When Beauty Brings Out The Beast: Female Comparisons And The Feminine Rivalry

Keywords

Feminine ideals; Femininity; Interpersonal competition; Relational aggression; Social comparisons

Abstract

Research on competition amongst women has largely focused on relational aggression amongst adolescents, but less explored are women’s understandings of the origins of competition as it relates to comparisons amongst women and feminine ideals. Drawing on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 30 collegiate women, we find young women’s stories constructed comparisons and competition amongst women as never-ending and seemingly natural, although they point to restricted societal expectations of femininity as its origin. Women drew from the interrelated topics of perfection-seeking, media portrayals, relationships, and consumerism to explain how they and other women negotiated feminine ideals. Even if participants understood these actions as ultimately undermining their self-image, they still perceived achieving goals of femininity as connected with perfection and happiness. We define such ongoing comparisons and competition as a feminine rivalry, as women perceived other women as direct competitors and thus understanding of the nature of the competition. We conclude by considering how college-aged women’s negotiations of feminine ideals to seemingly bolster or secure their social positioning in a hierarchy of femininity, at times in contradictory ways, offers additional insight into connections between interpersonal dynamics, expectations, and stereotypes of women.

Publication Date

12-1-2016

Publication Title

Gender Issues

Volume

33

Issue

4

Number of Pages

311-334

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-016-9158-5

Socpus ID

84991018142 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84991018142

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