Examples Of Casual Sexism

I attended a holiday celebration when I was home from school after fall semester and was seated for dinner with a large group of people. The woman to my right was explaining why she had to leave early, and she briefly mentioned that her husband would be driving to the restaurant in downtown Chicago from a distant suburb to pick her up. The man across from her laughed and said, “we’re going to have to take his man card away” in reference to the woman’s husband. I had a number of responses to that statement in my head, but as I have in many other instances of casual sexism, I found myself with my mouth sealed shut.

I spent the remainder of the evening considering why our associations with specific activities, styles, preferences, and etc. are …show more content…
When women present themselves as more masculine with things like their choices in attire it is (for the most part) seen positively because the current standard is that being more “manly” is something to which we should all aspire. Young boys are socialized into calling each other “girls” when their athletic capabilities are deemed sub-par by their peers. Women in prestigious professions or powerful positions are regarded as go-getters because those spots have been reserved for men for quite some time, so they are viewed with far more respect than a man occupying a space in what has been designated as the feminine sphere. Consider your own expectations for a moment. When you think of a person who provides home cleaning services, what do you think their gender is? What about a person who performs maintenance services such as a plumber or electrician? Or a successful entrepreneur? The point is this: when we consider what people have which occupations, we make assumptions about their gender without even realizing how that might be damaging, and those same assumptions extend beyond the professional world and into what we think people should and should not look like and