 By Gary GrimesOriginally published in the October 2011 Socionomist |
Robert Prechter’s groundbreaking socionomics report “Popular Culture and the Stock Market” noted that “men are more ‘masculine’ during bull markets, and women more ‘feminine.’”9 But in bear markets, those sexual stereotypes fall from favor and society embraces a greater variety of gender roles and identities.
Gender-bending seems more prevalent today than in recent decades, and the signs of social mood’s impact on the perception of sexuality are mounting.
Switched Looks: Chaz Bono, daughter of Sonny and Cher. Courtesy: dailymail.co.uk
Chaz Bono, currently a trans-gendered man and originally Chastity Bono, the daughter of famous television pair Sonny and Cher, was recently the star of the primetime TV series “Dancing With the Stars.”
Today’s hottest model, gracing magazine covers around the world wearing everything from four-inch heels to designer wedding gowns, is actually a 20-year-old man who is self-described as “genderless.” Female fashion models command higher earnings than males; Andrej Pejic’s “glam androgynous look” can command a paycheck as either.10
15 U.S. states plus D.C. have laws specifically prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression. A number of others are currently considering similar measures.11
Australia recently decided to provide three gender choices on passport applications: male, female and indeterminate. The country is following the lead of the U.S. and Britain, which both adopted similar measures in recent years.
As the current bear market mood blurs the very definitions of gender, expect modification and a variety of identities to become increasingly prevalent in society, art and public policy.■
Citations
9Prechter, R. (1985, August). Popular culture and the stock market. The Elliott Wave Theorist, Retrieved from https://3d8988.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/PDF/popular_culture.pdf.
10Platell, A. (2011, February 25). Fashion’s ultimate insult to women: The latest way of demeaning real women is a male model dressed as a girl. The Daily Mail, Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1360460/Andrej-Pejic-Fashions-ultimate-insult-women-man-dresses-woman.html.
11Non-discrimination laws that include gender identity and expression, Transgender Law and Policy Institute, http://www.transgenderlaw.org/nd/laws/index.htm. See also Edwards, D. (2011, July 6). Connecticut governor signs law protecting transgender people. The Raw Story, Retrieved from http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/06/connecticut-governor-signs-law-protecting-transgender-people/.
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Most economists, historians and sociologists
presume that events determine society’s mood. But socionomics hypothesizes
the opposite: that social mood regulates the character of social events. The
events of history—such as investment booms and busts, political events,
macroeconomic trends and even peace and war—are the products of a naturally
occurring pattern of social-mood fluctuation. Such events, therefore, are not
randomly distributed, as is commonly believed, but are in fact probabilistically
predictable. Socionomics also posits that the stock market is the best available
meter of a society’s aggregate mood, that news is irrelevant to social
mood, and that financial and economic decision-making are fundamentally different
in that financial decisions are motivated by the herding impulse while economic
choices are guided by supply and demand. For more information about socionomic
theory, see (1) the text, The
Wave Principle of Human Social Behavior © 1999, by Robert Prechter;
(2) the introductory documentary History's
Hidden Engine; (3) the video Toward
a New Science of Social Prediction, Prechter’s 2004 speech before
the London School of Economics in which he presents evidence to support his
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The Socionomist enables you to see trend-shaping waves of social mood, as reflected by the stock market — and capitalize on them. The June issue looks at phases of social mood and features a “Research Roundup,” which highlights five academic studies that shine a light on important aspects of socionomic theory. Mood Riffs topics include “quiet luxury,” loneliness, the Writers Guild strike and efforts by countries to trade in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Read the June issue when you become a Socionomics Premier Member.
