There’s More Than Meets the Eye: Facial Appearance and Evaluations of Transsexual People

Abstract

Recent events have drawn attention to the prejudice and discrimination faced by transpeople; however, there is limited research on attitudes toward transpeople. We studied the effects of facial appearance on the evaluations of transsexuals in 239 heterosexual undergraduate students from the midwestern United States. Men had significantly more negative evaluations than women. The gender of the transsexual (male-to-female or female-to-male) had limited effects on evaluations; however, the transsexual whose facial appearance was congruent with their desired gender was perceived as more attractive than the transsexual whose facial appearance was incongruent. Negative evaluations were correlated with higher levels of transphobia and sexual prejudice. Further investigation is needed on the factors that influence prejudicial attitudes toward transpeople, including physical appearance.

Chinese college students’ gender self-esteem and trans prejudice

“…Moreover, based on the analysis of three pairs of items that compared people's attitudes toward transwomen with attitudes toward transmen, Winter et al (2008) found that women and men reported more negative attitudes toward transwomen than transmen. In contrast, Gerhardstein and Anderson (2010) found a similar result but only for men. King et al (2009) King et al (2009) found that the term Hong Kong people most commonly use to describe transpeople is "yen yiu," which means "human monster."…”

“…Participants rated vignettes with images of hypothetical transsexual individuals and completed questionnaires measuring transprejudice, sexual prejudice, and social desirability. Gerhardstein and Anderson (2010) found that men reported more negative general evaluations of the transsexual character than women, but the general evaluations of men and women did not discriminate significantly between transwomen and transmen characters. They also found that men reported more transprejudice than women and more violence, teasing, and discomfort towards transwomen than transmen, whereas women did not discriminate between transwomen and transmen for the violence, teasing, and discomfort ratings.…”

“…They also found that men reported more transprejudice than women and more violence, teasing, and discomfort towards transwomen than transmen, whereas women did not discriminate between transwomen and transmen for the violence, teasing, and discomfort ratings. Gerhardstein and Anderson (2010) suggested that because participants read brief descriptions and saw images of these transsexual characters, they had specific information about transpeople. This additional knowledge may have helped to reduce prejudice toward the transsexual individual, particularly the transwoman.…”

“…This study may also contribute to the awareness of what factors can affect Chinese people's prejudice and violence against transpeople, which in turn can lead to more effective interventions to decrease transprejudice in mainland China. There is substantial research on sexual and gender minorities, who challenge the traditional social norms of gender and sexuality, including attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women (Altemeyer, 2001;Ford, Brignall, VanValey, & Macaluso, 2009;Herek, 1988Herek, , 2000Whitley, 2009) and attitudes toward transpeople (Antoszewski, Kasielska, Jędrzejczak, & Kruk-Jeromin, 2007;Gerhardstein & Anderson, 2010;King, Winter, & Webster, 2009;Martin, 1990;Winter, 2006;Winter et al, 2009;Winter, Rogando-Sasot, & King, 2007;Winter, Webster, & Cheung, 2008). However, research on attitudes toward transpeople is rather limited, compared with research on attitudes toward homosexuals.…”

“…Moreover, most studies on attitudes toward transpeople have been conducted on Western samples (Antoszewski et al, 2007;Gerhardstein & Anderson, 2010;Martin, 1990), and so far no such research has been conducted on samples from mainland China. The aim of this study is to examine transprejudice of college students from mainland China.…”