken about feminism. I think having someone in your ingroup to relate to can help you understand more about the issue.
ReplyDeleteAnthony