Madame said
"The husband is responsible for earning money to support the family, and the wife is responsible for being beautiful as a flower"? Or "Become Jane Austen"?
"Big husband" or "little husband"?
"The domineering president falls in love with me" or "I don't marry the tycoon, I am the tycoon"?
Author: Mu Zheng
Editor-in-charge: Qian Yue
background
The recent election of Trump in the US presidential election has surprised the world. Naturally, more and more attention also began to focus on the next first lady, Melania Trump. The former supermodel, who came from an ordinary Slovenian merchant family, began to break into the New York fashion industry at the age of 16. Unlike most American first ladies before her, she was a successful model in college, but the huge differences in her upbringing and life experiences made her not play a positive and important role in the Trump campaign.
In July 2016, her speech at the Republican National Convention was found to have copied almost entirely the speech of the current First Lady michelle Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, which is still regarded as the scandal and laughing stock of this campaign.
In the face of the extremely disrespectful words to women that were exposed in the late Trump campaign, the light forgiveness and tolerance she showed made public opinion marvel at her unprincipled and bottomless, and many people felt that she was not at all like a wife with equal status with her husband. "Trophy wife" and "gold digger" are the main labels added to Melania Trump.
Regardless of whether these labels are fair or not, due to the traditional inequality of the status of men and women, the pattern of male "wealth" and female appearance is still the norm of marriage in the public vision. "Husbands are responsible for earning money to support the family, and wives are responsible for being beautiful as flowers" is even a popular declaration that many small couples express their sweet and trusting relationship with each other. So, based on academic research, in the current Chinese society, is the pattern of male "wealth" and female appearance still underway?
When male "rich" female appearance is carried out
In the field of marriage, China's long-standing tradition is that women "marry" in terms of social and economic status, that is, in an ideal and standardized marriage, women should find a husband whose economic conditions are superior to their own (Qian 2016). Despite the political and social propaganda that "women can hold up half the sky", as well as social and economic development, the economic and social status of women has been greatly improved, and even the "marrying" model of women in education has gradually disintegrated.
To this day, however, Chinese women's "marriage" model of income remains dominant (Qian 2016). The need for this marriage is becoming more pronounced with increasing competition in the market and the disadvantage of women in the labour market (Mu and Xie 2014).
In a study published by Professor Xie Yu and me in 2014, we found that before the 1990s, the age gap between husbands and wives was narrowing based on the promotion of equality between men and women and free love marriages;
However, in the "post-reform era" when the market economy is in full swing, the cost of living is rising sharply, and consumerism is prevalent, the age gap between husbands and wives has changed from before and begun to widen again.
Behind the re-widening age gap between couples is the frustration of young women in the labor market and the helplessness of returning to the family, and their choice for "big husbands" who are older and often more economically powerful.
Two sociological studies published this year also discussed the pattern of male "wealth" and female appearance indirectly or directly.
For example, Xu Hongwei (2016) examined the effects of weight and shape on the age of first marriage in his study. He found that, especially among urban women, a higher body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio, the less slender they were, significantly delayed women's age of first marriage. Conversely, among rural men, overweight and even obesity can accelerate men's first marriage. The male "rich" female appearance is one of the possible driving mechanisms for this result.
On the one hand, urban women face more prevalent and demanding physical and physical requirements in the marriage market;
On the other hand, in rural areas where materials are relatively scarce, overweight and obese men may be associated with higher economic and social status, which gives them an advantage in the marriage market.
Image credit: pexels
In a qualitative study published in 2016 by Tianhan Gui, she studied blind dates organized by parents for their children in four parks in Beijing. In interviews with these parents, she found that the male "wealth" and female appearance model is particularly critical for parents and the original family.
Many of the parents interviewed believe that for women, young age and beauty are their main "assets" in the marriage market; for men, real capital is the most critical, such as high education, high income and rich wealth.
Behind the male "rich" female appearance: "transaction" or "matching"?
It can be seen from the above that the male "rich" female appearance is still in progress. When explaining this marriage model, mainstream public opinion and academic research mostly believe that it is based on the transaction between beauty and status, that is, the exchange between men and women in marriage based on the capital they own, each taking what they need.
Of course, with the rise of women's economic status, their initiative in marriage choices has also increased, and the exchange of money and appearance between beautiful women and successful men may no longer be behind the appearance of men and women.
For example, a 2014 article by McClintock published in the American Sociological Review found that based on the Background in the United States, the appearance of men and women is mainly caused by matching between couples, rather than transactions. Specifically, the study found that, in general, the desirable traits possessed by individuals are often closely linked, for example, people with good looks tend to have a bright future. At the same time, when people are looking for a marriage partner, they tend to match according to their own conditions, with good conditions to find good conditions, and poor conditions to find poor conditions.
Previous related studies have often focused only on the correlation between women's appearance and men's economic conditions, without comprehensively considering all aspects of the conditions of both men and women. Therefore, based on her comprehensive and systematic quantitative analysis, behind the positive correlation between the wife's appearance and the husband's economic conditions, it is actually the positive correlation between the wife's appearance and economic conditions and the husband's appearance and economic conditions, and between the two sets of conditions.
For example, Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of the beautiful, high-achieving and economically minded Trump, and her tall, handsome, and high-ended husband can serve as an example of this matching mechanism.
epilogue
It can be seen that although the appearance of men and women is still going on in contemporary China, whether it is mainly trading or matching that is driving this model may have changed. Of course, due to the lack of direct research on Chinese society, the specific extent of this change is unknown.
In particular, although the education level of modern women in China has increased tremendously, they are also facing increasing resistance in the labor market and the constant burden of caring for their families. These two forces in opposite directions make our predictions and inferences about the mechanism behind the appearance of men and women even more confusing.
In addition, it is also worth noting that although the "matching" mechanism reflects the growth of women's status and the weakening of gender inequality in marriage to a greater extent than the "transaction" mechanism, at the same time, the enhancement of the "matching" mechanism will further increase the closure between social groups, thereby improving the overall level of social inequality.
bibliography
Gui, T., 2016. “Devalued” Daughters Versus “Appreciated” Sons Gender Inequality in China’s Parent-Organized Matchmaking Markets. Journal of Family Issues doi:10.1177/0192513x16680012.
McClintock, E.A., 2014. Beauty and Status The Illusion of Exchange in Partner Selection?. American Sociological Review 79: 575-604.
Mu, Z. and Xie, Y., 2014. Marital age homogamy in China: A reversal of trend in the reform era?. Social science research 44: 141-157.
Qian, Y., 2016. Gender Asymmetry in Educational and Income Assortative Marriage. Journal of Marriage and Family. doi: 10.1111/jomf.12372.
Xu, H., 2016. Developmental idealism, body weight and shape, and marriage entry in transitional China. Chinese Journal of Sociology 2: 235-258.