you cool, don't have to worry about belaboring the topic...the way i keep alluding to tangents, I feel like i could get a doctorate thesis or two out of this for Psych.
but lets see...
we can't ever really "always be this way," there has to be introduction to, and reinforcement of all socially accepted behaviors, attitudes, etc. Groups and intense social situations on any scale wield an immense power to change attitudes and behavior very quickly. It doesn't even have to be a group, but merely a charismatic leader who takes advantage of great opportunity created by the right situational factors. The best historical example is Hitler's rise. It will make sense if you bother to check out the real stories behind the end of WWI and all of WWII, I won't get into that because its way off topic.
As far as biological inheritance of attitudes, i can't really pose a clear cut response to that. The nature vs. nurture dispute is one of the greatest and most famous in the psychological world. Biology tells us that character traits are not inheritable and child psychologists have assert us that no child under the age range of 10 - 12 is capable of forming his/her own opinion...constructing his/her personal preferences, beliefs, attitudes and habits mainly from informational influence of those around him/her, primarily the parents. Many people still find basis for a belief in some natural transfer of attitudes though...for instance there's a theory out about the generational learned helplessness of the black race a a whole. I don't know a lot about that nature side, so i can't pose a balanced argument...I'll just leave that one up to you sort out for yourself.
As far as males accepting things with belief that they won't change...i don't think you should shift your thinking that way at all. That actually epitomizes the concept of learned helplessness. The human mind is complex and cannot be calculated in any sense, only predicted and guessed about. Everyone thinks in different ways and is influenced by certain things more so than others. its possible that the situation you pose is the case for a lot of men. learned helplessness occurs when one complies with or accepts something believing that it cannot be changed or helped. This happens after very strong reinforcement of failure; in this case, the persistence of norms we don't agree with. But as i said, children usually can't form their own opinions and attitudes until considerably late ages. Many men may receive such thinking in their every day childhood influences and come to believe it. Then you have to remember the power of society and norms. No one wants to be seen as to independent, as non-conformity comes with heavy prices, namely ostracism among others (holocaust, slavery?). men not agreeing with the norm but following anyway reminisces about the idea of cognitive dissonance. the men rationalize they're behavior with the need to fit in. There's also Groupthink to consider, and the different dimensions of persuasion. There are to many angles to approach that idea from, which is probably why they dedicate an entire class to the topic of gender in society alone. The sentiment you expressed may not always be the case with a person in question, but sadly it seems the idea behind it forms part of the basis for the perpetuation of these attitudes.
On the perceptions of women:
I'd say such perceptions, as part of cultural attitudes, were both socially constructed AND motivated. Very few parts of any person's attitudes or views of the world are constructed from the ground up , completely by that person and that person alone. Those parts that are, are done so primarily through personal experience, but obviously no man can "personally experience" every woman in the world (that sounds kinda nasty) . Like i said, most childrens initial attitudes are handed to them by the others around them. No kid comes out of the womb, saying "women are only good for fuckin!" They get that from somewhere. There are two basic types of influence:
Normative influence, which drives us to act, think, and feel as others would expect us to in order to create a favorable impression. and,
Informational influence, which changes our attitudes and behavior base on what we learn from other around us. For example, if you had never been to a poetry lounge, and after hearing someone deliver you stood and clapped loudly only to find all other around you snapping, you would snap for the rest of the night. that's informational influence, you learned how to cat from the others around you and changed your behavior accordingly.
People are exposed to both of these everyday...so its either a teenager on the corner objectifying a woman's body because his friends think its cool, or some American dude overseas slapping a Czech woman on her ass because that's how they say "hello" in the Czech republic. Everyone is influenced by everyone else, and everyone influences everyone else. Strict individual construction of attitudes is near impossible since your family and parent's tell you how to think until puberty, when peer pressure from middle and high school then influence your thinking, and then you have to kiss up to executives in the rest of the world to be successful career wise. I'd say the point at which one is most likely to have the greatest control over one's own attitudes is the first 1-2 years of college, where many are completely thrust away from all social groups they previously associated with (out of state students) and have not much reason to let anyone change their thinking accept for learning the ways of their new location...informational influence which mostly elicits only temp change in behavior and attitudes, lasting as long as the situation does.
©Brandon Baker, 2010
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