Why Do Women Endorse Honor Beliefs? Ambivalent Sexism and Religiosity as Predictors

Cultures of honor, such as Turkey, prioritize defending individual and family reputations, but in gender-specific ways (Nisbett and Cohen 1996). Men maintain honor via reputations for toughness, aggression, control over women, and avenging insults. Women maintain honor through obedience to men, sexual modesty, and religious piety. Honor beliefs support women’s subordination, justifying violence against them (Sev’er and Yurdakul, Violence against Women, 7, 964–998, 2001) and therefore should be challenged. Understanding honor beliefs’ ideological correlates may inform such efforts. We hypothesized that benevolent sexism, a subjectively favorable system-justifying ideology, would more strongly, positively predict Turkish women’s (versus men’s) honor beliefs; whereas hostile sexism, which is openly antagonistic toward women, would more strongly, positively predict Turkish men’s (versus women’s) honor beliefs. Additionally, due to justifications for gender inequality embedded in Islamic religious teachings, we expected Islamic religiosity to positively predict honor beliefs for both genders. A convenience sample of Turkish undergraduates (313 women and 122 men) in Ankara completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, Religious Orientation Scale, and Honor Endorsement Index. Regression analyses revealed that benevolent (but not hostile) sexism positively predicted women’s honor beliefs, whereas hostile (but not benevolent) sexism positively predicted men’s honor beliefs. Islamic religiosity positively predicted honor beliefs for both genders, but (unexpectedly) did so more strongly for men than women. We suggest that combating benevolent sexism and promoting feminist interpretations of Islamic religiosity may help to empower Turkish women to challenge honor beliefs.     

Honor War Theory: Romance or Reality?

Abstract

Just War Theory (JWT) replaced an older ‘warrior code,’ an approach to war that remains poorly understood and dismissively treated in the philosophical literature. This paper builds on recent work on honor to address these deficiencies. By providing a clear, systematic exposition of ‘Honor War Theory’ (HWT), we can make sense of paradigm instances of warrior psychology and behavior, and understand the warrior code as the martial expression of a broader honor-based ethos that conceives of obligation in terms of fair competition for prestige. Far from being a romantic and outmoded approach to war, HWT accounts for current conflicts and predicts moral intuitions that JWT either rejects or cannot comfortably accommodate. So although it is not recommended as a replacement for JWT, there is good reason think that a fully mature, realistic, and yet properly normative theory of war ethics will incorporate a variety of insights from HWT.     

What Should Realists Say About Honor Cultures?

Richard Nisbett and Dov Cohen’s (1996) influential account of “cultures of honor” speculates that honor norms are a socially-adaptive deterrence strategy. This theory has been appealed to by multiple empirically-minded philosophers, and plays an important role in John Doris and Alexandra Plakias’ (2008) antirealist argument from disagreement. In this essay, I raise four objections to the Nisbett-Cohen deterrence thesis, and offer another theory of honor in its place that sees honor as an agonistic normative system regulating prestige competitions. Since my account portrays honor norms as radically different from liberal ones, it actually strengthens Doris and Plakias’ case in some respects: cultures of honor are not merely superficially different from Western liberal ones. Nonetheless, the persistent appeal of honor’s principles, and their moral plausibility in certain contexts, suggests not antirealism, but pluralism—a reply on behalf of realism that itself has considerable empirical support.     

Hart and Honoré on causation in the law

Hart and Honoré contend, in their book Causation in the Law, that causal appraisals in everyday life and in the law can be made, with justifiable confidence, without appealing to relevant general laws; that in order to grasp the workings of causal notions in everyday life and the law, it is sufficient to note that causes are events which interfere with or intervene in the course of events which would normally have taken place. This thesis is criticized on the ground that what purport to be purely causal appraisals are hopelessly vulnerable to moral considerations, especially when such appraisals are presumed to take place in complete independence of scientific theory.     

Are Lesbians Women?

I argue that Mordque Wittig's view that lesbians are not women neglects the complexities involved in the composition of the category “woman.” I develop an articulation of the concept “woman” in the contemporary United States, with thirteen distinct defining characteristics, none of which are necessary nor sufficient. I argue that Wittig's emphasis on the material production of “woman” through the political regime of heterosexuality, however, is enormously fruitful for feminist and queer strategizing.     

Honor Crimes in the United States and Offenders’ Neutralization Techniques

Honor crimes are violent acts that are experienced among different religions and ethnicities. This type of offense can be justified, either before or after the crime, by the offender’s perceived need to protect honor-based values. This study used Sykes and Matza’s neutralization theory to explain the offender’s justification of honor crimes. We used data from the United States Extremist Crime Database, which has incident, victim, and perpetrator level indicators for the population of honor crimes in the United States (N = 16). Using open source search files for the cases, neutralizations and justifications provided by the offenders are presented.     

Women Who Objectify Other Women: The Vicious Circle of Objectification?

This study was designed to test the extent to which women who self-objectify also objectify other women. One hundred thirty-two university students and their friends (64 women and 68 men) completed three questionnaires: (1) Noll and Fredrickson’s (1998) Self-Objectification Questionnaire, (2) a modified version of that questionnaire that measured individuals’ objectification of others, and (3) Slade, Dewey, Newton, and Brodie’s (1990) Body Cathexis scale. Women were more likely than men to self-objectify. Self-objectification was negatively related to body satisfaction for women but not for men. Both women and men objectified women more than they objectified men, although women’s objectification of other women was not significantly different than their objectification of men. Men objectified women more than women did, and women objectified men more than men did. Women were more likely to objectify other women than to objectify themselves. Higher self-objectification among both women and men was related to increased objectification of other women and men, but the relationships were stronger for women. Results indicate that women also objectify women, although not to the degree exhibited by men.     

Black Women and White Women: Do Perceptions of Childhood Family Environment Differ?

INTRODUCTION: Few studies have examined racial differences in perceptions of childhood. Little is known about how Blacks perceive their own families, particularly the family environment that they experienced in childhood. METHODS: A community sample of 290 women (55% White, 45% Black) from two-parent families, heterogeneous in age and social class, was examined using a self-administered questionnaire, including the Family Environment Scale (FES), followed by a focused interview. Siblings were used as collateral informants. RESULTS: The psychometric properties of the FES showed remarkably little variation by race: The internal scale reliability, correlations between scales, and factor structures were quite similar. Although both White and Black women reported good childhood family environments, Black women when compared with White women rated their families of origin as more cohesive, organized, and expressive, and lower in conflict. Sibling responses corroborated these findings. DISCUSSION: This study addresses a gap in the research literature and provides important evidence of strengths in Black family relationships as reported by a community sample of women. The psychometric properties of the FES, found to be strong for families of both races, lends support to our findings and those of other researchers who have used this measure.     

What Do Women Want? A New View of Women’s Sexual Problems

Recent attempts to medicalize women’s sexual “dysfunction” are critiqued and a “New View” of women’s sexual problems is introduced. The author argues for a female-centered perspective on women’s sexual desires and problems, based on a review of the literature on women’s sexuality and her observations of young women’s sexual experiences from 25 years of teaching Human Sexuality to undergraduate women. The review suggests that a pill or a patch cannot adequately address the sexual problems commonly experienced by US women.     

Honor in Everyday Life in Turkish Society: A Barrier Against Deviance?

It seems that honor in Turkish society has always been brought to light through its connection with violence and homicides committed in its name: the existence of this kind of honor, considered as “barbarous,” seems to have subverted any representations of civic honor. Through interviews made with Turkish young adults, this article will attempt to show that a “civic” honor exists in Turkish society aiming to organize public space to maintain social order. Honor can thus be seen as a principle that can regulate social interactions in everyday life and even curb deviance instead of provoking it.     

Attitudes Toward Women and Motherhood: Their Role in Australian Women’s Childbearing Behaviour

Financial and employment concerns are frequently identified as salient factors in women’s childbearing behaviour in low fertility, developed countries. The contribution of attitudinal variables is not well understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between attitudes toward women and motherhood and women’s childbearing desires and outcomes. A broadly representative sample of 569 women aged 30–34 years living in Victoria, one Australian state, was recruited from the Australian Electoral Roll. Participants completed a self administered anonymous questionnaire which included a new measure of attitudes toward women and motherhood. Women with more traditional attitudes had larger desired and actual family sizes. The findings indicate that attitudes toward women and motherhood are related to women’s childbearing behaviour.     

Merton’s Melancholia: Mother,Monasticism, and the Religion of Honor

In this first of several successive articles on Thomas Merton, the author interprets Merton’s vocational call, identity conflicts, and radical asceticism in light of the psychoanalytic study of Donald Capps, Erik Erikson, and Sigmund Freud. The author argues that Merton’s early identity and religious development formed deep conflicts in his psyche. These conflicts remained unconscious and unresolved, leading to disastrous consequences. This article examines Merton’s life until his affair with Margie Smith in 1966.     

Women Healers: Global and Local Women’s Knowledge in Psychology—An Introduction

ABSTRACT

This article briefly addresses key events throughout recorded history of indigenous healing, highlighting the role of women and their work despite predominant patriarchal, societal views and subsequent hardships for women engaging in healing roles. Additionally, this article identifies terms and definitions that will be used throughout the special issue and introduces articles for the special issue which have been written by women around the world. The editors invite readers to question Western dominant discourse about healing, and, in particular, indigenous healing by women.     

Honor and harmed social-image. Muslims’ anger and shame about the cartoon controversy

Two studies examined anger and shame, and their associated appraisals and behavioral intentions, in response to harm to an in-group's social-image. In Study 1, 37 British Muslims (18 men, 19 women) reported incidents in which they were devalued as Muslims. In Study 2, 108 British Muslims (57 females, 50 males, 1 undisclosed) were presented with objective evidence of their in-group's devaluation: the controversial cartoons about Prophet Muhammad The appraisal of harm to social-image predicted anger and shame (Studies 1 and 2), whereas the appraisal of offense only predicted anger (Study 2). Anger was a more empowering response than shame, as anger predicted willingness for public confrontation (Studies 1 & 2), institutional punishment (Study 2), and written disapproval (Study 2). In contrast, shame only predicted written disapproval (Study 2). Furthermore, independent of individual differences in identification as Muslim, a mediation model showed that individual differences in honor orientation predicted anger and shame via the appraisals (Study 2). Implications for theory and research are discussed.     

Is Silence More Golden for Women than Men? Observers Derogate Effusive Women and their Quiet Partners

Couples in which the woman is more verbally disinhibited than the man (man-more-inhibited couples) report lower satisfaction than couples in which the man is more verbally disinhibited (woman-more-inhibited couples). A violation of traditional gender roles is hypothesized to underlie this phenomenon. It was predicted that members of man-more-inhibited couples would be rated less likeable than woman-more-inhibited couples, and disinhibited men would be rated more competent than other males and females. To test these hypotheses, 95 undergraduate participants from a southwestern US university viewed a videotaped conflict between a man-more-inhibited or woman-more-inhibited couple. As predicted, members of man-more-inhibited couples were rated less likeable than members of woman-more-inhibited couples and disinhibited husbands were rated more competent than all other targets.     

Do Reentry Women Have Special Needs?

Reentry and nonreentry women were compared on their reasons for being in school, goals associated with education, and campus services used or wanted. Eighty-two California State University, Hayward, undergraduate students volunteered to participate in the questionnaire survey. Reentry women were found to be more self-motivated, with higher educational goals, and higher grade point averages than nonreentry women. Reentry women also made less use of currently available student services. Reasons for this lack of use, and suggestions for future services were explored.     

Discounting Women’s Applications when Hiring

Philosophia - In this paper, I argue that philosophy departments at state universities may discount women’s applications. My argument rests on two premises: if the balance of merit-based...