tilthat posted this misinformation before so I’m just gonna repost what I wrote back then:
I think with such a statement it’s very important to talk about what the study actually researched – because I’ve read the study and I don’t think it can be broken down to “women see non-sexist men as sexist”. That framing will lead to major misunderstandings.
Specifically the study talks about benevolent sexism (BS) which is things like “being chivalrous” and thinking that women need special protection, and hostile sexism (HS) which is what most people would see as “real sexism”, you know, just blatantly mistreating women because of their gender.
The study puts it like this:
“Unlike hostile sexism, benevolent sexism is often not seen as problematic due to its subjectively positive content. Putting women on a pedestal may be deemed “nice,” “romantic,” or even “respectful” to women. However, HS and BS are complementary in maintaining gender inequality: while BS serves as a “reward” for women who embrace traditional gender roles, HS serves as a “punishment” for women who threaten the status quo.”
Women in our society are likely to be confronted with both types of sexism, but most people don’t understand the correlation. One result of that is the following:
“The misconception of BS in men may also suggest why it is difficult for some women to leave abusive relationships. On the surface, ambivalent sexist abusers may seem like doting boyfriends or husbands when they place their partners on a pedestal during the “honeymoon” phase (Cycle of Violence; Walker, 1979); however, they may also lash out violently when their partners fail to conform to their unrealistic standards. Thus, women may think that their partners could change and remain in abusive relationships, without recognizing that the male abuser’s positive treatment during the “honeymoon phase” goes hand-in-hand with his abusive behaviour whenever his partner deviates from cultural ideals of femininity.”
Women are conditioned to expect BS as a form of showing them respect, but it is quite the opposite. So when a man who isn’t a sexist understands the correlation between BS and HS and decides to do neither, women will see him as less respecting. That is what the study talks about, not “women see nice men as misogynists”.
Conclusion: Patriarchal society trains women to expect and accept sexism and that makes it harder for men to break out of sexist conventions. And that is exactly why we need feminism and feminist education.
It’s really cruel to punish your clown for honking, no matter how loud its honking is. Nose-honking is a clown’s instinctive expression of joy and excitement, and yelling at your clown, spraying it with water, or using shock collars will only add to the problem. Clowns thrive on attention, whether positive or negative, and making a huge fuss when your clown honks will only encourage it to honk more and louder.
Instead, the best way to discourage nose-honking is to ignore it. Remember to praise your clown when you notice it making balloon animals, riding in its clown car, or doing any other quiet activity. But remember, it’s natural for clowns to honk, and you can’t prevent it altogether.
Alright, this may be out of line, but there’s an elephant in the comically-undersized room and it’s high time we addressed it. Simply put, breed standards have become stringent to the point where inbreeding, and all the health issues that come with it, is rampant in the clown-showing circuit. Confused? Let me show you an example.
This is what a Belgian Spurthigh looked like in the late 1800s. Like most breeds in the Japing group, it was bred for function over form – those distinctive bony spurs on its hips, for example, protected the pelvis during particularly intense pratfalls. But over the last 100 years, we’ve exaggerated these features to a grotesque degree – take a look at the modern Belgian Spurthigh.
A single-minded focus on aesthetics has turned the breed into a warped caricature of its past self, and a veritable time bomb of health issues. Cataracts and hip dysplasia are so common that newly-hatched chucklets have to be tested for them, and the hip spurs are so pronounced in utero that they run the risk of puncturing the egg sac. Let me emphasize that again: in their current state, they cannot lay eggs naturally – to prevent the eggs from puncturing themselves, you have to give the mother a C-section and pull the strings of egg sacs out like a bunch of handkerchiefs tied together. This is not a state any living thing should exist in.
But how did it get this bad, you ask? Blame clown-showing authorities like the American Kook Club. The breed standards they set defining “ideal” clowns have gradually called for more and more pronounced features. When individuals win big events like Jokesminster, every breeder of that breed wants to to have the winner sire a litter with one of their clowns. When everyone is focused on a single, homogeneous ideal, inbreeding runs rampant and the breed’s gene pool shrinks dramatically.
So what do we do now? Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy solution. Preserving high-risk breeds may require crossing over with related breeds (in the case of the Belgian Spurthigh, we’ve seen some success with Andalusian Fool mixes). Clown breeders must continue to put pressure on the AKC and other authorities to prioritize health when defining breed standards. The clown breeds we know and love are in danger, but I believe that if we work together, we can continue to have happy and healthy clowns for generations to come.
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