How & why do people end up believing in sexist stereotypes against women & men?

Question

For example: This one guy said to a woman the other day that all women are suppose to cook/clean for men. This same woman believes that all men are incredibly stupid due to ego. Some men believe that women are inferior while some women believe that men are inferior.

When I was growing up, I never believed one sex was more superior than the other. It made no sense to me. When I became an adult & found out that so many men look down on women, I thought I was living in crazy land. It just made no sense to me how anyone could make that assmuption. So I defended women. What really got to me however, was when I ran into women who were sexist towards me just for being a man. Thats when I realized that many people from both sexes discriminate against each other, & then the world seemed like one huge loony bin. Thats when I started defending not just women, but anyone who's discriminated against.

What makes some men & women believe that one sex is more superior or inferior than the other?

Rain - "It’s true, at times women respond in anger. But why not? "

I think no one should respond out of anger because many of those people become the same as those who ask questions out of anger.

Anger leads prejudice. Prejudice leads to corruption. Corruption leads to hypocracy. Hypocracy leads to the same people who responded out of anger to irrational questions, start to ask similar irrational questions as those they hate. In the end, they all become the same & end up both fueling same problem without even realizing it.

Better to respond & ask questions with sound minds in search for the truth. Anger only pollutes the overall goal for equality.

GoodQuestion's Q&A - It sounds like what your saying is a product of people with low self-esteem getting married.

If your a man with very low self esteem, you may end up marrying a woman who will control & dominate you. If you a woman with low self-esteem, you may allow your man to control & dominate you. Those that do the dominating many times have low self-esteem themselves & because of fear of loosing that power, they find weaker people to control & oppress in the relationship.

Regardless to what rules (such as christian roles that you speak of) exist, it doesn't mean you should follow them if they are oppressive. Both men & women should question the rules, become adults & seek relationships with those who they can really bond & grow together with, & with no oppression.

callum828 - You mentioned,

"the view that women are more emotional is completely true, it is scientifically grounded."

Also, "The view that men have bigger egos is true: This was evolutionarily necessary since the male was always the breadwinner"

These are some of the sexist stereotypes I'm referring to. In the early 1900's, people had scientific data stating that black people were stupid while whites where intelligent. It's the year 2007, that "scientifically grounded" data was clearly false.

My point is, what you read can say what ever it wants, but you can never really know the facts unless you experience it yourself without bias on your preception. That fact that scientific data (that imperfect human being interpret) on human behavior changes throughout time proves that.

I've met many men who were way more emotional than some women I've met who rarely show emotion. I've met many women who have incredible huge ego's, & men with very little ego.

Continue below

callum828 - This is not to say that scientific data is never true. The point is, you can't blindly believe what ever is written no matter how credible the source.

One should instead, understand the source (like the scientific data), & then truly put that to the test by studying the reality you live in yourself. Meet people, challege circumstances. If what you experience is the same as the data you read, you then have to question yourself & your own judgement to make sure you were clear headed & not jaded & bias when understanding what you preceived in reality.

Otherwise, you'll just be believing what ever your told or read simply because you trust the source & call it fact (much like people who trust the bible), or believing what ever you want to believe because your preception of whats happening in front of you is polluted. & of course then, people who agree with you will only further fuel your belief that you think is fact.

callum828 - Lastly, I think it's more logical to say that SOME men have big ego's, as well as some women. & Some people don't. The same applies to who's more emotional.

It may be true that the majority of women are more emotional than men, or the majority of men have bigger ego's, however it is absolutely false to say ALL women are more emotional than men, or ALL men have bigger ego's.

I think it's even false to say that the majority is 99 or 90%. With ego & emotion in men & women, it could be 60% to 40% with who's more or less with being emotional or having big ego's. But clearly not most or all. That is a stereotype that is false, but people believe in anyway.

Answer 1

it is partly cultural, but i believe the media has a lot to answer for, these gender stereotypes are reinforced everyday in advertising, story lines of movies and books, and in the way articles and editorials are printed, unfortunatley some people allow themselves to be brainwashed by the media as it is easier than looking around at reality and forming their own opinion

Answer 2

This is how the world revolves and it is stupid but it happens. I myself am a victim. Although I strongly believe that a man should get as much stigma as a woman who is promiscuous, when I think of a woman that sleeps around the word "slut" comes up in my mind while I don't have anything for the guy.

If we work hard enough to change it we can destroy the "system". Why let government policies ruin how we want to lead our lives. Let men who want to look after their children do so and don't pressure them about being the sole bread winner. Let women who want to be CEOs do so, don't pressure them to have children and stay at home.

Answer 3

Christian, patriarchal teachings. The belief that women are less than men. Quite simply, a narrow view of what male and female roles are in society. The belief that women should be taken care of and/or owned by men.

Perhaps the narrow view of each is the cause of the anger on both sides, especially if women of today are refusing to be "owned and controlled" anymore. Quite simply, "a conflict of visions" of sorts.

So, if men of a different era believed women to be "their possession", nothing more, nothing less, she was nothing more than a head housekeeper/breeder in his home. He was merely her provider...

Ummm... women's movement changed all that, and they have not gotten over the anger of the "sexual revolution", hence nobody won. *sighs!* Patriarchal men still want control, women are angry, the wars continue, but they probably have forgotten why they're really angry anymore... People of that nature simply hate the opposite gender and continue to discriminate against each other. Which is sad really. The sad thing is, they still marry each other, beleiving the other is worthless. Ack! Who knows?
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Answer 4

Most steriotypes are based in reality.

For example: the view that women are more emotional is completely true, it is scientifically grounded. This was necessary because women worked socially and looked after the children.

The view that men have bigger egos is true: This was evolutionarily necessary since the male was always the breadwinner, and so he had to drive himself to greater heights.

When is comes to which sex is better... at what??

Men are better at maths, while women are better at pshycology. Men and women are completely different, thats just the way it is.

Answer 5

Because they see and have described to them enough examples of genders living up to their positive or negative stereotypes to draw conclusions. You don't need a study (although they've been done) to conclude that men and women tend to have gender-specific manifestations of bad behavior. Sometimes, the gender difference is so small that it's negligible, other times it's 90%. How about an example of a 90% tendency:........ Men: Surfing the WWW for pics of nude women, Women: Communicating indirectly to the detriment of their relationship with their man. Sometimes they are more nature, sometimes they're more nurture.

Answer 6

Sex role conflict is passed down from generation to generation – and it all starts right smack in the home with both parents equally contributing to it.

This is not a surface subject…so many factors influence it; political media, religion, brain washing, fear of growing up, ridiculous dependencies on other people’s ‘adopted’ values, pretense etc… The list is extensive, yet, it’s based on one across-the-board, overriding factor; FEAR. Mix some ignorance in there and you have your self a nice big soup of unnecessary chaos.

Look at the absurd questions being asked by men on the board as well as the ‘I-don’t- mind-male-chauvinism’ comments from women (if in fact they are actually women and not men posing as women) and you will see without a doubt how much fear and pretence overshadows their thinking

It’s true, at times women respond in anger. But why not? Look at the lunacy of the questions. If men examine what they’re getting all worked up about and what spurs them to ask such silly questions they’ll see it for what it is: pretense. And who or what are they showing loyalty to with their death-grip on these beliefs? If they dig a bit I’m sure they’ll see it’s someone else’s misguided and prehistoric values…not theirs. Again, just look at the questions – it’s not hard to see the mechanics behind it.

No matter how you slice it. men will never dominate well-adjusted adult women. They will target the overly vulnerable and misguided. Their purpose here is simply an attempt to wear down informed women for fear we’ll infect imprudent men and women with some good judgment. Ultimately, they will lose and will instead have to face and re-examine their behavior and see it for what it is.

No amount of sneaky engineer, reverse psychology, plots ploys or any other desperate attempts to control, manipulate or chain yank will ever cloud what thinking women already know right down to their very core.

It’s not that women believe they’re superior over men, but instead hold superior views in certain areas of life…simply based on common sense. I mean after all, "there’s a decline in the value of women…they aren’t knitting our socks" !!! WTF? I can’t believe that was even a real statement.

Answer 7

Frankly, it's the mass media's fault. The same themes are portrayed for so long an extent that it becomes almost a fact to people.

Answer 8

Christian roles work only when couples are true Christians.

"This one guy said to a woman the other day that all women are suppose to cook/clean for men"....let me finsish that and treat me like an infant that has no responsibility to behave like and adult or deal with issues as the head of the home. I am a man who wants my cake and eat it too. I have placed all the stresses on my wife including dealing with our children that are taring down the home and family. I will do anything to keep it. Because of my infant mantality I have joyfully lost all adult responsibility except for going to work where I can con people into thinking I'm and adult. I also envy those guys that don't work along with those who have wives that do...want to be them too. When I return home from my job on comes the diaper where I am most comfortable with me, myself, and I. My wife is becoming a real nag these days...she's expecting me to play my role and I don't want to...what a b**** and these kids are nothing but a mess it has to be that womans fault. I need a drink...get me a beer woman - NOW! Now she's making me really angry....time to put her back where I want her. It's all her fault and it seems I'm never happy...I'm going to tell my son his mother is nuts. I don't think I'm setting a bad example for my daughter or my son.

-A man can build his home or destroy it with his bare hands-

"I ran into women who were sexist towards me just for being a man"

I'm not sure what is worse the woman that allows her role to be sabatauged or the woman who allows her husband to turn her into an infant...becoming all about me, myself, and I. And then there are those who go into the super woman role and spend most of their time grandstanding until they fizzle out. Thier husbands are mainly concerned with toys which they cannot use because after all they have no time due to argueing about who gets the biggest infant role. However, it starts with headship that is job only a happy man who treats his wife like a queen, doesn't have the victim mantality when something needs to be dealt with ie the children and home(who's the real nag), takes responsibility in his part in raising the children to eventually become responsible adults and realizes one plus one equals EQUAL happiness gets the fulfilled life.

And these man-like women continue to train their daughters to-date to think this way also. Those married are told to get a handle on the head as soon as marriage takes place. The shift is this...they are now beating men down into infancy as soon as they can get them isolated. These women are joyfully dictating marriage and the home, have no domestic skills, hate mothers that do, are jealous and choosing to dictate family relationships as if they they were some sort of evil queen. Anyone that might model strength to them is being kept at bay. Men are becoming increasingly child-like and unhappy and feel they have no other choice but to be infants in their eyes and strangely man still blames his lack of role on the wife when both have chosen to flee from what makes a happy marriage work due to his lack of headship.

Answer 9

Human nature.

Answer 10

Because they're simple minded.