On Sexism

On Sexism

There’s a key difference between the concepts of sexism and misogyny. Sexism is the unfair treatment of another person on the basis of apparent sexual identity, whereas misogyny is the maltreatment of women. All misogyny is sexist, but not all sexism is misogyny.

This is important because it implicitly acknowledges the possibility of sexism to non-women, such as Men and other sexual identities (I don’t want to get into a debate about the existence of more identities than male/female here)

A key thing Men’s Rights Activists and Feminists have in common is that they both see the harm in expectations being put onto men and women, respectively. They are in fact both fighting the same thing - sexism. Feminists are unfortunately not very interested in trying to understand the MRA viewpoint, because in fact, some of the structural inequalities that men face are the cause of structural inequalities women face as a result of structural sexism due to tightly defined roles or expectations about the proper role each group should play in society.

For example, because women are expected to be caretakers and men money-earners, it results in custody suits being awarded disproportionately to women and the need for men to pay alimony. But it is perhaps this same process that underlies part of the imbalance in household chores and caring for young children.

Feminists have the opportunity to use this to try and gain support from men who also feel sidelined and disadvantaged by structural sexism, and the chance to develop strategic cooperation to collectively question these assumptions.

MRAs in turn also need to acknowledge that if we are to take their disadvantage seriously in custody disputes, we need to acknowledge the wider social context of structural sexism that causes these decisions to be made, and that women, too, might also be negatively impacted by this as well.