Reverse sexism
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Reverse sexism is a controversial term for discrimination against men and boys, or for anti-male prejudice.[1][2][3] The term has been used to argue that men are the primary victims of sexism, primarily by opponents of affirmative action, which they say discriminates against boys and men in employment and school admissions.[4]
Reverse sexism has been compared by sociologists to the concepts of "reverse racism" and "reverse ethnocentrism" in that both are a form of backlash by members of dominant groups (e.g., men, whites, or Anglos).[5] Reverse sexism is rebutted by analogy with the criticism of reverse racism as a response to affirmative action policies that are designed to combat institutionalized sexism and racism.[6] In more rigid forms, this stance assumes that the historic power imbalance in favor of men has been reversed,[7] and that women are now viewed as the superior gender or sex.[8]
Feminist theorist Florence Rush characterizes the idea of reverse sexism specifically as a misogynist reaction to feminism; men's rights activists such as Warren Farrell promote the idea of reverse sexism to argue that the feminist movement has rearranged society in such a way that it now benefits women and harms men.[9] In the preamble to a study on internalized sexism, Steve Bearman, Neill Korobov and Avril Thorne describe reverse sexism as a "misinformed notion", stating that "while individual women or women as a whole may enact prejudicial biases towards specific men or toward men as a group, this is done without the backing of a societal system of institutional power".[10]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Suedfeld, Peter (2002). "Postmodernism, Identity Politics, and Other Political Influences in Political Psychology". In Monroe, Kristen R. (ed.). Political Psychology. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. p. 321. ISBN 978-1-135-64661-5.
- ^ Johnson, Allan G. (1997). The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-56639-518-2.
- ^ Neely, Carol Thomas (1981). "Feminist Modes of Shakespearean Criticism: Compensatory, justificatory, transformational". Women's Studies. 9 (1): 3–15. doi:10.1080/00497878.1981.9978551. ISSN 0049-7878.
- ^ Masequesmay, Gina (2008). "Sexism". In O′Brien, Jodi (ed.). Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, Volume 2. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications. p. 750. ISBN 978-1-4522-6602-2.
In a cultural backlash, the term reverse sexism also emerged to refocus on men and boys and their disadvantages, especially under affirmative action.
Also see:Masequesmay, Gina (11 June 2014). "Sexism | Sexism and the men's movement". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 17 March 2025. - ^ Renfrow, Daniel G.; Howard, Judith A. (2013). "Social Psychology of Gender and Race". In DeLamater, John; Ward, Amanda (eds.). Handbook of Social Psychology. Springer Netherlands. p. 496. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6772-0_17. ISBN 978-94-007-6772-0.
- ^ Garcia, J. L. A. (1997). "Racism as a Model for Understanding Sexism". In Zack, Naomi (ed.). Race/Sex: Their Sameness, Difference and Interplay (1st ed.). Routledge. p. 46. doi:10.4324/9780203760604. ISBN 978-0-203-76060-4.
- ^ "Sociological Abstracts: Supplement — Issues 67-77". International Review of Publications in Sociology: 202. 1977. ISSN 0038-0202.[full citation needed]
- ^ Collins, Georgia; Sandell, Renee (1984). Women, art, and education. Reston, Va.: National Art Education Association. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-9376-5233-6.
- ^ Rush, Florence (1990). "The Many Faces of Backlash". In Leidholdt, Dorchen; Raymond, Janice G. (eds.). The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism. Pergamon Press. pp. 168–169. ISBN 978-0-0803-7458-1.
- ^ Bearman, Steve; Korobov, Neill; Thorne, Avril (2009). "The Fabric of Internalized Sexism" (PDF). Journal of Integrated Social Sciences. 1 (1): 10–47. ISSN 1942-1052.