Thread by @arghavan_salles

Preparing for this “Master Class,” I reviewed a 2018 Pew study @fumikochino had recently tweeted. They surveyed people on words used to describe men and women and whether they are positive or negative. 🧵

https://twitter.com/arghavan_salles/status/1361004839048597507

People perceived society to use different words for men than they do for women. For example, “powerful” was mostly seen as a good thing for men and a bad thing for women. Similarly, “strength” was good for men, bad for women. Same for “leadership” and “ambition.”

I mean, do women even stand a chance in the workplace if we’re not supposed to lead or be ambitious??

Moving on...

“Kind” and “responsible” were more consistently used positively for women. “Compassionate” and “caring” were seen as positives for women but were seen as negative for men. Whether or not you like the phrase “toxic masculinity,” this is how we get there...

Several of the words (“independent,” “submissive,” and “strong”) had mixed reviews when used for women, meaning sometimes people thought they were good and sometimes people thought they were bad.

Think about that—people sometimes think a woman being submissive is desirable. And sometimes they think being strong or independent is not! It’s exhausting!

Not everything is dictated by our words, but words are reflective of our mindsets. And these mindsets, our expectations of men and women, harm all of us, not just women.

Note: gender was a binary construct in this study fwiw.

Here’s the full report:

pewresearch.org/social-trends/…