Department of Psychological Science
University of Mary Washington
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Prior research has shown that all of the -isms are closely associated with each other. For example, sexism, heterosexism, and racism are all correlated with each other. Your study largely tapped into the sexism aspect (i.e., femininity, masculinity). But, do you think it’s possible that participants could have also been impacted by other -isms, namely heterosexism? Maybe participants made assumptions about the women’s sexual orientation based on the clothing and/or activity. What do you think?
I think that is definitely a possibility. Although we tried our best to isolate variables that could have pointed towards other “-isms” by only manipulating clothing type and exercise, people are likely to have their own biases. Across the board, the cute outfit was rated higher. We’d like to think this was influenced by our intentional manipulations. They may have rated the cute outfit scenario higher because they assumed she was heterosexual or the comfy lower because they thought she wasn’t. I hadn’t thought about that and I wish that we did include a question that what they thought her sexuality was.
It probably shouldn’t, but it always surprises me how critical women are of each other, perhaps more so than men are critical of women, at least in some cases… For example, I’m thinking of your finding that, on the perception measure, that women rated Hannah more favorably when she was wearing cute clothes compared to comfortable clothes, but you didn’t find this difference in men’s ratings. This made me think of the women-focused gyms out there (e.g., Curves)… I wonder whether women might select a women-focused gym, at least in part, to avoid this kind of judgment by men but, in fact, suffer more from it at that type of gym. What do you think? Specifically, would you expect your results to differ based on gym type? If so, why or why not?
That’s a really interesting question and we actually read an article that mentions the Curves franchise during their discussion on women-only sections. In my opinion I would expect to see similar results for our clothing variable because this internalized societal standard of femininity creates this self-surveillance and social comparison. We didn’t really find a significance for violating exercise norms in our results, but one of the goals of a women only gym is to help them feel less restricted in their gym experience. While a study with a gym type might show fewer negative perceptions of violating exercise norms, I think the gendered expectations and scrutinization of appearance will remain mostly the same for females.
That is a very interesting question Dr. Mailloux. I was also very suprised by the findings that women judged women more than men judged women. Speaking for myself I presumed men would have had a larger say in what women wear to the gym, because there is such a stigma around men watching women in the gym, thus making them uncomfertable. We also read an article that talked a lot about the male gaze and how that extremely affects womens performance in the gym. That specific finding did not really align with previous research. I think it would have been very interesting to focus on more of the females perspective. I agree that if women were in an only women-based gym they would deal with a great amount of judgment and suppression, due to societys culture of comapring yourself to others and what not. I think results may defer a little bit I think however we would still find signficance within women and how they view the clothing in the situation.
Thanks, Maya and Dalton, for your responses. The self-surveillance and social comparison issues are interesting ones to consider… just a guess that, in a women’s-only gym, those behaviors may increase because a woman doesn’t focus on the male gaze, for example, so exercises (pardon the pun) greater self-objectification, not expecting a high level of scrutiny from other women. So much to think about!
I really like how you tied research on the inequalities between men’s and women’s health into this study. It’s also interesting how you identified physical activity as a gendered activity, I had never thought about it in that way before. I do wonder what differences there would have been if the environment were a women-only gym. I also noticed that your age range was very large. To what extent do you think participant’s age could have had an effect on their various responses? This was a very well thought out study and it is impressive that you were able to recruit such a large sample of participants in just a few weeks. Great job!
Hi Lindsay thank you for that comment! We really enjoyed doing this topic! I also wonder what differnces there would be if we focused on a womens only gym. As you saw our results more so focused on women judging women rather than men judging women. This was very suprising to us and does not align with previous research. Research discussed the male gaze and males hegenomic dominance through out certain enviroments. It would be interesting if studying a female-only gym at the specific aspects that women judge women on. This could be the clothing they wear, do they wear make up to the gym, etc. We also did have a huge age range. I think age could definitely affect their responses which could be a possible limitations and now that I think about it maybe we should have restricted the age pool to a certain age. I think those who are older 50’s and above probably do not have adequate knowledge on present gym life and the current gender norms and stigma around the gym, it could be possible those older just agree with the gender that they are. So that would be interesting to look at a certain age group!
It was great to see that you had significant results for clothing. I think that says a lot – when I think about the gym and going to the gym, clothing matters a lot and I believe that people who go to the gym may be more considerate about what they decide to wear. It is almost more daunting than what we wear on a regular basis! I have noticed in the comments that people are discussing women’s only gym. I remember in a previous discussion that while it may have been beneficial to lessen male gaze/conscious feelings, it also continues to segregate women or can be seen as avoiding a societal problem. Either way, I loved following along with your study over the semester and your research team did an amazing job.
The comment above is written by me, Gina-Marie An. When entering the name, my computer has a way to manually enter names. It chose my spouse’s name. Please disregard, it is my (Gina’s) comment.
I think that’s a great point. One thing we did find in some of our research was the women only gyms tend to still carry the typical feminine gender norm equipment such as, cardio machines, aerobic exercise areas, and resistance machines. There still wasn’t a lot of promotion for free weights. Beyond that, there can sometimes be the comparison from women towards other women in a gym, and I’m sure there is a chance that would carry over into a women’s only gym. Thanks for the feedback!
Hello fellow classmates! I really loved getting to watch your project grow! Super happy about how well this turned out! Could y’all elaborate more on why you picked this topic and what we should do as a society to help?
I think it’s very interesting that your group hypothesized that male participants would rate “Hannah” in the cure outfit more favorably. I would have assumed that male participants would rate non conforming women more positively because the male participants may take the woman more seriously if she is dressed less fashionably in the gym. On the opposite end, maybe women rated “Hannah” more favorably in the cute outfit because she may seem more approachable and friendly. We make a lot of assumptions about personality based on the way people dress, so your results make sense. Your study was so interesting, and I really enjoyed watching the progression!
Christina, that’s honestly such a great point that men may have taken women less seriously if she was wearing cute clothes as if she wasn’t serious about exercising. I think we came up with that hypothesis because in the literature we’ve read in class, it was made clear that gender norms were set up in relation to how men move in the world like women are just there to compliment men. I think we thought men would have more of a role in enforcing these norms.
I really appreciate study that explore how gender impacts our everyday lives and this was an excellent choice! Were there any other variables you wanted to include?
I don’t think we wanted to include any other variables because it may have gotten a little cloudy. Especially since back literature talks about clothing is a good rule of thumb already for conformity to gender norms. Other factors may have shown our own personal biases in what we personally thought conformity looked like. So we wanted to stick with the tried and true. Thanks for your comment.
Gabby, Alyssa, Maya, and Dalton
Great study! I was really curious about what you guys would find. As someone who went to a kickboxing gym for a long time, which is less gender-conforming than traditional gyms I would imagine, I am not surprised that clothing had a significant main effect. I am also not surprised that women were more critical of the clothes than the men. I feel that women are often fearful of the male gaze in gyms; however, in some ways, men can be less concerned than women. In regard to the clothes, I wonder if the much deeper interest women have in clothes/fashion than men is an underlying cause of why women ultimately cared more.
I’m sure that specifically because we only use clothes as an indicator of conformity that men may have not really cared that much. Women are taught to look at other’s outfits and care a lot more about their own because we think clothing is an indicator of ourselves where men may not since a lot are ok with wearing the same t-shirt and gym shorts like 5 days a week like a cartoon character. And this is conditioned so I think yes definitely a subconscious thing.
Hey guys! Wow, this turned out really well, and I’m so happy to see some significance in your results with clothing! That’s awesome. I wasn’t too surprised by this, knowing how society views women and encourages them to dress/behave, but it was interesting to see it all laid out with data and evidence. I noticed that for women, there was a difference in likability when it came to wearing cute versus comfy clothing, but this difference didn’t show up with men. I’m curious whether there are other aspects of working out that men judge moreso that clothing. If I were to guess, I would say that I’d expect to see men being more judgmental of other men’s body types, i.e. how big/muscular they are, how functional/aesthetic the muscle is, etc. I also wonder if men would be more judgmental towards the actual activity, such as form, the amount of weight, etc.
Thank you so much, Em! We were stoked that we had some significant results too. I think that’s a great point that there may be other factors that would’ve influenced men’s judgment. Maybe they would’ve been harsher to women in cute clothing if we had added information like something about incorrect form or low weights. It would be very cool if we did this same study and flipped it to a man being in the scenario and what changing his clothing might change in men’s responses, like if he had one of those tanks with giant armholes or looked really put together or something.
Thank you, Nancy! I feel like initially, we picked this topic based on our shared feelings of discomfort at the gym and wanting to look more into if that was influenced by gender norms. The literature that we read talked about how many women (frequent gym-goers, as well as female athletes) felt at least some discomfort. I wish I knew what we could do that would help! I think maybe a good start would be for women to stop policing other women and themselves.
I love how your study turned out! You guys did such a great job of taking your ideas from the beginning of the semester and turning it into such a great study! It is so interesting to see that women rated other women more favorably regarding tight cute clothing than did men. I would have assumed, like your hypothesis, that men would rate these women higher based on their conformity to gender norms. I believe someone else has commented this but, it is so interesting to think that we as women tend to put so much pressure on one another to conform to these norms and I don’t think we truly realize it. Do you think that environmental factors (i.e., what type of gym that person is in, what others are wearing around them, exercises other women are doing in the gym vs them, etc.) could also be something that could affect participant’s perceptions of the individual, and potentially an area to look into for future research?
I definitely think all of those factors would come into play. We tried to limit the amount of information so we could isolate conformity to feminine norms as best as we could. I feel like even the setting being in a gym could point towards being higher SES, so if we manipulated like what gym, i.e. gold’s v. planet fitness, it would yield different results. If we went into more detailed descriptions about the exercises as well I think it would change things by either changing the type of machine, smith v. free weights but same exercise; or how heavy the weights are would influence ratings for sure.
Hi all! I really enjoyed your presentation and learning about your research topic. As a female fitness instructor, I definitely feel out of place sometimes as the fitness industry is very male dominated. What are some things you think can change this dynamic in the gym, and what are some ways that we can help to make others feel more comfortable in the gym setting? Wonderful job everyone!
Hi! I really liked your presentation and your research topic. I thought your findings were very interesting because I thought they would go the other way, with men rating Hannah differently. I think it’s so interesting how women are afraid of the scrutiny of men when in tight clothing, when it’s really other women who care the most. I also like how you tied this into socioeconomic status, because I think that would definitely play a part in how women rated Hannah. Brands are such a big thing in our culture now especially with social media, so I feel like Hannah being in a Gym Shark outfit may have affected these ratings in some way for sure.
I loved this topic. I am a girl who works out everyday in cute outfits and loves to lift heavy weights. I thought your findings were interesting than women rated Hannah higher than men did in the cute matching outfit. I would think that men would rate Hannah higher. I think it would be interesting to see how men and women rate someone only on what exercises they do. I know men who are shocked when women are lifting heavy weights and think its crazy that women are capable of doing so. Another interesting topic would be how confident women are in the gym. Great job with your presentation!
Very good project! I have never done research on women in the gym, but I have heard many different stories about women receiving backlash for the clothes and exercises they do in the gym. I wonder how the pandemic has changed the gym setting due to the pandemic. Although gyms are open currently, did the stay in home order relieve women about not going to the gym? How do women feel toward men in the gym? Did not being able to go to the gym during the pandemic mean they were more comfortable at home? I also wonder how posting on social media in gym clothes plays into your research question about gender norms!