TORONTO – Women show aggressive behaviour towards provocatively dressed female peers, a University of Ottawa study suggests.
The study, “Intolerance of sexy peers: intrasexual competition among women,” published in the journal Aggressive Behaviour, looked at the reaction of 46 women when they were confronted by an attractive woman, wearing – what was described as- provocative clothing.
Researchers conducted two experiments to study the aggressive behaviour between women. In the first experiment, women were randomly placed in one of two situations; being exposed to an attractive female peer who dressed in a sexy outfit, or the same woman, dressed conservatively.
Get daily National news
In both situations, the participants were secretly videotaped to capture their reaction to the woman. Independent female observers – not aware of the point of the study – were then asked to rate the “aggressiveness” of the participants’ reactions toward the woman dressed either provocatively or conservatively.
In the majority of cases where the woman was dressed provocatively, the women’s reactions were judged to be aggressive or ‘catty.’ According to a release by the University of Ottawa, “The women in this situation were more likely to roll their eyes at their peer, stare her up and down and show anger while she was in the room. When she left the room, many of them laughed at her, ridiculed her appearance, and/or suggested that she was sexually available.”
When the woman was dressed conservatively, the study found the opposite; women barely noticed the woman’s arrival into the room and none discussed her when she left.
The study concludes that women instinctively feel threatened by other women who defy social norms – such as wearing skimpy clothing. Tracy Vaillancourt, the University of Ottawa researcher who conducted the study, says “it comes from evolution, the idea that if women were to give away their resource, the resource being sex, too freely then it would compromise the power holding position of the group.”
Psychotherapist and life coach, Kimberly Moffit, says that the aggressive behaviour may also stem from insecurity. “What they tend to do when they see a girl who is provocatively dressed, they’ll call her skanky or promiscuous and these are words they use because they’re jealous or feeling competitive with her.”
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.