(May 18, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Psychologists have found that people with traditional sex-typed behaviour patterns often experience difficulty in heterosexual relationships because their response styles are incompatible with those of the other sex. The relatively detached and logical style of the male does not blend with the more sociable and expressive style of the female. A behavioural mixture of masculine and feminine or androgynous individual is often able to do whatever is adaptive or compatible in relationships with either sex.
Traditional sex-role stereotypes assume that men and women differ in many respects — in behaviour, ability and temperament. The traditional male has traits such as autonomy, activity, discipline, logic, courage, hardness, and goal directness. In contrast, the traditional female behaviour emphasizes nurturance, emotional expressiveness, dependency, passivity and relatedness to others. The traditional females, in the course of conversation looks at and gesture to one another more frequently and for longer periods than men. Typically these different patterns of behaviour are viewed as part of human nature or as a basic part of men’s women’s character. Psychologists argue that the link between traditional sex-role types and biological gender should be severed. A person’s biological makeup does not demand that he or she is more or less disciplined, courageous, expressive or nurturant. These styles reflect a process of social influence where people adopt the styles in order to fit properly in to the culture. If either the requirements of the culture or the needs of the individual were to change, the behaviour patterns also could change. Traditional styles are highly restrictive, demanding certain kind of behaviour that may seem to be quite alien to the individual. May men would like to be soft and nurturing, and many women would prefer to be active and autonomous. Thus these people probably would welcome a breakdown of the traditional sex-role patterns. This breakdown might facilitate the development of a mixture or an androgynous style of behaviour. Recently psychologists have begun to question the traditional stereotypes and champion new sex-role options.
When given an opportunity to play with an kitten — an activity that is thought to be traditionally feminine — androgynous men spent more time engaged in the activity and enjoyed it more than did men high in masculinity. Androgynous and feminine women were found to give more nurturance to a lonely student who needed counselling.
The behaviour of people high in femininity and masculinity differs greatly during conversation. Traditionally feminine individuals often smile when they are not speaking and traditionally masculine individuals change the flow of a conversation. In contrast, androgynous individuals use signals that traditionally are associated with both sexes.
In eastern countries like in Sri Lanka the majority still prefers the traditional way of behaviour for their children. If a boy dresses in a frock he becomes a ‘sissy’ and if a girl dresses with shorts and a shirt she becomes a ‘tomboy’. Even the play patterns are outlined. The girl should play with dolls and houses and the boy should play with bats, balls and guns.
Psychologists argue that the traditional patterns of male and female behaviour are not functional and should be abandoned. So the final conclusion is that in the modern society a mixture of feminine and masculine behaviour or the androgynous behaviour is the best for the male and the female.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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