Does Bem´s Psychological Androgyny map on gender or sex differences in faces?

Sarah Bem introduced the concept of androgyny, which disconnects sex and gender \nand includes a continuous representation of gender. What has not been investigated so far is \nwhether the particular qualities postulated by Bem are qualities of gender rather than sex-associated \ntraits. In the present study, the reversed correlation task as a data driven approach was used to \ndetermine the implicit gender stereotypes across the faces of men and women and to create an ideal \nprotoype of feminine and masculine faces. Then it was measured which impressions these faces \nevoke. Two studies and a pilot study (N=514) were conducted. The present study showed that \ngender and not sex is crucial for the attribution of social characteristics. Pictures of stereotypical \nfaces have been found to be highly suitable for measuring masculinity and femininity. The \ncontinuous properties of masculinity and femininity, as outlined by Bem (1974), are still \nappropriate to differentiate between the stereotypical ideas of men and women.