Does Traditional Mean Good? A Pilot Study on University Students’ Perceptions of Different Types of Women and Men

Abstract

Gender stereotyping remains a pervasive issue in society. Gender stereotypes are cognitive structures containing socially shared knowledge and expectations about women and men. Research has found that the dimensions evaluation (sweetheart vs. bitch) and traditionality (businessman vs. stay-at-home dad) have high explanatory power for identifying gender stereotypes. As a pilot study, the current paper investigates the traditionality and evaluation perceptions of expressions for women and men in English and Spanish, analysing them in the framework of Conceptual Metaphor and Metonymy Theory. In an online questionnaire, university students in London and Madrid rated 20 expressions for women (e.g. Eng. bitch, Spa. princesa) and men (e.g. Eng. player, Spa. cabrón), previously produced by themselves in single brainstorming sessions. The results indicate the existence of gender stereotypes, especially regarding promiscuity, and a correlation between traditionality and evaluation. Surprisingly and contrary to previous research, female participants produce more promiscuous subtypes than male participants.

Keywords

• gender stereotypes
• production
• perception
• traditionality
• evaluation
• conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory