Misogyny And Sexism

Savana Bishop October 11, 2012 Sexism in American Sports Sexism is a highly controversial topic, no matter the application. Throw it into American sports? We might just have a scandal worthy enough to make it to the back page in a crummy tabloid. I’m not saying it’s an unimportant issue, any amount of sexism anywhere is a major problem, I’m just saying it won’t be making the front page anytime soon. Why isn’t sexism in sports making front page news?

Sexism, racism, and violence have been a part of the world since the beginning of time. Everyday, it is clear that issues such as these continue to play a role in the lives of many people. Our society has moved forward in the direction towards ending racism, sexism, and violence, but these changes still do not meet the standard of decency. Despite the modern movement for women’s rights being implemented into today’s society, as well as efforts to eliminate racism and violent language, humanity needs to become more progressive in order to create a truly equal society.

Frances Bañares Professor Trisha Herrera English 1A April 4, 2016 Women and Sexism in Politics Women first gained the right to vote on August 26, 1920 with the 19th amendment was approved, giving women full voting rights. Fortified by the constitutional victory in 1920, the handful of new women in Congress embarked on what would become a century-long journey to broaden women’s role in government. In the intervening years, the drive for more women’s rights encompassed the lives of the next generations of women. Even today, women are still fighting for their rights and stand up against prejudice. On the forefront of this movement are our women congresswomen who speak on behalf of all women. When Hillary Clinton announced her presidential candidacy, controversial questions immediately surfaced about the role of gender in politics. Through Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2008 and 2016, media is the principal propagator in showing bias and sexism.

While studying art and popular culture in class, our class came across a very interesting topic and story. Throughout time everything has changed in humanity, in the way that humans look at one another. Now in the 1980’s when the whole AIDS and HIV epidemic started that’s when the whole world saw the disgrace in each other. Now in class learning about the disgrace that women had upon the world because of HIV and AIDS has really changed in a way that women are not allowed to be free within themselves anymore. The woman of today have to deal with sexism, classism and even racism just in order to survive in this world. But even through all of this women are still strong and fight for what they believe in and never give up, no matter what

Sexism is generally associated with women but, when researching the effects it also has on men, my opinion has shifted. One of the first times we identify sexism dates back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. At this time, due to a woman’s deceitful moral compass, settlers had the belief that women had to rely on men. Due to the religious beliefs at this time, and the story of Adam and Eve, women were deemed corrupt and untrustworthy. Feminine sexism has been around for decades but, we are just recently recognizing that men are victims of this disturbing phenomenon. (Tracy)

Throughout the centuries, sexism has always been a prominent barrier between sexes. Sexism is defined as the discrimination or hatred against people based on their gender rather than their individual qualities. This is often shown through common modern day events, for example, the notion that women are not on the same level as men has always been in existence. Multiple groups/movements make this issue more visible to the public eye and sometimes this assists in bringing light to the matter, unfortunately sexism will continue throughout our world as is has since the beginning of time.

WHY WOMEN SHOULDN’T BE IN THE MILITARY Is it misogynistic to believe that, in this day and age, women should not be allowed to do the same job as a man? No, unequivocally and resoundingly no. The simplest way to state this view is by making sure that everyone knows that men and women are in fact different. They are different in muscle mass, in mindset, and chemically. Men are built for war and fighting, women are built for child birth and nurturing. The sexes view most things in life differently, so why would anybody think that there should be equality in something that is by nature masculine? Make no mistake, the military has but one single purpose and that is to fight the battles that writings and speeches can’t win.

The article I read was You’re Sexist. And So Am I from USA Today. This article went into discussing how everyone has internalized sexism, believing in sexism in their head, whether they like to believe it or not. This is because society teaches people norms that women must follow in order for them to be respected. As we have discussed in class, this is the idea of subjectivity because all of these social codes are predetermined and that makes them very difficult to change. One example of this was in the article when it talked about how women often chose their careers around them someday becoming mothers. Women are expected to have children and then take time off from work to raise their children. No one believes that men should be expected to stay at home and raise children because it is not the societal norm. Therefore when a woman chooses a career around impending motherhood, she is falling into subjectivity.

Starting with one extreme of this spectrum, misogyny is the hatred of women. Misogyny is fueled by society’s ideas of masculinity. The way American culture thinks the actions and thoughts of a man should be places limitations on either sex. One limitation is the sexual division of labor. The sexual division of labor is determining the job or career path based on sex. This notion believes that women should be in the private sphere of the workforce, often focusing on the reproductive part of society, while men should be in the public sphere: the productive part of society. With women in the private sphere of society, the public finds it important to keep women where they are; this establishes male supremacy. (Kosmo 12-13). Kaeleen Kosmo talked

and women sexual agency. Overall, sexual consent is represented in different forms regarding both males and females and plays a role in sexual violence.

Most people know what misogyny is, but few know it’s opposite: misandry. Misandry is, as Anthony Synnott puts it in his paper on misandry, “The hatred of men, or more broadly, the hatred, fear, anger and contempt of men” (Synnott p. 2). Misogyny tends to be more private because it is, usually, easily detected, but misandry spreads rapidly and uses the media to enforce its beliefs. One of the ways that the media is used is through the news. Misandrists argue that most major villains of the last century were male ranging from Hitler to Osama Bin Laden with many in between, or that the Top 10 FBI Most Wanted List is almost always entirely male. To this Anthony Synnott has to say, “Most murders are male, but most males are not murderers” (Synnott

In Virginia Woolf’s speech Professions for Women, the author tackles the issue of sexism and women’s liberation. Woolf is delivering a speech at the Women’s Service League in 1931 and describes the limitations that sexism presents to women. Although her primary audience was the convention in 1931, Woolf delivered a

So far, I am really enjoying The Rise of Enlightened Sexism by Susan J. Douglas. I think I find this book super relatable because a lot of the examples so far are from the 1990’s when I was a teenager; these examples are popular culture to me because I grew up during this time while other people do not see things that happened almost twenty years ago as popular. It is interesting to find myself looking back at situations that I experienced / witnessed as a teen through a feminist lens, and with an awareness of women in media and popular culture that I did not have at the time.

From the get involved assignment, I learned of two kinds of sexism: hostile and benevolent sexism. Hostile sexism involve negative feelings towards women such as “women are incompetent”; while benevolent sexism a knight-in-shining armor ideology that offers protection and affection to women who conform to traditional gender roles (ASI: Understanding prejudice). Furthermore, benevolent women may want the protection of males when they find themselves in certain situations and places that they find particularly dangerous (Yoder 2017).

Sexism, is a prejudice plain and simple. One of the earliest forms of violence directed toward women was the Witch Hunt Trials of the Middle Ages. Bishops debated whether a woman was really human at all. If her nose were too long, she had red hair, a humped back, or if she was exceptionally beautiful, she was thought to be a witch and was burned at the stake. There was an estimated nine million women burned during the Witch Trials. During the “Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1960’s, feminist theorists explained that oppression of women was widespread in nearly all human society, and spoke of sexism instead of male chauvinism. Male chauvinists were usually individual men who expressed the belief that they were superior to women” (Napikoski). By the mid 20th century sexism was established and began to appear in advertising. Between the 1970’s and 1990’s women began to feel more equal to men until the 1980’s where they were portrayed as sex symbols on national television (The Origin and History of SEXISM). There are two main types of sexism, benevolent and hostile, and their definitions are opposite from one another. Hostile sexism is what most people perceive as sexism today as it seems sexism is occurring more and more often and is, notably, more vulgar. It is the notion that women are inferior or not as worthy; a belief that males are intrinsically superior. For many years women have been degraded and looked down upon with the idea that their place is in the kitchen with