Why is racism perceived as being so much worse than sexism?

Poll

Is racism worse than sexism?

Where I live, sexism is much more of an issue than racism, yet a racist comment would result in a much harsher punishment than a sexist comment. Why, when there is such a focus on equality nowadays, is sexism often overlooked as just being a 'humorous' (and therefore okay), and racism socially unacceptable?

Reply 1

King Leonidas

Racism affects men and women, whereas sexism only affects women (according to society).

Domestic abuse towards men is just as odious as abuse against women, however very few people recognise this.

A woman can punch me on a sinking ship and I still cannot retaliate or get on a lifeboat before her.

I believe sexism towards men isn't considered as important, thus why I laugh at feminism.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2

SnoochToTheBooch

Because there wasn't a female holocaust / enslavement.

Reply 3

drowzee

They're both just as terrible tbh. I think although there is still inequality between the sexes, racism has still got a long way to go. I agree though that it is overlooked: women not taking seriously and shamed for being sexually active, whereas men are shamed for showing any sort of emotion or femininity.

Reply 4

Jean-Luc Picard

well, conceptually there isn't much difference, it's really contextual, sometimes something racist is worse than certain sexist things, sometimes the other way round, it's not a simple issue really where you can say one is always better or worse than the other, ideally of course you would have neither.

Reply 5

Smash Bandicoot

they're both terrible forms of prejudice, however third wave feminism has dealt with the women's side of the patriarchy as far as it can, now it needs to deal with the male. Therefore at present there is prejudice against the male, a form of sexism in itself. And yet men are sexist towards women too-hmm.

Society on the whole has become far more progressive with regards to racism, which was very obviously a form of in-subordinating black/Asian/Afro-Caribbean people to white [i.e. colonialism, slave trade, segregation].

Sexism is more complicated to find a solution for, I hate to say it but women have never been enslaved in quite the same way as racism did. They have been insubordinates, yes, treated as second-class citizens, treated abominably, but not treated as a slave.* Moreover racism was very much a public thing, people treated on an institutional and legal level as inferior. This was true of women pre-suffrage, not anymore-plus sexism goes on in private, in the form of relationships (one of the most complex social structures occurring out of necessity in civilisations throughout millennia).

Finally feminism in its pure form is noble, absolutely-but its methods in the West are now just to empower women through the oppression of masculinity, and in turn males (with the assumption most males are masculine therefore threatening i.e. 'all men are rapists' blah blah). Which is why there are ongoing 'gender wars', it's not a resolved debate.

*There are obvious exceptions, I am not discarding the problem of domestic abuse and women as men's property pre-suffrage; see below

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 6

Loyota

Original post by SnoochToTheBooch

Because there wasn't a female holocaust / enslavement.

But does that mean in 2015, we still need to see feminism as less of an issue?

Reply 7

Loyota

Original post by drowzee

I'm glad you can see both sides of sexism, most people seem to think sexism doesn't apply to men :smile:

Reply 8

Loyota

Original post by King Leonidas

I recommend you watch this video:

[video="youtube;iwQBlNVqL-E"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwQBlNVqL-E[/video]

Reply 9

blue n white army

Even different types of racism perceived as being worse than others. For example the americans are fat lazy and stupid, stereotype is something that is accepted and jokes about on TV programmes. However when top gear made the comments about the mexicans there was uproar. If you replaced the word mexican with american in richard hammonds rant it would have been perfectly acceptable.

Reply 10

noobynoo

Because men rule the world?

Good point. I suppose it's harder to compare men and women that it is two men. So we don't really know what is sexist and what is just gender difference.