Essay On Hostile Sexism

Rape is a crime, with maximum number of 25 years for the perpetrator. And yet some individuals place the blame for the rape on the person being sexually assaulted, and not on the perpetrator. Society plays a big role in blaming victims for rape. Everything depends on how society perceives each individual, because they get to categorize who they blame when it comes to rape. There are three beliefs to why an individual would want to blame the victim: hostile sexism, benevolent sexism and belief in a just world. Hostile sexim is a generalized hostility towards women, they are "seen as inferior beings who seek to control men through sexuality, or feminist ideologies"(Glick & Fiske, 1996). Benevolent sexism is based on a positive stereotype about women and an ideology where individuals "have attitudes of protection, idealization and affection towards women who assumes traditional gender roles" (Glick & Fiske, 1996). Belief in a just world is viewed as people normally get what they deserve and deserve what they get. Society neglects that not only women get raped but also men. It becomes problematic when society only …show more content…
In Ferrao & Goncalves argues that hostile sexism views women as trying to control; men, therefore having society to believe that women attempts to control men through a seductive behavior (Glick & Fiske, 2001). Which means they provoke the rapist into sexually assaulting them. Pedersen & Stromwall furthers their research by adding a third variable in victim blaming: belief in a just world. In Pedersen & Stromwall theory, it is said that "justice prevails over injustice" (Furnham, 2003), meaning what goes around comes around. Belief in a just world cannot predict victim blaming when it is a stranger rape condition or a date rape condition, however they attribute more blame on young victims, since when people are younger they are more reckless when then when they are older (Hafer & Begue,