Efforts to overcome gender oppression trigger backlash even from healthy people, not just paranoids
Evidence
Interestingly, Allport (1954/1979) also acknowledged possible resistance to efforts aimed at eliminating prejudicial social dynamics, which might “stiffen opposition in defense of existing attitudes”; he called it the boomerang effect (p. 508). However, his treatment of boomerang was optimistically naive. He wrote, “Such evidence as we have indicates that this effect is relatively slight … it seems probable, too, that ‘boomerangs’ occur chiefly in minds with paranoid trends” (p. 508). Clearly, Allport missed not only the systemic oppression of women, but also the possibility that women’s efforts to overcome it (e.g., by adopting agency) would incur backlash from psychologically healthy men and women alike. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 765
Categorization
Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims
- XREF: Connects to the backlash literature and to the concept of threatened masculinity/agency explored elsewhere in prejudice research.