The last example is mysogenistic.

“This is not necessarily sexist, there is plenty of scientific evidence that shows women tend to respond with greater emotion than men with regard to certain issues. However it is generalising in a fashion that most people would consider insulting. To state the above is a faux pax, but not sexist.”

Who defines what is trivial and what is meaningful? There is the imput of common sense, of course, but can we not say that in most (or some) cases, it is men who label these things as trivial? SOME PEOPLE get upset over things that are silly to other people, but it is simply a generalization to say that it is only women, all the time. “[Some] Women tend to respond with greater emotion than men with regard to certain issues.” Yes, if this were to have been the comment, it would not be sexist. And, if we are to say that some women get upset over trivial things, can we not just say then, that *some people* get upset over trivial things? Surely it is not only women who get upset over dumb things.

“Women should do all the cooking.”

“The attitude is sexist, although the comment itself is not.”

The above reasoning is erroneous. The comment not sexist? In what sense? Women. Should. Do. All. The. Cooking. It is the comment that is sexist. The tone with which it is said is inconsequential, for the meaning is clear.

Do not think of me as a feminist. Rather, a person arguing a point. Who I am is of no importance, and if it is, wonder why.

And you are right that promoting stereotypes is usually going to cause damage. Although I still argue that we’d all be better off if people just understood the differences between the sexes. Unfortunately I spose most people aren’t willing to take the time to understand, or perhaps are just too immature to take it seriously.

I would argue that “Women get upset all the time about trivial things.” is sexist since it promotes that stereotype and its unrealistic to think that someone will believe in a stereotype without applying it to individuals. Where it certainly isn’t always true.

Anyways… I’m only posting on old blogs since for some reason Akregator marked a few as being unread.

I too believe that men and women are “equal”, not necessarily “same”. The sexes have evolved differently, as they serve different biological functions.

It is best to create equal opportunities, and not just the same opportunities, as you illustrate with your example.

Sexism is defined as
1) Attitudes, conditions or behaviours that promote stereotyping of social roles based on gender.
2) Discrimination based on gender

Although you say that stereotyping isn’t sexist (which is in contradiction to the definition) what i think you mean is that stereotyping and sexism isn’t always bad.

e.g. women are better at breast-feeding than men

This is sexist because it is a stereotype, but it is also undeniably true and no-one in their right minds would get offended by it. Nor would men be offended by being refused a medicine because it had unpleasant side effects in men but not in women, which is sexism under definition 2.

Also few people would have problems with the following sexist comment:

“men are stronger than women”

Everyone accepts that in general, on average, stereotypically etc. that this is true. However, the problem comes when people stop treating these comments as the generalisations that they are and start saying that “all men are stronger than all women.” If they then refuse to employ any woman, regardless of individual strength, even though there are many women who are stronger than many men, then this is sexism gone wrong.

Bad sexism should be discouraged obviously, but suppression of all sexism can do more harm than good.

For example, at a nature reserve where i previously worked, every week some teenagers from a local school came along for half a day to help out with practical work on the reserve. They were all rowdy and disruptive at school and were low achievers. Most of the boys got really stuck into the practical tasks we gave them, they gained a sense of achievement and this was apparently noticeable back at school.

Most of the girls hated the physical work and getting dirty and showed no improvement over time. When i suggested that we gave the students the option of some more female-type tasks that were more suited to the skills and interests of the girls i was told i was being sexist, which admittedly was true, but not necessarily sexist in a bad way. However as a result, more of the boys benefited from the scheme than the girls did, which was unfair.

In conclusion: unfair discrimination based on stereotyping is bad, but we should not lose sight of the fact that there are differences between men and women in general and it can be just as unfair to ignore this.