This Quiz Determines If You’re Sexist

The conversation begins with a quiz testing Freya's responses to questions from the 'benevolent sexism scale,' a psychological measurement tool. Freya consistently identifies statements like 'women have superior moral sensibility' as sexist toward men, and rates protective sentiments like 'women should be cherished and protected' as good things — responses which technically classify her as a 'massive benevolent sexist' according to the scale.

Tanya introduces the concept of the 'mismeasurement of men,' a research project critiquing how psychological scales measuring toxic masculinity, benevolent sexism, and male sexual entitlement are fundamentally flawed. She argues these scales conflate factual awareness about the world — such as women being attracted to dominance and muscularity — with problematic attitudes, without properly measuring the harmful inferential leap (e.g., that protection justifies limiting women's autonomy).

The group discusses how the benevolent sexism scale pathologizes women's own preferences for protection and provisioning, noting that women are 'perplexingly attracted to benevolent sexism' in the literature, which researchers treat as an inconvenient finding rather than a reflection of genuine preferences. Tanya shares poll results showing women rated discovering a man was unwilling to protect them as more damaging to attraction than discovering he had cheated in a one-night stand.

A viral CCTV video from Thailand — showing a man hiding behind a pillar while his female companion fights off a knife-wielding attacker, before another man intervenes with a helmet — serves as a real-world illustration of universal moral intuitions about male protectiveness. The group discusses how modern life removes opportunities for men to display physical formidability, potentially contributing to women's declining interest in men.

The conversation then turns to the trade-offs involved in selecting highly aggressive, formidable mates. While women desire men capable of aggression for protection, the same trait can manifest as domestic abuse — as seen in cases involving MMA fighters. The hosts note that the ability to turn aggression on and off is rare, and that women's preference for formidable mates intensifies in more dangerous environments and among smaller women.