Students
MASTERS STUDENTS
Melanie Gunn
BSc
Psychology Master’s Student, Trent University (In Progress)
Master’s Project: There’s No Crying in Baseball: Examining Women’s Experiences of Femmephobia in Sports
Description: Sports culture is stereotypically masculine. For example, masculine-coded traits such as domination and aggression are rewarded in sports, which leads to athletes needing to prove their athleticism through masculinity. While women experience pressure in and out of sports to match gender norms (e.g., wearing makeup), little is known about women’s experiences of pressure based in femmephobia (i.e., pressure to be less feminine), and how both experiences may differ by context. In Melanie’s previous work, she found that women experience femmephobic gender policing in masculine domains, including sports. However, the majority of past research has focused on women’s experiences of pressure to fit into body image-related norms (e.g., to look more feminine or less masculine). This pressure is particularly seen in research conducted on pressure to look a certain way for a specific sport (e.g., muscular for rugby, lean for cross-country running). In turn, women have a sport body image (i.e., masculine), and a social body image (i.e., feminine), which are in conflict with one another in terms of how their bodies should look. This split body image comes from femininity being seen only in a sexual light and as incompetent. Thus, illuminating femmephobia may help women athletes to reconcile their dual body image in which femininity undermines athleticism. Melanie’s proposed research, thus, aims to examine the connections between femmephobia, dual body-image, and women’s participation in sports.
Awards Received:
* Ontario Graduate Scholarship
* Draper Research Excellence Award
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Psychology Honours Thesis Student, Acadia University (2022)
Honours Project: Walking the Tightrope: Illuminating Femmephobia as an Under-explored Experience of Women’s Gender Policing
Description: Women face a balancing act when it comes to their experiences of gender policing, whether it be their femininity or masculinity that is under scrutiny. Women’s experiences of being pressured to be more feminine or less masculine (i.e., gender policing rooted in gender norms) have been looked at extensively, but minimal research exists that examines how women feel pressured to be more masculine or less feminine (i.e., gender policing rooted in femmephobia). In the current study participants (n = 172) were asked checkbox and open-ended questions related to: 1. where they experience femmephobic gender policing; 2. by whom they experience femmephobic gender policing; and 3. their perceived rationale (e.g., to appear qualified, to avoid violence, etc.). The open-ended responses were analyzed using a modified approach to Braun and Clarke’s (2006) 6 steps to conducting thematic analysis. The quantitative results found that femmephobic gender policing was primarily experienced in LGBTQIA+ communities and public spaces, by strangers and colleagues, and was largely attributed to a need to be accepted or fit in, and to be seen as competent, qualified, strong, and capable. The qualitative results suggest that there are three overarching reasons as to why women experience femmephobic gender policing: 1. to avoid harassment and violence; 2. to comply with or challenge patriarchal standards and values; and 3. to be accepted or fit into certain communities or contexts. This research is exploratory in nature and aims to systematically identify the contexts in which women experience femmephobia, as well as illuminate an additional facet of gender policing experienced by women.
Awards Received:
*Governor General’s Academic Bronze Medal
*Honours Summer Research Award
HONOURS STUDENTS
For information on honours thesis supervision, visit “Supervision.”
RESEARCH STUDENTS
Lauren Sobot
BSc
Pathy Fellow, St. Francis Xavier University
Project: Mentorship for LGBTQ youth in Atlantic Canada
Description: The goal of this project is to establish a mentorship program between LGBTQ adults and LGBTQ youth in Atlantic Canada to build confidence and foster resiliency within young LGBTQ people by pairing them with a supportive adult.
Awards Received:
* St. Francis Xavier Canadian Scholarship
* St. Francis Xavier University Research Council Award
* St. Francis Xavier University Irving Research Mentorship Award
* Canadian Federation of University Women Scholarship
* Pathy Foundation Fellowship
PAST STUDENTS
Rhonda McInnis
BAH, MED, MSc Clinical Psychology
Project: Examining the role of femmephobia as a situational risk factor in intimate partner violence
Description: Previous research has shown that real or perceived feminine transgressions can make participants prey for acts of aggression, discrimination, and violence. With this in mind, situational risk recognition may offer an avenue for effective IPV prevention efforts. When potential victims become aware of ‘triggers’ and contextual cues in high-risk situations, they may respond effectively to reduce the imminent risk of IPV victimization. Thus, illuminating femmephobic attitudes as a potential situational risk factor for violence could change how we assess risk and inform possible victims’ assessment of imminent and future harm. For example, identifying a likely perpetrator’s discomfort with their own feminization, or demonstrating a propensity for regulating and devaluing femininity in others, may prove a powerful risk reduction strategy. Merging her supervisors’ work on situational risk recognition (Dr. Kathryn Bell) and femmephobia (Dr. Rhea Ashley Hoskin), Rhonda’s research aims to: 1. examine the role that femininity and femmephobia play in relationship conflict among same-sex, mixed-sex, and gender diverse couples; 2. determine whether femmephobic attitudes are a risk factor in IPV; 3. gain an understanding of victims’ experiences of femmephobia before and during an episode of IPV to determine better how to assess risk recognition; and 4. illuminate ways of using objectives 1-3 to inform potential victims’ risk recognition efforts.
Awards Received:
* Scotia Scholars Award, Research Nova Scotia
* Nova Scotia Innovation & Research Graduate Scholarship
Laura Ansloos
She/Her/Hers
BSc Biochemistry (Hons); MSc Organisational Psychology
Project: What the COVID-19 pandemic taught us about feminine devaluation: portrayals of femme working mothers
Description: The COVID-19 pandemic reminded the world that, despite years of gender equality progress, working mothers continue to bear heavier loads of unpaid labour (e.g. childcare, housework) than working fathers. However, the experiences of working mothers are, in the main, researched and portrayed through a heteronormative aperture without attention to other identity facets that may intersect with gender to compound (or, indeed, alleviate) the pandemic’s effects (e.g., sexuality, gender expression). This narrow view should be of concern to organisations wishing to make good on their diversity and inclusion promises. For example, what impact does gender expression and sexuality bring when examining the impact of COVID-19 on a working mother’s ability to work? By using devalued femininity and femmephobia as a theoretical springboard, this research seeks to add new insights around the influence of gender expression in shaping the life and work experiences of working lesbian mothers. By using a critical thematic analysis following interviews with femme (feminine lesbian) working mothers, the intention is to give voice to the experiences of this understudied group during the pandemic while also potentially revealing ideological influences scaffolding these portrayals. Ultimately, this research aims to help organisations develop a broader understanding of what it is to be a working mother so that they may take a more nuanced approach to supporting wellbeing, performance and career development.
Julia Grace Gillespie
BAH
She/Her/Hers
Psychology; Sexuality, Marriage, & Family Studies Honours Thesis Student, University of Waterloo / St. Jerome’s (2022)
Project: “I stopped wearing dresses, even though I always loved them”: Examining Women's Responses to Femmephobic Experiences
Description: Women regularly experience the devaluation and regulation of their femininity, which is referred to as femmephobia (Hoskin, 2019). The concept of femmephobia comes from femme theory (Hoskin, 2013), which is the guiding theory of the following study. Femmephobia is the enforcement tool of patriarchal femininity which, in turn, is the “femininity that represents a reproduction of social norms as dictated by patriarchal structure” (McCann, 2020, p. 6). Responses to femmephobia have yet to be directly examined by femme theorists, though some studies provide insight into what possible responses could look like (Blair & Hoskin, 2015; Hoskin, 2019). This study seeks to illuminate how women respond to these incidents, and how these responses relate to women’s minoritized identities, patriarchal beliefs about femininity, lifetime incidents of femmephobia, and commitment to appearance as integral to one’s identity. In this study, which is a secondary analysis of data from a larger study of gender pressure, participants reported how they altered or changed their feminine expressions as a result of a specific femmephobic incident. They also responded to measures assessing beliefs about patriarchal femininity, experiences of femmephobia across the lifetime, and appearance as a central domain of their identity. Results of the deductive thematic analysis (Braun and Clark, 2006; Fereday and Muir-Cochrane, 2006) of women’s responses to a femmephobic incident supported the hypothesized response types of amplification, suppression, and no change to feminine expressions following the incident. The most frequent response was that of suppressing feminine expressions, followed by no change in feminine expression. Very few women in this study (n=4 or 3.6%) amplified their feminine expression following the femmephobic experience. One-way ANOVAs revealed no significant relationships between response type and the variables of appearance identity, patriarchal beliefs about femininity, and lifetime incidence of femmephobia. Descriptive results regarding how women’s responses to femmephobia interplay with holding minoritized identities revealed that queer and racialized women were more likely to suppress their femininity combined with not changing it when faced with pressure to be more masculine, but for disabled women, the opposite pattern emerged; disabled women were more likely to exclusively suppress their feminine expressions. The results of this study fill a gap in the emerging research on femmephobia by drawing attention to how women respond to experiences of having their feminine expressions devalued, challenged, and regulated.
Audrey Lilian Gunn
BSc
Psychology Honours Thesis Student, St. Francis Xavier University (2020)
Project: Sexual Minority Women’s Gender Style
Description: This study explores the gender style of sexual minority women using 2-dimensional conical diagrams (SCT; van Anders, 2015).
Publication: Gunn, A., Hoskin, R.A., & Blair, K.L. (2021). The New Lesbian Aesthetic? Exploring Gender Style among Femme, Butch, and Androgynous Sexual Minority Women. Women’s Studies International Forum. Available here.
Awards Received:
* The Craig MacDonald Mooney Prize in Psychology
* University Gold Medal