When we hear the word sexism most minds automatically associate feminine oppression. I began to wonder why that was. Webster defines sexism as “prejudice based on sex; especially: discrimination against women.” After reading this I had to know why that was.
Whereas in recent decades major strides toward gender equality have been made, sociologists are quick to point out that much remains to be done if inequalities in the United States are ever to be eliminated. Behind much of the inequalities seen in education, the workplace, and politics is sexism, or prejudice and discrimination because of gender. Fundamental to sexism is the assumption that men are superior to women.
Sexism has always been a major issue for women. It seems that today, everyone has to be careful of what they say and do so as to avoid offending someone. While everyone is busy worrying about extinguishing sexism towards women - which still is an issue that needs to be taken care of, who is concerned with sexism towards men? Sexism is just as much of an issue to men as it is to women.
To begin with, when looking back into history, we notice that the female gender was a barrier to certain privileges before the Women’s Right Movement. Yet, race and ethnicity always played a bigger role even before that. With both a person’s sex and race being ascribed characteristics, (9/27/2016) a person would assume similar lifestyles, but reality is far from that. Instead, we have social problems like women competing against other women just to achieve the same pay for the same job, as if competing against men wasn’t enough. To be more specific, I am referring to women of color working twice as hard to keep up with White women.
Throughout our world’s history we have seen many grievous instances where discrimination caused severely negative repercussions on how our society functions. The inequity demonstrated by our nation in the past has estranged its residents based on their religion, the color of their skin, their beliefs, and even their gender. With time, our community has become more accepting which has led to the abolishment of most, if not all, bigotry and racist beliefs. However, there is still an issue today that we have been facing for almost a century. This conflict has led to the prohibition of certain people obtaining a particular job in some cases, and the penalty of being paid less than her male colleagues if she were to obtain that job. The problem is sexism and its consequences.
Sexism is much like racism in a sense that it is the unequal treatment of individuals based on an
The world has made great strides towards upholding equality in different factions of the community. However, declaring that discrimination has been eradicated from the society would be incorrect, as it can still be observed in the foundations of the modern world. A look into the history of America shows that a significant aspect of the nation was built on the notions of segregation and the oppression of various people based on race and gender. Back then, discrimination was outright and the law proudly upheld it with only few people standing up against the concept and its associated practices. Today, years after cultural evolution, any form of inequality is frowned upon. However, there still exist some fundamental forces in current systems that
Sexism has been prevalent in our society for generations. It has plagued the views and outlooks on gender, and has molded the populace’s minds to favor one over the other. Engrained within society is the strict framework of binary gender roles, and placing males and females into distinct and rigid categories that they can rarely break free from. While progress has been made with regards to weakening these rigid and unfair gender roles, the prejudice views that run rampant through the minds of the older generations, and into the up-and-coming ones, are difficult to combat. Women are often overlooked and regarded as the inferior gender, and they are often portrayed as individuals who are at men’s every beck and call. This is highlighted through the observations of Paula Rothenberg in her novel Invisible Privilege, she discusses her observations and dealings first hand with prejudice of all kinds. The book recalls her experiences from the mid to late 20th century, which was a time of more blatant sexism, but I will be using other sources in addition to prove that sexism is still a prevalent issue in everyday life. The sources I will pull from in addition to the novel include, “Different but Equal? Inequalities in the workplace, the Nature Based Narrative, and the Title VII prohibition on the Masculinization of the ‘Ideal Workers,’” an academic article by Kristin Housh, which uses statistical information to argue that women are treated differently in the workplace. Secondly, “Gender Bias in Education,” an op-ed by Amanda Chapman, which discusses unequal treatment of women in education, in addition to a visual and song lyrics that also support these arguments. Sexism and unequal treatment of women in the workplace and education is still a problem in society today that needs to be changed.
When looking back to several decades ago in comparison to now, it is quite obvious how far America has come in certain areas and issues. Two of the major areas of change that have occurred here in America pertain to the issues related to women’s right and racial inequality. In modern times, the women here in America have copious rights and privileges due to the passing of laws and acts. In addition, African American citizens now have rights equal to white people due to the Civil Rights Act and the impact of certain leaders. While our country has made significant progress in these areas, there are still inequalities present in our nation that could use attention. There are ways to overcome these issues and inequalities, but it takes the care and consideration of those willing to help make a change.
When it comes to gender oppression, it is important to view it through other systems of oppression because it allows us to understand the many different ways in which individuals or groups experience it and how these other oppressions contribute to gender oppression as well. There are people who suffer because of many systems of oppression, such as racism, poverty, or cissexism. These systems start to intersect, become dependent on each other, and they can only be understood all together as one sum. This is known as intersectionality. Moreover, when it comes to viewing gender oppression through the lens of racism, it could be either beneficial or harmful when we are dealing with
Socialization is the unequal distribution of power, wealth, income and social status between individuals and groups. This distribution is not random, it is patterned and structured. Three important axes of global inequality are gender, race and ethnicity, and class. These inequalities are on a global scale and are found in virtually all societies. It wasn't until relatively recently, however, that a caste system developed to include race and ethnicity among class and gender. Since imperialism and the conquest of the America's, a number of social changes have occurred, and, as a result, the dominant groups today are not only higher in the social order, in terms of rank, but they are considered better as well.
This week ‘s lecture content focused on Women and Sexist Oppression and it is something that has been a subject for centuries. Women all over the world are oppressed because of religion, politics, or even their male partners. It has caused Feminists to bloom, even more, some are too overbearing, and others are not overbearing enough. Society as a whole talk about how people should treat women better and how we can and will change things but still everything is the same because women have been unjustly held back from achieving full equality for much of human history in many societies around the world. Women face a series of oppressive social policies and role expectations, to be a woman in society today means you are constantly expected to live
The horror movie cliché has a vast amount of stereotypical archetypes such as the dumb jock, the promiscuous female, the geek, and the innocent virgin. There are plenty of more archetypes that are on the protagonist side and as well as the antagonist side of the story. Of course in horror movies the antagonist archetype is the slow-walking, super-human and/or creature-like monster that usually wins a running race against their prey except is killed ultimately by the innocent virgin. There are movies in the past, present and likely future that will always contain these archetype characters because we have them in every aspect of life. On a daily basis, fictional horror movie killers wearing masks, like Jason Vorhees and Michael Meyers,
Gender, class, and race are different forms of categorical inequality established by exploitation meaning that a certain class, gender, and race gets an overwhelming amount of opportunities than those of the opposite group. We have all been affected by these types of inequality in one way or another. Unfortunately in my case my gender and race has affected certain aspects of my life in a negative way. I identify as a hispanic women, which means that in the United States I am a double minority. Being a women, especially in my household, always put me in acquiring less power than the men and boys. Also, being hispanic has put me in a disadvantaged position throughout my life.
Sexism is categorized by extreme cases, but when in reality, both female and male parties execute sexism everyday even in the simplest forms. Though women tend to receive more grieve when it comes to sexist acts or sexist slurs made by men, the level of sexist disputes has decreases drastically with time. The play “Trifles” displays the major difference is the mindset of the split sexes. The setting presents a time when women were belittled and not taken seriously. Susan Glaspell’s play is evidence on the progress our society has made concerning sexism, never less the ever-existing conflict still takes its toll in our everyday life.