It reminds me of being tagged with the deadly 'nice guy' label earlier in my life.
The test is a version of the Bem Sex Role Inventory test, created by psychologist Sandra Bem. Here's a bit of a Wikipedia article covering the subject:
In 1971, she created the Bem Sex Role Inventory to measure how well you fit into your traditional gender role by characterizing your personality as masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated. She believed that through gender-schematic processing, a person spontaneously sorts attributes and behaviors into masculine and feminine categories. Therefore, an individual processes information and regulate their behavior based on whatever definitions of femininity and masculinity their culture provides.
The whole article is here. Scroll down about a third of the way for the Bem reference.
According to a web site that sells the 'professional version' of this test:
The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) provides independent assessments of masculinity and femininity in terms of the respondent’s self-reported possession of socially desirable, stereotypically masculine and feminine personality characteristics. This can also be seen as a measurement of the extent to which respondents spontaneously sort self-relevant information into distinct masculine and feminine categories. The self administering 60-item questionnaire measures masculinity, femininity, androgyny, and undifferentiated, using the Masculinity and Femininity scales.
...whatever that means. Here's that site.
If I understand what the Wikipedia article is saying, Bem believes men and women base their behavior on what they think social expectations are for their gender. Women act the way they think women are supposed to act, and men act the way they think they're supposed to act. And the test measures how 'tuned in' a person is to those social expectations.
Does that sound right to you?
Well, I'm a Buddhist, so it doesn't matter. I'm going to go watch ESPN for awhile.
3 comments:
I like to dress up in woman's underwear from time to time, but who among us doesn't?
So does that make me some sort of deviant (as long as the panties match the bra, that is?)
I think NOT, and I reject tests of this sort.
---John X, a strong proud black man
i took the test... found it rather interesting.... and not at all surprised by the results... androgynous....i would say i'm a rather well balance individual...
if it makes you feel any better... you don't act outwardly feminine in any way... ha!
kelleyO.... a strong white woman
John X posted that before he found out that I am fully andogyneous, according to the test. Strong masculinity AND strong femininity, they said. Do they mean schizophrenic..?
Let's just hope that John and I will always alternate our masculine and feminine days, otherwise we'll be fighting over the same outfits all the time...
B
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