Comments on: Funny sexism: harms outweigh benefits

By: Imaginary

Imaginary — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:06:10 +0000

Guess what? White men aren’t going to change any time soon. I say we form our own society with a small number just to do some guerrilla warfare (like fucking with Playboy or a NAMBLA site). Then, in time, we swell our numbers and become a huge threat. After all this time and all this work, womin have nothing other than a piece of paper that says we’re equal to show for it.

By: Aimee

Aimee — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:31:58 +0000

I wish this kind of study was more in the Media and on six o clock news, I have put up with Blonde jokes my whole life and have been offended by them for years. To me its no different to rascim, I cant help the way I was born and am not dumb because of it. I will not ever let those jokes go over my head, but you do get tired of CONSTANTLY telling peole its not okay and having to explian why. If anyone had a quick fire one scentance answer id love to know how to shut people down in a heart beat. Perhaps more education via the media, like I said first off, why dont they put these studies on the news and into main stream media.

By: rory

rory — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:13:51 +0000

Little late to the party but the original paper is here if you would like to read it:

http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/34/2/159.pdf

The figure where the conclusion talked about in the blog post is drawn is here.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2822886/Screen%20shot%202010-02-17%20at%205.06.40%20PM.png

If you look at that figure there are several conclusions you can draw, not just that one conclusion. -SD in the figure is people who scored low on the sexist score. +SD means they scored high. The triangles and circles and stuff are labelled in the figure. Anyway, here are the conclusions you can draw:

1) Being sexist does not affect the funding decisions at all in a vaccum. When they read the neutral texts, people with high (+SD) and low (-SD) sexism scores donate the same amount to the women’s organization. That is what the straight line with the triangles says.

2) If you are sexist, reading derogatory comments prior to donating will cause you to donate more. In the +SD column, the square is above the triangle which is what that means. The non-sexist people are unmoved by the derogatory comments and donate the same as if they read neutral stuff.

3) If you are not-sexist, reading sexist jokes prior to making funding decisions will make you donate twice as much as if you read neutral stuff. The circle in the left column is 2x higher than the triangle.

4) If you are sexist, reading sexist jokes prior to making funding decisions will make you donate less than a sixth of what you would originally. This is the only point they actually discuss in the paper, but it is one of many you can draw.

By: Isabel

Isabel — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:11:12 +0000

“Because there are only three groups it’s still socially acceptable to make fun of: 1) women, 2) fat people, and 3) gay people.”

You forgot poor, especially religious, white people. When we’re not blaming them (in a more serious tone) for all the racism and sexism, that is.

By: Mordant Espier

Mordant Espier — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:19:56 +0000

@Jezebella, you’re right that I missed your point if it was about coverage of Southerners. While you’re right that regionalism plays a role, I’d also say the Klan gets covered whenever they have rallies, in Pennsylvania, in Michigan, in Nebraska.

@Laughingrat, It’s not that they can’t be discussed together. They are both arbitrary systems of dominance/submission. When power is exercised, often similar techniques (from jokes to violence) are employed to enforce the system.

But the way the comparison has been handled in this thread has been incredibly shortsighted and occasionally offensive. Bluebird saw it, so I tried to explain what she was responding to. I am a white woman, but I’ve noticed that anytime effects of racism that aren’t the Klan variety is mentioned, a chorus of (usually) white people rises up to dismiss such concerns.

By: Felicity

Felicity — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:11:34 +0000

Jezebella, yep that’s exactly seeing it in action. It just seems like even if women get their act together, the patriarchy won’t allow it to be seen for any knock- on effect it fears. What’s a victory for feminism, like these studies, if no one hears or sees it?

By: Felicity

Felicity — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:06:52 +0000

I agree with everyone else, to compare racism with sexism, which is done for this new perspective we gain, isn’t asking people to be more racist. It’s asking something different, that we all get the same respect.

By: Hedgepig

Hedgepig — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:13:30 +0000

Laughingrat: spot on. Nicely done.

By: Jezebella

Jezebella — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:57:20 +0000

Mordant Espier, you missed my point entirely, which was that everybody thinks Mississippians are a bunch of sheet-wearing yahoos, and when a few of us act otherwise, it’s completely ignored. The stereotype I meant, my dear, is that of Southerners. I suppose I could accuse you of regionalism, but everybody knows it’s okay to make fun of Southerners. We are, after all, a bunch of sheet-wearing yahoos.

By: Laughingrat

Laughingrat — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:52:53 +0000

Mordant, your insistence that it’s racist to discuss racism and sexism in terms of each other is pretty circular. You haven’t really been able to demonstrate why it’s wrong to discuss types of oppression in relation to each other, other than because you say so. You can keep arguing that, but it will keep being a really poor argument no matter how many times you repeat yourself. You’re basically imputing an intent or an attitude in these comments which is not there at all.

I can assure you, after a good many years of working alongside average middle-class white professional (boring-ass TV-watching Republicans to a (wo)man), that even the most dense right-wingers will hesitate and mumble a bit when saying something racist, but will bray loudly and happily over their sexist remarks. It is not that racism has been eliminated, and in fact nobody here actually argued that; you’ve been protesting against your own projections on that score. It’s that most white Americans have been made aware through decades of social pressure that racism is not entirely socially acceptable, whereas sexism is still good for a shame-free laugh.

Now if only we could get the public to admit that all oppression is genuinely wrong, we’d be getting somewhere. Or are you really just a concern-troll who’s trying to get all us hairy feminists to stop giving a crap about women and start giving a crap about some other oppression that you’re insisting is way more important than the basic rights of half the population? Because that’s how you’re starting to sound.