cordeliaistheone reblogged
ellesugars-deactivated20150909
A key feature of sexism, as with oppression against any group, is that there is an institutionalized power differential between the oppressor group (men in the case of sexism) and the oppressed group (in sexism, women). Oppression is popularly described by the formula: oppression = prejudice + power. Though oversimplified, this formula corrects the often mistaken belief that prejudice by itself is oppressive, giving rise to misinformed notions such as “reverse racism” and “reverse sexism.”
While individual women or women as a whole may enact prejudicial biases toward specific men or toward men as a group, this is done so without the backing of a societal system of institutional power. If all U.S. presidents were women, if our economic and political infrastructures were run predominately by women, and if men’s shelters were required to protect men from widespread abuse by their female partners, perhaps “reverse sexism” would have the required institutional power to make it a meaningful phrase.
The Fabric of Internalized Sexism, Journal of Integrated Social Sciences (2009)