If you make a racist remark, you’ll lose friends fast. But if you make a sexist remark — have you ever told someone they throw like a girl, or that they’re a sissy? — nobody thinks twice. Racism is prejudice against people because of their race. Sexism is prejudice against people because of their sex. Why does society consider one such a contentious issue and the other hardly worth batting an eye?
We see sexism on every level of society. Nationally, there are fewer women in high administrative positions even in fields like medicine, where they are more women than men entering the workforce each year. In our government, men populate the highest positions, and women are critiqued not so much on their platform but on their outfits when they run for high office. In our own university, men outnumber women as heads of departments. It seems like the world that we college students are entering is not woman-friendly.
Yet, even on our own campus, among us, the student body, sexism is rampant. Fliers for the recent “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” campaign, which challenged stereotypes about feminism, were vandalized all over campus. The vandalism was on such a large scale, it qualifies as a hate crime.
The Campus Times itself ran blatantly sexist articles in its April Fools edition, the Campus Lies. The Men’s Weekly column relied upon stereotypes of women as well as nastily ripping Women’s Weekly for complaining. A crass ad about a girl seeking an abortion from a “good Christian doctor” lacked point entirely except emphasizing another cruel stereotype. I understand that this particular edition of the Campus Times was intended to be funny, but for now, sexism is too common and too serious an issue to be used in mockery.
Women have come a long way, but it is clear that we still have battles to fight everywhere we go for our rights and our respect. Always keep your eyes open and speak out for yourself, your friends, your mom and your sisters and every woman who has ever felt the slap of sexism.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Dan A. // Apr 19, 2009 at 10:35 pm
I think you bring up some good points. Sexism is a serious topic, and I am very sorry that the posters on feminism got vandalized.
I would strongly disagree with you, however, when you say that the world college students will enter isn’t women-friendly. Just because women currently don’t hold an equal amount of seats in the administration or on university faculties as men do doesn’t mean that equal opportunities for both men and women don’t currently exist. I very strongly believe it does, and I think it’s a bad assessment to say that the world we enter isn’t women friendly simply because there is a current discrepancy in the workplace. That discrepancy has been the result of centuries (millenniums, even) of injustices to women but don’t necessarily reflect the current time.
To believe that male-female ratios should even out as soon as equal opportunity is given to both sexes doesn’t make sense, because that would mean that a company or university would have to fire enough male employees to hire the adequate number of female employees (in itself, sexism in the opposite direction). Therefore, it is possible that women currently have the same opportunity as men in the work force.
At the same time, I am not naive. I understand that men and women are still not always considered equal in all settings. Yes, there are individuals who are sexist. And those individuals are sometimes in seats of power where they can effect change. For example, my girlfriend told me about her experience working at a golf course one summer, where she was relegated to planting flowers all day instead of being made to do more taxing manual labor, which the men on staff were always charged with. Clearly, injustices do exist.
However, with respect to the Campus Times article, I find another area where we disagree. I believe that humor is often, if nothing else, what breaks the silence and allows us to talk about such things openly. Now, that doesn’t mean that jokes about the Holocaust will EVER be in good taste, but the concept of a men’s weekly or men’s caucus more appropriately tackles the idea of why a women’s caucus exists (or, analogously, why a black student union exists but not a white students’ union). Obviously, women’s caucus plays a large part in advocating for women’s rights. Do men need that? Most likely not. That is why the idea of a men’s caucus is amusing, because it is so ridiculous.
With regards to the “this is what a feminism looks like” campaign, I am extremely disappointed in the University population. Perhaps they don’t realize that a feminism is not just the stereotypical birkenstock-wearing activist (ironic, as it seems that the point of the campaign in itself was to debunk this stereotype), but someone who strives for equal rights and opportunity for both men and women. How anyone can be against this is shocking to me (ESPECIALLY in an environment that is suppose to encourage progressive thought), but I suppose that is the world we live in. I do commend you for trying to change that.
2 Kara // Apr 29, 2009 at 9:31 am
Dan A,
While I’m glad to see that you think things are on the upside for women, I would have to disagree.
The working world is, as I believe, still far from being called woman-friendly. Based on ratios, wouldn’t you ask why there are just as many educated women out there as men, yet only men seem to be getting the top jobs? I don’t think anyone is calling for firing a whole bunch of men and filling those seats with women, but there are some injustices that need to be addressed. Why women seem to be lacking in high positions always seems to go back to the motherhood issue- because women have babies, they are more expendable. So they get paid less. They don’t get promoted nearly as often as men do. Which then makes them the logical choice to keep at home with the kids. This cycle is exactly why I think women are still the ones expected to stay home while the man provides for them, and just because there isn’t a simple solution to this unbalance doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be trying.
And also, I would have to disagree with you on the front of the CT. First off, this was a blatant attack on Women’s Weekly just after the CT had scrapped the article. And second, you say it’s just humor, but then when referring to the vandalized posters, you were appalled. These two incidents are related by the fact that women’s issues are not taken seriously.
I myself am always surprised when people ask me why I’m a feminist. I say “you don’t think women are oppressed?” Most people reply no.
But women are still paid less than men. Women still struggle for their right to birth control when men can just grab their condoms off the shelf. Women constantly face double standards in regards to their own sexuality. Women still bear the brunt of sexual and domestic abuse. Why aren’t there more people outraged by these issues that affect us all, women and men alike?
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