CleanupBot II at 18:05, 13 August 2023

2023-08-13T18:05:23Z

New page

{{short description|Practice of placing the masculine point of view at the center of one's worldview}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
'''Androcentrism''' ([[Ancient Greek]], ἀνήρ, "man, male"<ref name="Liddell & Scott">{{cite book | last1 = Liddell | first1 = Henry G. | last2 = Scott | first2 = Robert | last3 = Stuart Jones | first3 = Henry | others = Roderick McKenzie | author-link1 = Henry Liddell | author-link2 = Robert Scott (philologist) | author-link3 = Henry Stuart Jones | title = A Greek–English Lexicon | publisher = Clarendon Press | location = Oxford | year = 1940 | oclc = 499596825 | title-link = A Greek–English Lexicon }}</ref>) is the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing a [[masculine]] point of view at the center of one's [[world view]], culture, and history, thereby culturally marginalizing [[femininity]]. The related adjective is ''androcentric'', while the practice of placing the [[feminine]] point of view at the center is ''[[gynocentric]]''.

== Etymology ==

The term ''androcentrism'' was introduced as an analytic concept by [[Charlotte Perkins Gilman]] in a scientific debate. Perkins Gilman described androcentric practices in society and the resulting problems they created in her investigation on ''The Man-Made World; or, Our Androcentric Culture'', published in 1911.<ref name="CPG_1911">{{cite book | last = Perkins Gilman | first = Charlotte | author-link = Charlotte Perkins Gilman | title = The man-made world: or, Our androcentric culture | publisher = Charlton | location = New York | year = 1911 | url = http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3015/3015-h/3015-h.htm | oclc = 988836210}}</ref> Because of this androcentrism can be understood as a societal fixation on masculinity whereby all things originate. Under androcentrism, masculinity is normative and all things outside of masculinity are defined as ''[[Other (philosophy)|other]]''. According to Perkins Gilman, masculine patterns of life and masculine mindsets claimed [[Universality (philosophy)|universality]] while female patterns were considered as [[deviance (sociology)|deviance]].<ref name="CPG_1911" />

== Education ==
Some universities such as the [[University of Oxford]] consciously practiced a [[numerus clausus]] and restricted the number of female undergraduates they accepted.<ref>{{cite web|author=Frances Lannon|url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/404111.article|title=Her Oxford|work=Times Higher Education|date=30 October 2008}}</ref>

== Literature ==
Research by Dr. David Anderson and Dr. Mykol Hamilton has documented the under-representation of female characters in a sample of 200 books that included top-selling children's books from 2001 and a seven-year sample of [[Caldecott Medal|Caldecott]] award-winning books.<ref name="Hamilton">{{cite journal | last1 = Hamilton | first1 = Mykol C. | last2 = Anderson | first2 = David | last3 = Broaddus | first3 = Michelle | last4 = Young | first4 = Kate | title = Gender stereotyping and under-representation of female characters in 200 popular children's picture books: a twenty-first century update | journal = [[Sex Roles (journal)|Sex Roles]] | volume = 55 | issue = 11–12 | pages = 757–765 | doi = 10.1007/s11199-006-9128-6 | date = December 2006 | s2cid = 146234748 }}</ref> There were nearly twice as many male main characters as female main characters, and male characters appeared in illustrations 53 percent more than female characters. Most of the plot-lines centered on the male characters and their experiences of life. <ref name="Hamilton" />

== The arts ==

In 1985 a group of female artists from New York, the [[Guerrilla Girls]], began to protest the under-representation of female artists. According to them, male artists and the male viewpoint continued to dominate the visual art world. In a 1989 poster (displayed on NYC buses) titled "Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?" they reported that less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art sections of the Met Museum were women, but 85% of the nudes were female.<ref>{{cite book | title = Guerilla Girls poster 1989 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131125204514/http://www.guerrillagirls.com/posters/getnaked.shtml | archive-date = 25 November 2013 | url = http://www.guerrillagirls.com/posters/getnaked.shtml | publisher = [[Guerrilla Girls]] | access-date = 17 March 2011}}</ref>

Over 20 years later, women were still under-represented in the art world. In 2007, Jerry Saltz (journalist from the New York Times) criticized the Museum of Modern Art for undervaluing work by female artists. Of the 400 works of art he counted in the Museum of Modern Art, only 14 were by women (3.5%).<ref>{{cite news | last = Saltz | first = Jerry | author-link = Jerry Saltz | title = Where are All the Women? On MoMA's Identity Politics | work = [[New York (magazine)|New York]] | url = http://nymag.com/arts/art/features/40979/ | date = 18 November 2007 | access-date = 17 March 2011}}</ref> Saltz also found a significant under-representation of female artists in the six other art institutions he studied.<ref>{{cite news | last = Saltz | first = Jerry | author-link = Jerry Saltz | title = Data: Gender Studies. Is MoMA the worst offender? We tallied how women fare in six other art-world institutions | work = [[New York (magazine)|New York]] | url = http://nymag.com/arts/art/features/40980/ | date = 17 November 2007 | access-date = 17 March 2011}}</ref>

== Generic male language ==
{{Further|Male as norm}}
{{See also|Gender-neutral language}}

In literature, the use of masculine language to refer to men, women, intersex, and non-binary may indicate a male or androcentric bias in society where men are seen as the 'norm', and women, intersex, and non-binary are seen as the 'other'. Philosophy scholar [[Jennifer Saul]] argues that the use of male generic language marginalizes women, intersex, and non-binary people in society.<ref>{{cite web | last = Saul | first = Jennifer | title = Feminist philosophy of language | url = http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-language/#1.1 | website = plato.stanford.edu | publisher = Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online) | date = 2004 | access-date = 17 March 2011}}</ref> In recent years, some writers have started to use more gender-inclusive language (for instance, using the pronouns they/them and using gender-inclusive words like humankind, person, partner, spouse, businessperson, firefighter, chairperson and police officer).

Many studies have shown that male generic language is not interpreted as truly gender-inclusive.<ref>
''Studies'':
* {{cite journal | last = Bojarska | first = Katarzyna | title = Responding to lexical stimuli with gender associations: a cognitive–cultural model | journal = [[Journal of Language and Social Psychology]] | volume = 32 | issue = 1 | pages = 46–61 | doi = 10.1177/0261927X12463008 | date = March 2013 | s2cid = 145006661 }}
* {{cite journal | last = Hamilton | first = Mykol C. | title =Using masculine generics: Does generic ''he'' increase male bias in the user's imagery? | journal = [[Sex Roles (journal)|Sex Roles]] | volume = 19 | issue = 11–12 | pages = 785–799 | doi = 10.1007/BF00288993 | date = December 1988 | s2cid = 144493073 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Hamilton | first1 = Mykol C. | last2 = Henley | first2 = Nancy M. | title = Sex bias in language: effects on the reader/hearer's cognitions | date = August 1982}} Paper presented at a conference of the [[American Psychological Association]], Los Angeles.
* {{cite journal | last1 = DeLoache | first1 = Judy S. | last2 = Cassidy | first2 = Deborah J. | last3 = Carpenter | first3 = C. Jan | title = The three bears are all boys: Mothers' gender labeling of neutral picture book characters | journal = [[Sex Roles (journal)|Sex Roles]] | volume = 17 | issue = 3–4 | pages = 163–178 | doi = 10.1007/BF00287623 | date = August 1987 | s2cid = 143834265 }}</ref> Psychological research has shown that, in comparison to unbiased terms such as "they" and "humankind", masculine terms lead to male-biased mental imagery in the mind of both the listener and the communicator.

Three studies by Mykol Hamilton show that there is not only a male → people bias but also a people → male bias.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Hamilton | first = Mykol C. | title = <nowiki>Masculine bias in the attribution of personhood: people = male, male = people</nowiki> | journal = [[Psychology of Women Quarterly]] | volume = 15 | issue = 3 | pages = 393–402 | doi = 10.1111/j.1471-6402.1991.tb00415.x | date = November 1991 | s2cid = 143533483 }}</ref> In other words, a masculine bias remains even when people are exposed to only gender neutral language (although the bias is lessened). In two of her studies, half of the participants (after exposure to gender neutral language) had male-biased imagery but the rest of the participants displayed no gender bias at all. In her third study, only males showed a masculine-bias (after exposure to gender neutral language) – females showed no gender bias. Hamilton asserted that this may be due to the fact that males have grown up being able to think more easily than females of "any person" as generic "he," since "he" applies to them. Further, of the two options for neutral language, neutral language that explicitly names women (e.g., "he or she") reduces androcentrism more effectively than neutral language that makes no mention of gender whatsoever (e.g., "human").<ref>{{cite journal | last = Khosroshahi | first = Fatemeh | title = Penguins don't care, but women do: A social identity analysis of a Whorfian problem | journal = [[Language in Society]] | volume = 18 | issue = 4 | pages = 505–525 | doi = 10.1017/S0047404500013889 | date = December 1989 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bailey | first1 = April H. | last2 = LaFrance | first2 = Marianne | title = Who counts as human? Antecedents to androcentric behavior | journal = [[Sex Roles (journal)|Sex Roles]] | volume = 76 | issue = 11–12 | pages = 682–693 | doi = 10.1007/s11199-016-0648-4 | date = June 2017 | s2cid = 148460313 }}</ref>

Feminist anthropologist Sally Slocum argues that there has been a longstanding male bias in anthropological thought as evidenced by terminology used when referring to society, culture, and humankind. According to Slocum, "All too often the word 'man' is used in such an ambiguous fashion that it is impossible to decide whether it refers to males or just the human species in general, including both males and females."<ref>Slocum, Sally (2012) [1975], "[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Kou0uQAACAAJ Woman the gatherer: male bias in anthropology]", in {{cite book | editor1-last = McGee | editor1-first = R. Jon | editor2-last = Warms | editor2-first = Richard L. | title = Anthropological theory: an introductory history | date = 11 July 2011 | pages = 399–407 | publisher = McGraw-Hill | location = New York | isbn = 9780078034886 }}</ref>

Men's language will be judged as the 'norm' and anything that women do linguistically will be judged negatively against this.<ref>Mooney, A., & Evans, B. (2019). Language, Power, and Society: An Introduction.</ref> The speech of a socially subordinate group will be interpreted as linguistically inadequate against that used by socially dominant groups.<ref>Wolfram, W. and Schilling-Estes, N. (1998) American English: Dialect and Variation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.</ref> It has been found that women use more hedges and qualifiers than men. Feminine speech has been viewed as more tentative and has been deemed powerless speech. This is based on the view that masculine speech is the standard.

== Generic male symbols ==
On the Internet, many avatars are gender-neutral (such as an image of a smiley face). However, when an avatar is human and discernibly gendered, it usually appears to be a man.<ref>{{cite news | last = Wade | first = Lisa | title = Default avatars: a collection | url = https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/6281/5883 | work = [[University of Minnesota|The Society Pages]] | Sociological Images | publisher = [[University of Minnesota]] | date = 4 May 2009 | access-date = 17 March 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bailey | first1 = April H. | last2 = LaFrance | first2 = Marianne | title = Anonymously male: Social media avatar icons are implicitly male and resistant to change | journal = Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace | volume = 10 | issue = 4 | page = 8 | doi = 10.5817/CP2016-4-8 | date = 2016 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

==See also==

* [[Honorary male]]
* [[Male supremacy]]
* [[Manosphere]]
* [[Patriarchy]]
* [[Phallocentrism]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Literature==
* {{cite book | last = Keller | first = Evelyn | author-link = Evelyn Fox Keller | title = Reflections on gender and science | publisher = Yale University Press | location = New Haven | year = 1985 | isbn = 9780300032918 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/reflectionsongen00kell }}
* Ginzberg, Ruth (1989), "[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gQQkAvU4S1oC&pg=PA69 Uncovering gynocentric science]", in {{cite book | editor-last = Tuana | editor-first = Nancy | title = Feminism and science | pages = [https://archive.org/details/feminismscience0000unse/page/69 69–84] | publisher = Indiana University Press | location = Bloomington | isbn = 9780253205254 | year = 1989 | url = https://archive.org/details/feminismscience0000unse/page/69 }}
* {{cite book | editor1-last = Harding | editor1-first = Sandra | editor2-last = Hintikka | editor2-first = Merrill B. | editor-link1 = Sandra Harding | title = Discovering reality: feminist perspectives on epistemology, metaphysics, methodology, and philosophy of science | publisher = Kluwer Boston | location = Dordrecht, Holland Boston Hingham, Massachusetts | year = 1983 | isbn = 9789027714961 }}
* {{cite book | last = Harding | first = Sandra | author-link = Sandra Harding | title = The science question in feminism | publisher = Cornell University Press | location = Ithaca London | year = 1986 | url = https://archive.org/details/sciencequestioni00hard | isbn = 9780335153596 | url-access = registration }}
* {{cite book | last = Harding | first = Sandra | author-link = Sandra Harding | title = Whose science? Whose knowledge?: thinking from women's lives | publisher = Cornell University Press | location = Ithaca, New York | year = 1991 | isbn = 9780801497469 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/whosesciencewhos00hard }}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|androcentrism}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080917173207/http://www.sociologyprofessor.com/socialtheories/androcentrism.php Androcentrism]

{{Sexual identities}}
{{Discrimination}}

[[Category:Epistemology]]
[[Category:Feminist philosophy]]
[[Category:Feminist terminology]]
[[Category:Patriarchy]]
[[Category:Philosophy of science]]
[[Category:Feminism and society]]
[[Category:Misogyny|*]]

Androcentrism - Revision history

CleanupBot II at 18:05, 13 August 2023