The Facebook Me: Gender, Self-Esteem, and Personality on Social Media

Gender Stereotypes

The distinction between men and women is a basic organization principle for every society. Men and women identify their gender during their childhood and continue to behave in ways following prescribed gender role stereotypes (Bem, 1981). Gender role stereotypes are also displayed in the way men and women communicate. Researchers have spent considerable energy examining gender differences in face-to-face (FtF) communication (Simpson & Stroh, 2004).

Simpson and Stroh (2004) found that men and women have different ways to display emotions in FtF communication. Women more often tend to follow feminine expression rules, which require the suppression of negative emotions such as anger and frustration. Feminine expression rules also support the simulation of positive emotions such as enthusiasm, warmth, and love. Conversely, men more often adopt masculine expression rules, which dictate the subdual of positive emotions and encourage the expression of negative ones. The researchers also found that emotions that contribute to the maintenance of social relationships, such as warmth and cheerfulness, tend to be regarded as more appropriate for women, but the expression of positive emotions is generally found to be less desirable for men. The results suggest emotional display patterns in FtF communication are different between men and women.

Crick (1997) indicated that in communication, the expression of anger and aggression are generally seen as acceptable for men but not for women. This is in line with Adrianson’s (2001) idea that social judgments were more positive from women than from men, and that women expressed more opinions and agreements in communication than men did.