Sexual Orientation and Race Intersectionally Reduce the Perceived Gendered Nature of Normative Stereotypes in the United States

Abstract

There is substantial research on the nature and impact of gender prescriptive stereotypes. However, there has been relatively little work on whether these stereotypes are equally applicable to men and women of different identities. Across two studies (total N = 1074), we assessed gender prescriptive stereotypes intersectionality in an American context, for men and women of different sexual orientations (Study 1) and races (Study 2). Results show strong evidence of a straight-centric bias, as prescriptive stereotypes of men and women most closely aligned with those of straight men and women, but limited evidence for a White-centric bias. Furthermore, observed gender differences in prescriptive stereotypes were smaller or non-existent for sexual and ethnic minority targets compared to straight and White targets, suggesting that theories around the dyadic nature of gender stereotypes between men and women might be restricted to straight and White men and women.

Gender Inversion is Not the Full Story: Nuanced Expectations of Gay Men and Lesbian Women’s Competencies in the United States

“…The lack of gender inversion was also accompanied by reduced gender differences between gay men and lesbian women, compared to straight men and women. The relatively smaller gender differences between gay men and women are in line with other studies on gender differences in minoritized groups (Gallagher & Bodenhausen, 2021;Hudson & Ghani, 2022), suggesting that for minoritized groups, gender is not as salient of a category as it is for prototypical groups. In the case of sexual orientation, "de-gendering" (Gallagher & Bodenhausen, 2021) is in line with stereotype muting (Hall et al, 2019) that occurs when oppositional stereotypes are combined for intersectional identities.…”

“…Thus, there is evidence that people desire gay men and lesbian women occupy lower status positions in society overall, which is not mitigated by stereotypes associated with their gender. Recent work on normative stereotypes (e.g., stereotypes about how people should and shouldn't act) corroborate this conclusion, showing a lack of gender inversion for gendered traits (Hudson & Ghani, 2022).…”

Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination at the intersection of race and gender: An intersectional theory primer

“…The stereotypes associated with “low status” conflict with stereotypes of “men”, leading to the opposite hypothesis where Black men's masculine expectations should be diluted instead of amplified. Indeed, in a study that explicitly examined normative stereotypes of Black men, researchers found that it was more desirable for a White man to be masculine than a Black man (Hudson & Ghani, 2023), conflicting with known stereotypes of Black men as hyper‐masculine (Ghavami & Peplau, 2013) Thus, there is a need for additional research to focus on which associated categories become relevant in a given situation.…”

Damned if She Does: The Subordinate Male Target Hypothesis and Discrimination of Social Dominant Female Minority Members

“…As Purdie-Vaughns and Eibach (2008) point out, the ongoing invisibility of female ethnic minority members is grounded in prototyping (Ghavami & Peplau, 2013). Due to androcentrism (i.e., the presumption that an undetermined individual is male; see Hudson & Ghani, 2021;Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008) and Eurocentrism (i.e., the presumption that an undetermined individual in WEIRD contexts is white; see Hudson & Ghani, 2021), female ethnic minority members represent neither prototypical members of the social category race or ethnicity (male ethnic minority members) nor prototypical members of the social category women (white women). Indeed, empirical research provides evidence for androcentric and Eurocentric biases regarding the perception of female ethnic minority members.…”