Tuesday, 17 March 2015

"Reverse" Sexism

First of all, I would just like to say that "reverse" forms of oppression are BULLLLLLLSHIIIIIITTTTT. Oppression is prolonged, cruel and unjust treatment of ANY group of people. So you LITERALLY cannot reverse it. The reverse of oppression is freedom or something of the like.

Secondly, I saw on Facebook last night that a female had written a sexist status about men. It sparked 148 comments worth of debate and was a very intense thing to wake up to this morning, but I managed to scroll through before going to a lecture (on another male author, but that's an entirely different matter, which WILL be explained eventually).
Anyway, I just wanted to express my thoughts on "reversing" sexism or 'putting the shoe on the other foot' so it were.

A friend of mine agreed with the girl's status, saying that men had no reason to throw a tantrum about it because women have experienced more discrimination than them. And this is exactly what bothers me about some feminists*. I know that feminism is about the advocacy of women's rights to achieve gender equality but I am starting to realise that I associate myself with the latter half. Whilst it frustrates me that women are constantly discriminated against every day, all over the world, I DO have sympathy for men who experience sexism and gender-based stereotypes. I also CANNOT and WILL NOT condone 'giving them a taste of their own medicine' to strengthen my argument or the movement I am a part of.
EVERYONE has the right to feel offended to discriminatory comments, regardless of your gender/race/sexuality or whether you have a disability or not. I honestly cannot believe that some people think that just because men have been on the beneficial side of patriarchy for God knows how long, that that automatically means they cannot feel offended when a sexist comment is aimed at them.
That's like saying a white person cannot be offended by a racist comment that came from a black person, because of what our ancestors did. Or because people you don't even know or are related to (but are of the same gender/race etc. as us) systematically discriminated against a group of people in the past, you have no right to feel offended when someone discriminates you, whether its systematically or a one-off. I hope that putting into that perspective helps you understand my point. If not, carry on. I cannot tell anyone how to feel or behave, but I just want everyone to know that they have the right to stand up to someone if they do not agree with what they're saying and it should not be in fear of accusing them of 'reverse' forms of oppression which is a fallacy, in my opinion.

Oppression is oppression and instead of 'reversing' it, why don't we just work to obliterating it?


*(and I'm sure I'll get people telling me that I can't tell other feminists what to do so just want to clarify that that is NOT what I'm doing. I'm just defining myself as a feminist and expressing disagreement with others because it's a right that I intend to use for literally everything).

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