Sexism is so ingrained in our language, behavior, institutions and life that it sometimes has become unrecognizable by some, including liberals and feminists who unintentionally hold some sexist beliefs and engage in some sexist behavior. This is because the institutionalized sexism is then used to socialize everyone. The US should recognize that women have a human right to live a life free of sexism. Instead, a LexisNexis search shows that even the US Supreme Court has only ever used the word "sexism" or "sexist" in 10 cases. In fact, some lower courts have characterized sexism as a mere "trendy social ideology". It is not surprising then that the first reaction of some men accused of sexism is that the woman is overreacting when our society generally finds sexism to be trivial or harmless. However, research has shown that in some forms of sexism, there is no such thing as trivial or harmless. This diary explains why.
How ingrained is sexism? Please take this sexism test. Not saying it provides an accurate measurement of sexism, but does raise some interesting perspectives.
A special feminisms diary will be posted tomorrow to present part 2, which addresses some of the sexism memes used by politicians and society to deprive women of their human rights.
Sexism Defined
Sexism is defined as discrimination, hatred or "systemic differentiations based on the sex of the individuals" and includes the following:
- The belief that one gender is superior to or more valuable than the other;
- Female or male chauvinism;
- The attitude of misogyny (hatred of females) or misandry (hatred of males);
- The attitude of imposing a limited and/or false notion of masculinity on males and a limited and/or false notion of femininity on females, or vice versa, and,
- A feeling of distrust towards the opposite sex, most frequently operating at unconscious level.
This definition includes a range of prejudicial attitudes from the seemingly more benign distrust to the most repugnant and invidious misogyny. This is important because for years sexism discussions focused on a man's hatred of women and generally limited sexism to express actions or words that were harmful, such as harassment, rape, abuse and murder. However, some of the more insidious sexism is based not on hostility toward women, but on a false benevolence that erroneously gives the appearance of kind motivations that some may assume could not be harmful.
Types of Sexism: Hostile and False Benevolence
Glick and Fiske (1996) recognized that both hostile and benevolent prejudices coexisted in sexism.
The Glick/Fiske model of ambivalent sexism or prejudice explains the simultaneous and contradictory prejudices of hostile and benevolent sexism and why elimination of sexism requires ending both. A sexist may be hostile to women he sees as "rejecting conventional gender roles and trying to 'usurp' men's power." As for women who conform to expected roles, she is "rewarded" with benevolent sexism of "protective, affectionate, but patronizing attitudes" that men use to maintain power and control.
In hostile sexism, men have negative, antagonistic attitudes (anger, antipathy, resentment, hatred etc) and behaviors toward women based on the belief that women are usurping men's power.
Hostile sexism is manifested by hatred, aggression, violence and victimization of women by words and/or conduct that is based on 3 underlying sources or motivations:
- Dominative paternalism is the belief that men should have power over women and so the hostile sexist seeks to dominate and control women, who are viewed as children.
- Competitive gender differentiation is the belief that women are inferior and less competent than men. This sexist will "perceive, magnify, and generalize differences between the sexes" in order to devalue women.
- Hostile heterosexuality is the belief that women's sexuality is a dangerous obstacle to men's rightful place of higher status and power. Sex is viewed as a resource in which women have the role of "adversarial gatekeepers." This sexist is angry at "women for using sexual attraction to manipulate or 'toy' with men."
In short, the hostile sexist has essentially created this delusional power struggle to justify sexism against women. It is a power struggle where men fear that women are trying to control men by "feminist ideology or sexual seduction" so men create "hostile ideologies concerning the inferiority" of women and express an "overt animosity toward women."
This creates a conflict in a society in which men dominate all institutions, whether it is social, economic, political, governmental, legal or religious.
Benevolent sexism is based on men cherishing or protecting women based upon gender inequality and patronizing stereotypes. It is a sexism based on protective paternalism and on "a chivalrous attitude toward women that feels favorable but is actually sexist because it casts women as weak creatures in need of men's protection."
Benevolent sexism is comprised of 3 underlying sources or motivations:
- Protective paternalism is the belief that men must protect and cherish women similar to how a parent will protect and help his/her child.
- Complementary gender differentiation is the belief that women are better than men but only in traditional gender roles.
- Intimate heterosexuality is the belief that true happiness in life can only be obtained when romantically involved with women. Heterosexual intimacy "comprises powerful feelings of personal need, intense affection and longing for, and a highly admiring or worshipful view of women."
In benevolent sexism, a man's attitude toward women is based on sexist stereotypes of women in traditional, restrictive roles which the man personally views as positive because he does not view his beliefs as patronizing. This man adheres to a chivalrous ideology of protection and affection for women who accept conventional roles of dependence upon men. Dominance over women is obtained by this false benevolence rather than hostility.
The danger is that benevolent sexism is generally socially accepted but research has shown it is an insidious and powerful oppressive force just like hostile sexism. Women are more likely than men to reject hostile sexism, but many women accept benevolent sexism.
The benevolent sexism is accepted because it "appears" to have on its face a favorable view of women. Examples of benevolent sexism include "coddling women, putting them on pedestals, valuing their 'fragility' above their strength, their 'devotion to family' above their independence, etc."
This sexism is a false benevolence because the words or conduct on their face may seem "harmless, noble, or even romantic." But, if you look at the underlying assumptions or motivations, this sexism is used to keep "women in their place" by denying rights and opportunities. It is men protecting women by providing limited rights to only those women who choose traditional roles. For example, legislation that favors women in property settlements or family law is oftentimes benevolent sexism.
Indeed, on its face, benevolent sexism may seem beneficial to women if considered in isolation. But, the same rules and laws that protect some women based on benevolent sexism also restrict all women. For example, it is benevolent sexism that men should be the family's "breadwinner," which some women may favor. However, this sexist "breadwinner" rule is still used by employers today to justify higher pay for men who perform the same work as women, even when the woman just happens to be a better worker.
Moreover, the effects can be devastating and insidious because benevolent sexism is often framed in a covert manner to discriminate against women:
"Benevolent justifications for discrimination (e.g., "Women should forego a career because they excel at childcare") are more likely to be accepted than hostile justifications (e.g., "Women should forego a career because they lack ability")."
In addition to the direct harm of covert sexism against women, the linkage between hostile and benevolent sexism renders it less likely that hostile sexism can be eliminated without also wiping out benevolent sexism:
Glick and Fiske found that both types of sexism can, and generally do, coexist. Men who exhibit signs of benevolent sexism also tend to exhibit signs of hostile sexism. This is part of the reason that benevolent sexism may not be as harmless as it seems: it is clearly linked to the more injurious hostile sexism. This may help explain why sexism is still so prevalent in our society. Since the two are related, we can't eliminate the one without the other. Allowing benevolent sexism to remain may be forcing hostile sexism to stay, too.
Thus, sexism can be both hostile and "benevolent." Both are oppressive. Both are used to maintain and legitimize sexism in all of our institutions. Both are based on men's power and dominance over women.
Covert Sexism Sham & Misogynistic Snowballing
The institutionalization of sexism has created two separate but interrelated devastating phenomena that ensure that some forms of sexism will never be harmless or trivial: The covert sexism sham and misogynistic snowballing.
In the covert sexism sham, sexist conduct is legitimized by desensitizing or trivializing a woman's human right to a life without sexism. The first step is institutionalization of sexism as appropriate conduct. Many do not see their conduct or statements as sexist because sexism has become ingrained into our institutions – in our schools, churches, government, courts, politics, education, MSM, TV shows, video games, social norms, jokes, and movies. The institutionalized sexism becomes so commonplace or ordinary that it is either socially accepted as permissible sexism or it is redefined as nonsexist. In either case, the institutionalized sexism then becomes part of the norms used to socialize Americans. And so the sexism is recycled. The result is that even liberals and feminists may unintentionally hold some sexist beliefs because of socialization.
This institutionalization transforms sexism into nonsexism only at a facial level for appearance sake, but does not eliminate the sexism and the deleterious consequences of sexism. The conduct and/or words remain sexist, but society simply no longer recognizes as sexist. Or, we may recognize it as a sexism "technicality" in which we rationalize that the sexism is just so harmless or trivial that it should be ignored. How often how you heard, "Well, yes, technically it is sexist, but, hey, lighten up!"
A good example of the covert sexism sham is the pictures below illustrating the objectification of women. There is a new trend of porno-chic advertising that tries to make submissive women, physical violence, and abuse of women appear so normal that it is used to sell ordinary items like perfumes and purses. What does a picture of a battered woman have to do with selling a purse? These ads show one example of our institutions attempting to legitimize sexism when corporate America believes that suggesting violence against women (rape, torture, murder, and beatings) is a great asset that should be used to sell products. How many Americans would remain silent if these ad campaigns used pictures of African-Americans who had been lynched and hanging from trees in similar perverted ads? It is noteworthy that in 2001 the French reacted to porno-chic ads of "purely sexual, submissive or abused women" by public debate in the press, a report commissioned by the government discussing new laws to regulate, public boycott of brands, and heckling of professionals while in the US we do not even bat an eyelash.
The second phenomenon is misogynistic snowballing. The range of sexist prejudices can be viewed as a continuum where feelings of hatred, hostility and violence against women progresses by degree or intensity from low to high levels. Whether sexism is expressed by words, conduct or pictures, acceptance of sexism at one level can lead to increased levels of hatred, hostility and violence against women.
Research has found that "exposure to media depicting women in degrading and subordinate situations, even if not explicitly sexual or violent in nature, will lead to increased violent behavior of men against women in society." That is, "males exposed to ads where females are portrayed as sex objects are more accepting of rape-supportive attitudes and predictive of subjective levels of exploitation."
One way to visualize this misogynistic snowballing is to look at a variety of commercial ads that illustrate the objectification process of women. Similar to other forms of sexism, objectification involves different levels of prejudice and hostility against women. These photos show how women are objectified by pictures that ignore our personal capabilities in favor of physical beauty or sex appeal in order to render women powerless and subordinated to men. There are different levels of objectification which then lead to dehumanization of women. Once women are dehumanized into mere property, then it may be easier for some men to physically abuse "their" property in order to maintain control.
While these pictures are used to illustrate the misogynistic snowballing of different levels of hostility against women in the context of objectification, words or conduct could easily replace the pictures. The point is that sexism involves different levels or degrees of prejudice and how acceptance at one level of seemingly "benign" sexism may then be used as a stepping stone to a more hostile level of sexism.
People like to see beautiful men and women in ads, movies etc. whether they be fully clothed, partially clothed or naked. That's fine.
Objectification of women is different.
At the first level, women are portrayed as sex objects to be coveted and treasured as long as we are also dominated and controlled by men:
Is it trivial to criticize pictures, words or conduct that objectify women as sex tools controlled by men? What about Jay Leno's joke about how men may control the size of a woman's breasts until they explode?
Product #3: Breast implants attached to The Clapper. Just clap—and they inflate! The audience was so thrilled with this hilarious Product of Tomorrow that they applauded wildly...thereby causing the implants to explode! Ha ha ha ha ha! Isn’t that hilarious? The best part was the close-up of the disembodied boobs blown to pieces.
If we remain silent, then we are part of the social acceptance of sexism.
At the second level, the hostility against women is more elevated as women are partially dehumanized by objectification:
Partial objectification -- whether by pictures, words, or conduct -- expresses the inferiority of women, who are no different from suitcases, phones, tables or even the handy little plumb-bob tool, which of course do not have brains, emotions or rights that should be respected or recognized.
At the third level, women have left the world of human beings and now are literally objects:
Now that women are no longer human beings, but mere objects to be owned or tossed away, some men feel it is ok to batter them into submission or control them by rape, torture or murder:
There is also porno-chic "artwork" that objectifies women by transforming women into furniture like chandeliers
or a table and chair:
The result of sexism is devastating consequences for women: Violence against women, unequal pay, unequal treatment, unequal opportunities, and unequal life spans as women are murdered by domestic abusers and "honor" killings. The result is that women are denied human rights and constitutional rights in the name of sexism.
The result is that women may lead a life full of daily restrictions: Be careful of what you say, or you may be shunned by your friends, co-workers or employers; Be careful what you wear, so that you do not cause a man to rape you or sexually harass you; Be careful of where you live, work, exercise, walk or socialize, so you will not be victimized; Be careful to hide your gender online so that men will not harass or intimidate you by stalking. The list is endless.
It is time for all who believe in a woman's human right to a life without hostility and prejudice to speak out, even when the sexism appears trivial or harmless.
Feminisms is a series of weekly feminist diaries. My fellow feminists and I decided to start our own for several purposes: we wanted a place to chat with each other, we felt it was important to both share our own stories and learn from others’, and we hoped to introduce to the community a better understanding of what feminism is about.
Needless to say, we expect disagreements to arise. We have all had different experiences in life, so while we share the same labels, we don’t necessarily share the same definitions. Hopefully, we can all be patient and civil with each other, and remember that, ultimately, we’re all on the same side.
Tomorrow, a special Thursday Feminisms will post part 2, which shows how this sexism is used in various memes by politicians and society.
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