Dominance, Sexism, and Inadequacy

Abstract

This study explored sexist attitudes in a sample of 342 men involved in sadomasochism (SM). A compensatory conceptualization of sexual dominance suggests that men dominate women in SM activities to compensate for feelings of inadequacy. If dominants (a.k.a. “doms”) are compensating for feelings of inadequacy by dominating women, they also are likely to hold sexist attitudes to achieve the same result. Thus, it was hypothesized that doms would score significantly lower on measures of self-esteem and significantly higher on measures of sexism than submissives (a.k.a. “subs”). Neither hypothesis found empirical support; doms were significantly higher in self-esteem and significantly lower in sexism than subs. The results are discussed in terms of the gender role congruence of dominant vs. submissive behaviors in heterosexual men. Results suggest that subs' lower self-esteem and elevated sexism scores may be related to their feeling rejected by others because their behavior violated male gender norms.

Key Words:

• Sadism
• masochism
• sadomasochism
• bondage
• self-esteem
• sexism