My thoughts on the 'Women are Wonderful' effect

AdOtherwise3824 · 2026-01-27T16:23:42+00:00

"he can't keep getting away with it!!!!" *towards Freud*.

There may very well be some evo-psych explanation for the women are wonderful effect. But as a scientist, these are basically unfalsifiable claims, so I tend to struggle with raising these as The Reason. It's far more secure to argue that agents of socialization work diligently to instill the women are wonderful (or more like "men are evil") effect. There we can actually say that "given these rearing circumstances, we'd expect a certain result" and then we can test it.

RavenEridan · 2026-01-27T08:39:41+00:00

What you've just thought up is pseudoscience and isn't really truthful as to why women are treated better, sure it contributes but it's not the main reason why, lots of people dislike their moms or refuse to speak to them.

The true reason that has been backed by research and statistics as to why people think women are better is because its been socially ingrained into all of us since we were little, we've been socially conditioned to think of women are perfect empathetic victims that need to be protected and cared for while men are human doings whose only purpose is to provide and protect, while also being dangerous oppressors that might be rapists or misogynistic, traditional gender roles are still very much alive and most people follow them.

Men are seen as having no inherent value, which is why when a man is suffering or his needs aren't being met, nobody cares because it's been socially taught that our well being doesn't matter, only what we contribute to society.

multihome-gym · 2026-01-27T13:50:38+00:00

I think an important aspect of the prevalence of the 'women are wonderful' trope is what I would call sheer momentum. Once an idea gets going, it has a tendency to gain speed and mass regardless of whether or not the idea is true. Certainly the idea that all men are violent, disposable beings has become prevalent because of this.

There is also an element of self-interest. Imagine the opposite scenario: suddenly a large part of society gets the idea in its head that 'men are wonderful'. That laudatory and charismatic virtues are ascribed to all men as a consequence of their gender, regardless of their individual actions or behavior. The idea tends to take hold and get acceptance because people first exposed to the idea think that everybody else thinks the same way. It's a form of group-think. It doesn't have to be just men or women, take any other identifiable demographic. There's a prevailing stereotype that physically-challenged people are more virtuous because physical mobility is more difficult for them.

Also, if you are in the demographic that is considered 'wonderful', there are a lot of advantages to be gained by adopting the trope and promoting it and spreading it as much as possible.

I think the best way to deal with the 'women are wonderful' trope is to simply short-circuit it, psychologically. There is no logical or empirical evidence to support the trope that one gender is more wonderful or virtuous than another, simply by the nature of that gender. There are bad women and good men as much as there are good women and bad men. And it's also important to remember that the trope is probably simply not applicable at the person-to-person scale.

aaahhh_ghosts · 2026-01-27T22:14:56+00:00

I think it's a combination of socialization and also some evolutionary pressures. To your point on women being over-represented in children's lives at both home and school, that is a contributor. I think the industrial revolution (and many prior forms of labor) removed most fathers from the household and made them more estranged from their families in order to perform work. It's actually very unnatural that children, especially toddler age and beyond, have so much more time with their mother than with their father

NotJeromeStuart · 2026-01-27T14:10:03+00:00

The answer is very simple:

We are nice to people that we want to have sex with.
We are nice to people we think are pretty
We are nice to people smaller than us.

If you leave those factors for enough generations, eventually you will get the women are wonderful effect. It starts seeping from automatic responses into logical understanding and then people believe it to be true.

AncomBunker47 · 2026-01-27T16:52:39+00:00

On average they've less muscle mass, shorter, delicate voice and more vulnerable during pregnancy makes us more likely to believe women are not capable of harm (compared to men). Their stereotypical image is closer to an infant than a man, they are "more likely" to be innocent.

_vertig0 · 2026-01-28T01:19:16+00:00

And there's the infamous women and children first declaration on the Titanic

Funny that you mention this. The radicals have tried to deny that men have ever helped others in emergencies at expense to themselves in history before. I've said this on this subreddit before so it's a copy and paste, but my buddy who's on Instagram Threads once showed me a post trying to erase pretty much any help that men have provided in times of need and emergency. It went something along the lines of (Not word for word) "The Titanic was an exception, the 'Women and children first' saying is a farce perpetuated by men to make themselves look more heroic than they actually are, in actual emergencies historically men flee first and only care about saving themselves, it's literally women who always save others and have to put in the effort or risk their lives to save other women and undeserving men".

OhDudeWTFisThat · 2026-01-28T16:07:45+00:00

It's linked to evolutionary psychology

TSSalamander · 2026-02-05T18:51:56+00:00

It's not really that women are wonderful It's that men are awful. It's mostly a negative bias against men caused by the idea that men are the evil gender. The danger of strange men is foundational to so many social systems, including most systems of patriarchy. it has never been dismantled, in fact the idea that men are evil and just hiding it has become arguably more normalised publicly. But when societies become more egalitarian they tend to lose that bias to sime extent. Ask a woman in egypt what her thoughts are on the dangerousness of men, and you'll get the most misandrist perspective you can think of. Which ofcourse justifies why the patriarchy of egypt must be that way, to protect the good women from the bad men.

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