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Misandrist Psychology

Filed under: General — Ministry of Men's Affairs @ 10:26 pm Wed 3rd June 2015

We came across this interesting article, one of a series. The article is about the ‘Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI)’, a questionnaire resulting in a numerical estimation of how ‘masculine’ you are. The questionnaire is almost certainly misleading and absolutely certainly misandrist. The article provides some interesting insights into how feminists and feminism work.

2 Comments »

  1. Dear MoMA, I share your concern for how CMNI could be used.

    However, all gender research is subtle and easily subverted by the researcher’s personal biases and prejudices. This makes the whole subject fraught with hidden barriers, that need to be exposed, for research to be useful in the real world.

    However, the elements in CMNI are relevant to men’s and women’s performance in society and their satisfaction with their own lives.

    The norms identified in the measure include Winning, Emotional Control, Risk-Taking, Violence, Dominance, Playboy, Self-Reliance, Primacy of Work, Power over Women, Disdain for Homosexuals, and Pursuit of Status.

    CMNI has been used to try to elucidate reasons for men’s poorer performance in schools and now even in workplaces.
    Conformity to Masculine Norms and Intellectual Engagement

    I strongly agree that naming the questionaire Masculine Norms Inventory invites misunderstanding and misuse and research design faults.

    In my opinion, an intellectually more neutral approach, lower risk and more cost effective, would be to include elements of “feminine” and “masculine” norms in a single questionaire. Approaching questions of educational involvement needs to include social factors not clearly masculine or feminine, but still important in explaining educational involvement.

    This approach avoids later questions – isn’t XX correlated to this element, but you didn’t include it in your study. A longer questionaire costs more to administer, but given the fluidity and change in gender concepts with time and around the world, a broader approach is far safer and more effective and reliable.

    It ain’t all bad?

    Only the paranoids really know what is going on.
    Checking for subtle bias requires highly developed paranoia!

    The questions started by Sandra Bem in the 1970s haven’t been completely answered yet.
    I think that society is changing faster than the researchers can keep up!

    Thanks,
    MurrayBacon.

    Comment by MurrayBacon — Wed 10th June 2015 @ 8:51 am

  2. Does anyone please have an email address for Graham McCready?

    Comment by Peadar — Tue 23rd June 2015 @ 11:05 am

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