quickflick wrote:grazorblade wrote:11.mvfc.11 wrote:Obligatory.
[youtube]ZOXh5repOWI[/youtube]
Mansplaining as a word itself is sexist, considering it's pejorative definition and use of the male gender. Why can't people use the non gendered words we already have such as condescending, supercilious or patronising, rather than continually labeling and demonising sections of society?
sexism is a system of discrimination based on sex. You can't be sexist to a man - that's not to say you can't be predjudiced, hateful or crappy.
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Please elaborate.
How can one not be sexist towards men? By the very definition and etymology of the word "sexism", it's perfectly possible to be sexist towards men.
Granted, women have been discriminated against on grounds of gender more than men have been throughout history, as a result of the patriarchal structures and values in most societies. But how does this preclude the possibility that men can be discriminated against on grounds of gender?
Are you saying men have never been discriminated against on grounds of gender? Are you saying that men aren't discriminated against on the grounds of gender?
If I can't get a job as a waiter because a restaurant prefers to hire women as waitresses is that not discrimination against men on grounds of gender?
predjudice is different from an "ism"
predjudice is about intention or an act. For example saying "all men/white people suck I won't hire them" is discriminatory and predjudice. Racism/sexism is when its harder to get as good a job in general because of society as a whole either through the culture or rules of institutions. Thats not to say predjudice isn't bad or in some cases worse. For example suppose a women kills a man because she is predjudiced, that is worse than the sexism that she might have experienced in her life.
racism or sexism is when there is a power dynamic and the group that has as a whole more social power has the ability to write the rules either culturally or within an institution. Not all forms of isms are bad - for example . Making the rules of athletics so that the fastest wins is sexist because its a system that advantages men but I don't know anyone who would complain about that. However sexism and racism tends to have a much more devastating effect than predjudice when you look at the average experience of a lot of people.
For sexism people will usually point to
1. Frequency of rape and alleged attitudes and myths that make rape more common and less likely to be prosecuted
2. Comparative frequency of domestic violence against women compared to men
3. Women allegedly earning less than men for similar work
4. Women being underrepresented at the top of most fields.
To contradict my original statement slightly sexism against men could occur in a subculture where the power dynamic goes the other way. But when academics and advocates talk about these isms they tend to mean a country as a whole