Re: thank you
anonymous
February 3 2012, 01:53:13 UTC
It's not sexism, since women are the "other" and men have the power in our culture, and the world at large. The statement you are disagreeing with may or may not be true, but it is by definition, not sexism. With any of the -isms, that is the case. The -ism is about a societal power relationship with the target group (women, blacks, asians, people with disabilities, etc.) having the -ism in question acted opon them. Because men have more privilege in the world (the huge wage gap, the glass ceiling, preferential treatment in married life, the pigionholing of women into caregiver roles, etc.) a women can never in-act sexism towards a man. The particular situation maybe unpleasant for the man, but because he can leave the situation, and go out into the world with a whole host of privileges at his beck and call, it is not sexism.
Yes, black people can be racist, using the word in every day terms. Although I'm guessing you mean 'racism towards white people' in general. Racism towards white people has much less impact and meaning than racism towards others. On a personal level you may be somewhat offended, but it doesn't carry the weight of years of oppression as racism towards a black person, for example, might
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Your blanket response about constructs of privilege & social power is so generic & obviously straight out of a text on women's studies that you didn't fully read and/or understand...and a great way to make it so we can never achieve a true system of equality, but rather a perpetual gender war/race war/ whatever war. Let me clue you in on something that all of the white boys (such an offensive term that has such a history of hate & violence, yet which is eluded to all the time with no hint of contempt from those who dedicate their lives to eradicating such hate-speak) like myself know already. When it comes to sexual interactions in society, the societal power analogy loses its meaning because that power rests, in fact, in the hands of the women...or at the least it is held equally. We aren't talking about hiring practices here, we are talking about a construct of society that women have had significant power since the times when it became the world's oldest profession. Your desire to act out the same behavior that you claim to
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It is sexism. You are defining sexism as discrimination only based on the widest and broadest and most cutlturally recognised inequalities. The narrowness of the definition is sexist by definition. When a woman says 'this is required man reading' the background context is in comparison to behaviour within relationships, and women are usually considered to be more knowledgeable and superior in relationships in their goal directedness, communication and ability to express feelings etc. So the background is a context where men are felt to fall short, and a patronising phrase is used to scold the men in question. The fact that you cant get beyond the arrant generalised definition of sexism shows a resistance to the idea power relationships are not monolithic and homogenous. Its painful to have to spell this out.
With what women have to deal with in terms of sexism from men, saying they think men should be aware of those issues and try to learn to avoid them isn't sexism. Try again
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With any of the -isms, that is the case. The -ism is about a societal power relationship with the target group (women, blacks, asians, people with disabilities, etc.) having the -ism in question acted opon them. Because men have more privilege in the world (the huge wage gap, the glass ceiling, preferential treatment in married life, the pigionholing of women into caregiver roles, etc.) a women can never in-act sexism towards a man. The particular situation maybe unpleasant for the man, but because he can leave the situation, and go out into the world with a whole host of privileges at his beck and call, it is not sexism.
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With what women have to deal with in terms of sexism from men, saying they think men should be aware of those issues and try to learn to avoid them isn't sexism. Try again
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