Ambivalent Sexism
The Ambivalent Sexism Theory hasn’t been around forever; the idea was first developed in the late 1990s by Peter Glick and Susan Fiske. Sexism has been a topic of discussion for a long time, yet these two wanted to look at sexist attitudes being more complex and having both positive and negative views towards women. Moreover, the Ambivalent sexism theory holds that sexism consists of two different forms, hostile and benevolent sexism.
Hostile sexism is the negative side of the coin that makes up the Ambivalent sexism theory. Sexists that fall within this category tend to view women as seeking to harm men, through manipulation or attempting to control them through seduction. Along with that, gender equality is looked upon as an attack on men or the traditional values as briefly defined in the “Deeper Dive Into the Nuclear Family” section.
Benevolent sexism is the positive side of the coin that makes up the Ambivalent sexism theory. Sexists that fall within this category tend to view women as gentle, innocent, caring, delicate, along with many other adjectives that may be synonyms to those already listed. However, instead of hating/great dislike of women, sexists within this category aim to “protect and preserve women”[1].
The two following subsections will discuss hostile and benevolent sexism in more depth and provide more information on how they are used within different parts of American society and how the effect may change with age, gender, and religion.
References:
[1] Grubbs, Joshua B. "Ambivalent Sexism." New York University: 61-63. https://pages.nyu.edu/jackson/sex.and.gender/Readings/AmbivalentSexism-Sage17.pdf