Factors That Influence Negative Attitudes Towards Women With Tattoos
Throughout history men and women with tattoos have experienced negative judgment and reactions. However, men with tattoos have received greater social acceptance than women with tattoos (Hawkes, Daina, Charlene Y. Senn, and Chantal Thorn). There have been and still are many stigmas attached to women with tattoos dating all the way back to the 16th century. In the 16th century, women were tattooed to pursue careers as sideshow circus attractions and because of this, these women were seen as social outcasts to be marveled as well as ridiculed (Hawkes, Daina, Charlene Y. Senn, and Chantal Thorn). These stigmas followed tattoo women for many years to come.
In the 1920s, there was a rape case in Boston in which the prosecutor, upon realizing that the young woman he was defending had a tattoo, requested that the case be dropped. The judge and jury ended up releasing the two men who raped her on the grounds that they had been misled by the butterfly on her leg (Kang, Miliann, and Katherine Jones). To think that this happened a little less than one hundred years ago makes my stomach turn. It is sad to know that a rape case was thrown out just because the victim had a butterfly tattoo on her leg. It is also sad to know that the judge and jury agreed that the tattoo had sexual implications, and because of this, it was held that the woman was partly responsible for misleading the man who raped her (Hawkes, Daina, Charlene Y. Senn, and Chantal Thorn). A case like this was dismissed because of the stereotype, that women with tattoos are sexually promiscuous. This stereotype that is seen as small in some eyes caused a woman to get raped and I do not doubt that there have been other women raped because of this
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Sadly, many of these negative attitudes and allegations still exist today towards women with tattoos. Many members of society still look down at women with tattoos because tattooing has always been considered primarily a man’s activity. So if a woman decides to get a tattoo, they’re going against the standard gender roles set out for women. When women refuse to control the body and display it in ways that are socially acceptable, this seems to be perceived as a threat to the social order (Hawkes, Daina, Charlene Y. Senn, and Chantal Thorn). For instance, people tend to judge on the basis of appearance and when someone goes against an appearance norm, with women having tattoos as one; this is when negative attitudes are generated. When women become tattooed, they tend to be evaluated more negatively than men who become tattooed because of the refusal to obey appearance norms and the gender nonconformity that it displays. Now on the other hand, the reason that men are usually not looked down at for having tattoos is probably due to the gender-role expectations and stereotype of men as independent thinkers (Hawkes, Daina, Charlene Y. Senn, and Chantal Thorn). So stereotypes like these basically say that women should not be independent thinkers and when they do decide to act on their own, then that is obviously not a good thing, it’s just not normal.
Women have always been expected to modify their bodies for the sole pleasure of men. For example, a woman is supposed to have a soft, supple, thin, sexy, and an unblemished feminine body. When a woman decides to get a tattoo, this is going against the gender norm on how they’re supposed to look. This brings about many negative attitudes towards the woman who decides to get a tattoo, and the larger, more visible a tattoo is, the more negative evaluations it will attract. It is usually expected that attitudes toward a woman with tattoos would be more negative than attitudes toward the same woman who does not (Hawkes, Daina, Charlene Y. Senn, and Chantal Thorn). In the end, we all know everyone has their own personal preference and no one is expected to like every person they come into contact with. However, there seem to be many more negative attitudes towards women with tattoos, and it has been proven to be deeper than opinion. Why is this? Given the cultural constraints on women’s appearance norms and on gender role violations more generally, it is expected that the size and visibility of a woman’s tattoo would affect the reactions to her (Hawkes, Daina, Charlene Y. Senn, and Chantal Thorn). This all happens because of stereotypes and stigmas that originated centuries ago. These stereotypes and stigmas lead to so many consequences, with rape even being one of them.
Even though there are negative attitudes towards women with tattoos, it is becoming an even more popular activity among women. In some eyes, women with tattoos are even seen as more powerful than nontattooed women. A woman takes a huge social risk when they decide to get a large or visible tattoo, but it also can be worth it in the end because it allows for feelings and perceptions of liberation and strength. The acceptance of women with tattoos depends on the person making the judgment, tattoo ownership, size and visibility of the tattoo, as well as general attitudes toward women (Hawkes, Daina, Charlene Y. Senn, and Chantal Thorn). These attitudes towards women with tattoos will be even more important than they already are in the future, because of the fact more and more young women are getting tattoos. These attitudes will interfere with their achievements in not only the workplace, but in their personal relationships (Hawkes, Daina, Charlene Y. Senn, and Chantal Thorn). Yet, even though these women may experience these problems in the future, they still continued to get tattooed, and tattooing is no longer a male-dominated activity. So as tattoos become more popular among women, maybe in the future these stereotypes, stigmas, and negative attitudes towards women who are tattooed will no longer exist.
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