Gender Studies Resource Links

  Abstract A review is made of feminist explanations for spousal homicide, and a failure to investigate intrapsychic processes is noted. Recent work on suicide is cited as showing insight into cognitive processes involved in spousal homicide, for example, as an escape from pain (called “psychache”).  Certain personality features, such as insecure attachment and borderline personality, are reviewed as especially vulnerable to psychache. For unknown reasons, males seem more susceptible to destructive behavior upon relationship dissolution. The main target of this destructive behavior is the self, followed by spousal homicide. "In a study of 6,321 partner homicides, only 6.5% of female victims experienced domestic violence in the preceding month" "5% of male victims in opposite-sex pairings were perpetrators of violence in the month preceding the homicide" "Perpetrators of murder-suicide had profiles consistent with suicidal people but not with murderers" Mur...

  Abstract A review of 20 articles (with a collective  N  of 16,463) was conducted assessing reasons given by perpetrators for their commission of intimate partner violence (IPV). College, community, and batterer intervention program samples were used. Five studies used Follingstad's (1991) Motivation and Effects Questionnaire to assess reported motivations. This had an advantage in standardizing the definitions of motives, which varied widely in other studies. Perpetrators of IPV, whether male or female, do not describe their motives in gender-political terms. Instead, they describe them in psychological terms, such as anger, frustration, or gaining attention. The most frequently endorsed reasons were anger (68% by women, 47% by men) and gaining attention (53% by women, 55% by men). Self-defense was the least endorsed (7th of seven motives). The implications of this finding for the gender paradigm are discussed. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330771094_In_Their...

https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/items/205ad682-63e6-484a-825c-7b11a7b2ba14 The low benevolent sexism male target was judged to be higher on hostile sexism, less supportive of female professionals, less good of father and husband, and more likely to perpetrate domestic violence. Abstract Although there is a reliably positive association between hostile (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS), lay perceptions of this association have not been directly tested. I predicted that people perceive an illusory negative association between men’s HS and BS attitudes because lay theories expect men to have univalent attitudes toward women. In Study 1, I manipulated the target’s gender and responses on a subscale of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (high HS, low HS, high BS, or low BS). The low BS male target (compared to high BS male target) was judged to be higher on HS, less supportive of female professionals, less good of father and husband, and more likely to perpetrate domestic violence. Ratings of the l...

 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16768651/ Cross-cultural differences in physical aggression between partners: a social-role analysis Abstract In developed western nations, both sexes commit acts of physical aggression against their partners. Data from 16 nations showed that this pattern did not generalize to all nations. The magnitude and direction of the sex difference was highly correlated with national-level variations in gender empowerment and individualism-collectivism. As gender equality and individualism increased, the sex difference in partner violence moved in the direction of lesser female victimization and greater male victimization. A second analysis of 52 nations showed that 3 indexes of women's victimization were also inversely correlated with gender equality and individualism. Sexist attitudes and relative approval of wife beating were also associated with women's victimization rates, but general levels of violent crime were not. The findings are discussed in te...

  Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity (also contains many references to differentiation in brains between sexes) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8955456/ Is there something unique about the transgender brain? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-something-unique-about-the-transgender-brain/ Neurotransmitter size sex dimorphism, Sapolsky ( The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is a brain region that shows sex differences and has been found to be relevant in the study of transgender individuals. Specifically, research suggests that the size and neuron count in the central subdivision of the BNST (BSTc) in male-to-female (MtF) transsexuals is more similar to that of cisgender women. This finding has been interpreted as evidence that gender identity may be related to brain development influenced by prenatal sex ). Phantom penile sensation on penis removal does not occur in trans women, but does ...

https://stanmed.stanford.edu/how-mens-and-womens-brains-are-different/ "  There was too much data pointing to the biological basis of sex-based cognitive differences to ignore, Halpern says. For one thing, the animal-research findings resonated with sex-based differences ascribed to people. These findings continue to accrue. In a study of 34 rhesus monkeys, for example, males strongly preferred toys with wheels over plush toys, whereas females found plush toys likable. It would be tough to argue that the monkeys’ parents bought them sex-typed toys or that simian society encourages its male offspring to play more with trucks. A much more recent study established that boys and girls 9 to 17 months old — an age when children show few if any signs of recognizing either their own or other children’s sex — nonetheless show marked differences in their preference for stereotypically male versus stereotypically female toys."