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Evil Women and Hyperfemininity:
Hyper-gender role and sexual offending by women
Theresa Porter & Jacquelyn Bent
Abstract
Western culture has seen a growth in post-genderism since the 1960’s, with both sexes refusing
to be reduced to socially constructed gender roles. Many people choose to be defined by their
humanity, rather than their masculinity or femininity. This is not a universal decision, however
and both sexes may adhere to gender roles to varying degrees. While Psychological research has
investigated the extreme end of masculinity (Hypermasculinity) for many years, research into
women on the extreme end of femininity is relatively new.
A subset of women assimilates gender roles as primary to their identities. Research on this
population of women, defined as Hyperfeminine, indicates that they base their concept of
personal success on their ability to obtain and maintain a heterosexual relationship, utilizing their
sexuality and manipulation as the key tools to achieve this goal.
While Hyperfemininity is not generally considered problematic, recent research has found a
striking association between Hyperfemininity and sexually coercive behavior. Hyperfeminine
women were more likely to use coercive sexual tactics with their adult male partners than
women who did not subscribe to exaggerated gender roles.
This paper will examine this recent research on Hyperfemininity, its relationship to adversarial
relational styles, rape myth acceptance and sexual compulsivity. Finally, it will explore the
difficulty a gendered society has in seeing gendered behaviour, even when looking at it.
Key Words: Gender, femininity, sexual coercion, love-styles.
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Hypergender
Hyperfemininity is a sociological term describing the exaggerated adherence to a
feminine gender role as it relates to heterosexual relationships and identity development.1
Hyperfeminine women believe that their success in life is determined by creating and
maintaining relationships with men. Women who are part of this sub-group perceive their
primary value in a relationship as sexual and so they use sexual behavior to obtain their goals of
relationship attainment and maintenance. 2 Hyperfeminine women view men as always interested
in sex and as only valuing women for sexual purposes. In one study that investigated the
perception of the cause of sexual desire, 30% of the women attributed a man’s sexual desire
simply to his ‘maleness’. In other words, by virtue of being a male, he is inevitably aroused and
desiring sex.3 Hypermasculinity is the corollary to Hyperfemininity and includes sexual
attitudes towards women and beliefs around danger and violence. Hypergender can be measured
with scales such as the Hypergender Ideology Scale4, The Hyperfemininity Scale5 and the
Hypermasculinity Inventory6. Hypermasculinity is associated with social problems including
sexual aggression, belief in rape myths, increased risk of physical aggression towards both
women and homosexual men and decreased communication skills. Hyperfemininity has been
2
found to be associated with an attraction to males who engage in bullying behavior,7 with higher
use of alcohol and lower use of contraception during sexual activity, 8 with more rape myth
acceptance 9and with higher rates of consensual sexual activity compared to non-hyperfeminine
women.10
Sexual coercion
While the public discourse on sexual aggression tends to focus on violent forms such as
rape, less violent forms of sexual aggression such as sexual coercion are more common. The
term sexual coercion includes behaviors that are used to pressure a potential partner into having
sex despite that person’s disinclination or outright refusal. It usually takes the form of verbal
pressure. Common coercive practices include nagging and making insistent arguments, insulting
the refuser’s appearance or sexual prowess, threatening to end the relationship, lying and making
false promises or threatening to spread lies or rumors. In other words, sexual coercion often
involves bullying behavior. However, it can also take the form of exploitation of one’s power or
authority, such as having sex with a student, a minor, a prison inmate or other person who cannot
freely consent to sex due to inherent power imbalances.11 While a 15 year old student may view
herself as consenting to sex with her teacher, her potential difficulty refusing consent to someone
with power over her makes this situation inherently coercive. Another form of sexual coercion
involves inducing or encouraging intoxication for the purpose of sexual access. While the
intoxicated partner is not physically forced into sexual activity, neither is he or she able to give
informed consent due to incapacitation.
Adversarial beliefs and rape myth acceptance
Hypergender has also been associated with adversarial attitudes towards intimate
relationships, often termed love styles.12 In the original research there were six relational styles:
 Eros (romantic)
 Agape (altruistic)
 Mania (obsessive)
 Pragma (practical)
 Storge (affectionate)
 Ludic (adversarial)
People who hold adversarial attitudes towards relationships expect their relationships to involve
exploitation and for their partners to be manipulative and untrustworthy. Tools that measure
adversarial relational attitude include items indicating that males only want to be with females
for sexual purposes and females attempting to ensnare males through deception. Adversarial
relational styles have been found to correlate with high scores on femininity measures suggesting
that hyperfeminine women are more likely to engage in manipulative, game-playing tactics in
relationships.13 The research on adversarial relational attitudes laid the groundwork for later
research on rape myth acceptance since rape can be viewed as existing on the extreme end of an
adversarial, exploitative attitude.14 Studies have found a strong correlation in heterosexual
males who hold adversarial relational styles and who accept rape myths.15 Those males who
endorsed adversarial relationship beliefs were more likely to report engaging in coercive sexual
behaviors compared to males who ascribed to other relational styles.16 17 18 Putting these pieces
of research together, we see that hypermasculine men are more likely to hold adversarial
heterosexual beliefs, agree with rape myths and to engage in sexually coercive behaviors.19 In
Evil women and hyperfemininity
other words, hypergender (‘I’m a manly man’) is connected to specific beliefs (‘I need to have
sex with a woman in order to be a man; women say no when they mean yes’) that increase one’s
risk of sexual aggression (‘coercion’). While researchers in the 1990’s pulled these separate
pieces of research together regarding hypermasculinity, it was only recently that researchers
began examining adversarial relationships, hypergender and sexual coercion in women. One
might expect that women who hold adversarial relationship beliefs are also likely to accept rape
myths and research substantiates this expectation.2021 Just as rape myth acceptance by males is
connected to their view of women, rape myth acceptance by females is connected to their view
of men. In this case, men are always interested in sex and always sexually available.
Hyperfemininity, sexual coercion and sexual compulsivity
Because a hyperfeminine woman sees mate attainment as a primary goal and views her
sexuality as a tool for attaining and retaining a male partner, problems can arise if a male
declines to have sex with her. After all, her perception of men is that they’re always interested in
having sex. Research has found that when hyperfeminine women experienced sexual rejection
from their male partners, they felt significant levels of anger and embarrassment because their
view of themselves, of men and of relationships generally was violated. Rather than questioning
their underlying gender-related beliefs (i.e. men only want sex from women, a woman must have
a man in her life), they experience such a refusal as a threat to their self-conception. 22 This puts
them at risk of engaging in sexual aggression.23
An initial study on femininity and sexual aggression noted that those women who felt rejected by
a potential sex partner were 2.39 times more likely to engage in sexually coercive behaviors. 24
Rejection increased the women’s sexual aggression towards men. A second study found that the
women who engaged in sexually coercive behavior also reported experiences of sexual
compulsivity. Sexual compulsivity involves the experience of sexual urges that feel out of
control and overpowering and is related to sensation-seeking behaviours, boredom sensitivity
and sexual urges.2526 The connection between sexual coercion and sexual compulsivity is
somewhat intuitive and there have been several studies of male sex offenders which indicated
that they have high levels of compulsive sexual behaviour.
However, when the researchers published their findings that sexual coercion in women was
associated with sexual compulsivity, rather than discussing sexual compulsivity as a sensation or
drive issue, they theorized that the sexually coercive women were engaging in the sexual
aggression for the purpose of interpersonal connection and intimacy-seeking.27 In other words,
when confronted with data that showed that women having compulsive sexual urges that
correlated to sexual aggression, the researchers reframed this as really a drive towards intimacy.
This reframing occurred despite the existence of other studies on sexual compulsivity have found
that women and men have similar levels of sexual compulsivity. 28 A follow up study found that
hyperfemininity was a major component of the sexual coercion, along with sexual compulsivity
but again, the researchers theorized that the hyperfeminine women were engaging in the sexual
aggression as a form of intimacy seeking.29
Why would the researchers view the hyperfeminine women’s sexual compulsivity and coercion
as a form of intimacy-seeking? This may be due to the gendered sexual scripts for women are
pervasive in our culture, even among psychological researchers. Denov, an early theorist on
2
sexual offending by women, wrote that when confronted by evidence of sexual aggression by
women, people automatically convert the behaviour into something that fits cultural norms.30
This can be done by denying any malice to the women’s actions, by claiming that their
motivations were harmless.31 By claiming that sexual coercion and sexual compulsion are really
intimacy-seeking behaviours in hyperfeminine women, the sexual aggression is transformed.
However, intimacy is a form of communion and mutuality, a shared experience which occurs
under conditions of trust and reciprocity32 and in no way corresponds to the situation of bullying
someone or getting them drunk in order to have sex with them. Yet intimacy is what our culture
claims women want, rather than sex by any means.
Female sexual coercion
The topic of sexual coercion has been studied since the early 1980’s and is a relatively
common tactic used by women. A quick review of the available research shows just how widespread sexual coercion by women is. Studies at U.S. universities show that between 10-25% of
the women report engaging in sexual coercion including inducing intoxication in potential sex
partners.333435 The issue of sexual coercion by women isn’t just a U.S. problem. There have
been several multinational studies which show similar levels of sexual coercion by women in
cultures as diverse as Brazil and Poland.36 37 Victim reports of sexual coercion by women show
an even higher prevalence, with 38% to 58% of university males reporting these experiences, 3839
and intentional intoxication as one of the most common tactics used.4041 When we add in sexual
coercion by women who abuse their positions of power over minors, we find that the prevalence
is even higher.
Sexual between an adult woman and a minor is typically termed Statutory Rape in the U.S. and
Unlawful Sex with a Minor in much of Europe. This is one of the most common forms of sexual
coercion by women, with approximately 13% of adult men reporting past experiences at age 14
that met the criteria for statutory rape and 91% of the perpetrators were women.42 While there is
not yet any research connecting Hyperfemininity and statutory rape, existing research can
provide some direction. Two separate studies of female child molesters in British found that the
women held cognitive biases that all men were dangerous and the women tended to misinterpret
ambiguous actions by men as threatening. When researchers provided ambiguous stimuli of
male behaviors, the women interpreted it as signifying pending violence by the males. However,
the women didn’t interpret all information that way, just information about males. Not only did
women who co-offended with men display this bias; women who were solo offenders or who
offended with other women also scored high with this fear of men. The researchers theorized
that the women who held this cognitive bias of male dangerousness probably developed it in
response to personal experiences of victimization such as domestic abuse or child abuse.43 44
Hyperfemininity may play a role in the sexual coercion against minor age males in conjunction
with the belief of male dangerousness. If a woman believes that her success in life, that her
identity, requires her to be in a relationship with a male and if she also believes that adult males
are inherently dangerous, then minor-age males may be viewed as a safer alternative. Beliefs of
the adversarial nature of relationships generally and of rape myths specifically may permit
women who hold these beliefs to see their actions as both necessary and acceptable.
Hyperfemininity as camouflage
Evil women and hyperfemininity
Despite the significant rates just mentioned, there is a systematic bias in the academic and
human rights discourse against focusing on female perpetrators of sexual aggression. Colleges
and universities routinely discuss rape prevention in terms of male perpetrators and female
victims but a discussion of the reverse is extremely rare. Despite numerous studies showing a
significant prevalence of sexual aggression by women, the common view is that women don’t do
such things and if they do, the victims weren’t harmed. To some degree, this may be due to the
fact that, by being hyperfeminine, these women are fulfilling (or over-fulfilling) cultural
demands of gendered behavior and therefore don’t stand out. These women aren’t defying
community standards by engaging in physical force or by using a weapon. Instead, their use of
the supposedly ‘seductive’ or ‘manipulative’ tactics allows them and their actions to be framed
as less important, less harmful. In a society where the ultimate rape myth is that all sexual
aggressors are hypermasculine, the hyperfeminine sexual aggressor has the perfect disguise.
Notes
1
Melannie Matschiner & Sarah K. Murnen, ‘Hyperfemininity and influence’, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 23
(1999) 631-642.
2
Sarah K. Murnen & Donn Byrne. ‘Hyperfemininity: Measurement and initial validation of the construct’, Journal
of Sex Research, 28 (1991) 479-489
3
Pamela C. Regan & Ellen Berscheid, ‘Gender differences in beliefs about the causes of male and female sexual
desire’, Personal Relationships 2 (1995) 345-358)
4
Merle E. Hamburger, Matthew Hogben, Stephanie McGowan, and Lori J. Dawson. "Assessing Hypergender
Ideologies: Development and Initial Validation of a Gender-Neutral Measure of Adherence to Extreme Gender-Role
Beliefs." Journal of Research in Personality 30 (1996) 157-178.
5
Sarah K. Murnen, "The Hyperfemininity Scale." Handbook of sexuality-related measures (1998): 258-261.
6
Donald L. Mosher, "Hypermasculinity inventory." Handbook of sexuality-related measures (1998): 472-474.
7
Julaine E. Field, Laura M. Crothers & Jered B. Kolbert, ‘Adolescent female gender identity and attraction to male
bullies and victims’, Journal of emotional abuse 7 (2007)1-15.
8
TK Logan, Michele Staton & Carl Leukefeld, ‘Hyperfemininity, HIV Risk Behavior, and Victimization Among
College Aged Females’," Salud y drogas 1 (2001) 161-181
9
Katherine Black & Kathy A. McCloskey, "Predicting Date Rape Perceptions the Effects of Gender, Gender Role
Attitudes, and Victim Resistance." Violence against women 19(2013) 949-967.
10
Melissa McKelvie & Steven R. Gold, ‘Hyperfemininity: Further definition of the construct’, Journal of Sex
Research 31 (1994(219-228.
11
Michal Buchhandler-Raphael, ‘Sexual Abuse of Power’, University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy 21
(2010): 77-107.
12
John A. Lee (1973). Colours of love: An exploration of the ways of loving. Toronto: New Press.
13
Brenda L. Russell & Debra L. Oswald, ‘Strategies and dispositional correlates of sexual coercion perpetrated by
women: An exploratory investigation’, Sex Roles 45 (2001) 103-115.
14
Martha Burt. "Cultural myths and supports for rape." Journal of personality and social psychology 38 (1980) 217
15
Martha R. Burt, ‘Cultural Myths and Supports for Rape’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 38 (1980)
217-230.
16
David B. Sarver, Seth C. Kalichman, Jennifer R. Johnson, Jamie Early & Syed Akram Ali. "Sexual aggression and
love styles: An exploratory study." Archives of sexual behavior 22 (1993) 265-275.
2
17
Seth Kalichman, David B. Sarwer, Jennifer R. Johnson, Syed Akram Ali, Jamie Early & J. Terrell Tuten.
"Sexually coercive behavior and love styles: A replication and extension." Journal of psychology & human sexuality
6 (1994) 93-106.
18
Brenda L. Russell & Debra L. Oswald. "Sexual Coercion and Victimization of College Men the Role of Love
Styles." Journal of Interpersonal Violence 17 (2002) 273-285.
19
William O'Donohue, J. Sean McKay, and Paul A. Schewe, ‘Rape: The roles of outcome expectancies and
hypermasculinity’, Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment 8 (1996) 133-141.
20
Elizabeth A. Schatzel-Murphy, Danielle A. Harris, Raymond A. Knight & Michael A. Milburn, ‘Sexual Coercion
in Men and Women: Similar Behaviors, Different Predictors’, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38(2009), 974-986.
21
Elizabeth A. Schatzel-Murphy, ‘Expanding a model of female heterosexual coercion: Are sexually coercive
women hyperfeminine?’, Ph.D. diss., University of Massachusetts Boston, 2012.
22
Margaret O’Dougherty Wright, Dana L. Norton & Jill Anne Matusek, ‘Predicting verbal coercion following
sexual refusal during a hookup: Diverging gender patterns’, Sex Roles 62 (2010) 647-660.
23
Kim S. Menard, Gordon C. Nagayama Hall, Amber H. Phung, Marian F. Erian Ghebrial & Lynette Martin,
‘Gender Differences in Sexual Harassment and Coercion in College Students Developmental, Individual, and
Situational Determinants’, Journal of Interpersonal Violence 18 (2003) 1222-1239.
24
Margaret O’Dougherty Wright, Dana L. Norton & Jill Anne Matusek, ‘Predicting verbal coercion following
sexual refusal during a hookup: Diverging gender patterns’, Sex Roles 62 (2010) 647-660.
25
Nathan W. Stupiansky, Michael Reece, Susan E. Middlestadt, Peter Finn & Catherine Sherwood-Laughlin, ‘The
role of sexual compulsivity in casual sexual partnerships among college women’, Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity
16 (2009) 241-252.
26
http://www.midsa.us/pdf/MIDSA_clinical_manual.pdf
27
Elizabeth A. Schatzel-Murphy, Danielle A. Harris, Raymond A. Knight & Michael A. Milburn, ‘Sexual Coercion
in Men and Women: Similar Behaviors, Different Predictors’, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38(2009), 974-986.
28
Brian Dodge, Michael Reece, Sara L. Cole Theo GM Sandfort, ‘Sexual compulsivity among heterosexual college
students’, Journal of Sex Research 41 (2004) 343-350.
29
Elizabeth A. Schatzel-Murphy, ‘Expanding a model of female heterosexual coercion: Are sexually coercive
women hyperfeminine?’, PhD diss., University of Massachusetts Boston, 2012.
30
Myriam S. Denov, Culture of Denial: Exploring Professional Perspectives on Female Sex Offending’, Canadian
Journal of Criminology 43 (2001) 303-329.
31
Hilary Allen, ‘Rendering them harmless: The professional portrayal of women charged with serious violent
crimes’, Gender, crime and justice (1987) 81-94.
32
Dan P. McAdams, ‘A thematic coding system for the intimacy motive’, Journal of Research in Personality, 14
(1980), 413-432.
33
Peter Anderson, ‘Correlates of College Women’s Self-Reports of Heterosexual Aggression’, Sexual Abuse: a
Journal of Research and Treatment 8 (1996) 121-131
34
Peter Anderson, ‘Variations in College Women's Self-Reported Heterosexual Aggression’ Sex Abuse 10 (1998)
283-292
35
Janine M. Zweig, Bonnie L. Barber, and Jacquelynne S. Eccles, ‘Sexual Coercion and Well-Being in Young
Adulthood Comparisons by Gender and College Status’, Journal of Interpersonal Violence 12(1997) 291-308.
36
Manuel Gamez-Guadix & Murray Straus, ‘Childhood and adolescent victimization and sexual coercion and
assault by male and female university students’, Journal of Marriage and Family (in press).
37
Krystyna Doroszewicz & Gordon B. Forbes, ‘Experiences With Dating Aggression and Sexual Coercion Among
Polish College Students’, Journal of Interpersonal Violence 23 (2008) 58-73.
38
Cailey Hartwick, Serge Desmarais, & Karl Hennig, ‘Characteristics of male and female victims of sexual
coercion’, Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 16 (2007)31-41.
39
Martin Fiebert & Lisa Tucci, ‘Sexual coercion: Men victimized by women’, Journal of Men's Studies, 6(1998),
127-133.
40
Peter Anderson & William Sorenson, ‘Male and female differences in report of women’s heterosexual initiation
and aggression’, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 28(1999), 285-295.
41
Barbara Krahe, Renate Scheiberger-Olwig & Steffen Bieneck, ‘Men’s Reports of nonconsensual sexual
interactions with women: Prevalence and impact’, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 32(2003), 165-175
42
Adrian Coxell, Michael King, Gillian Mezey, and Dawn Gordon, ‘Lifetime prevalence, characteristics, and
associated problems of non-consensual sex in men: cross sectional survey’, British Medical Journal 27 (1999): 846–
850.
Evil women and hyperfemininity
43
Anthony R. Beech, Natalie Parrett, Tony Ward, and Dawn Fisher, ‘Assessing female sexual offenders’
motivations and cognitions: An exploratory study’, Psychology, crime & law 15 (2009) 201-216.
44
Theresa A. Gannon & Marianne R. Rose, ‘Offense-Related Interpretative Bias in Female Child Molesters A
Preliminary Study’, Sexual abuse: a journal of research and treatment 21(2009) 194-207.