Everyone Who Has Experienced Reverse-Sexism Has a Time-Machine.

For every form of oppression, there invariably arises from the oppressors a claim of “reverse-__ism”; in other words, the oppressor being oppressed by the oppressed.  Encounters with apparent “reverse-__ism” follow a similar pattern: reactions to either 1) positive discrimination towards an oppressed group, or 2) the lambasting of an individual due to his/her membership in an oppressive group. Though I have most often encountered this with “revere-racism” (see: affirmative action, jokes about white people), there certainly exist claims of reverse-sexism. In this blog post, I will discuss the logical impossibility of “reverse-sexism,” and will clarify what exactly the above two assertions thereof are.

To being, it’s helpful to understand what sexism itself means. Simply put, sexism is oppression based on sex and/or gender-identity, keeping in mind Frye’s clarification that oppression is structural and manifests through an individual’s membership to an oppressed group.The manner in which sexism has manifested in human history is through patriarchy, or the systemic oppression of the female sex, those whose gender is female, and more broadly, non-cis-gendered folks (people whose gender identity differs from the gender prescribed at birth). Thus, the man-hating dystopia prefigured by proponents of reverse-sexism would require that the above-listed groups of currently oppressed people not only dismantle all oppressive structures of patriarchy, but that they subsequently institute complex and insidious oppressive structures which prohibit the free and full self-determination of the male sex, those who identify as male, and/or cis-gendered folks. Nothing short of that mouth-full would pass as “reverse-sexism.” 

However, there is yet another issue with “reverse-sexism,” one which is semantical. Reverse implies that somehow it is possible that the currently existing sexism be temporally undone and simultaneously replaced with sexism towards the currently oppressive group. Literally, a claim of reverse-sexism requires that oppressive forces invert in the blink of an eye. I’m pretty sure according to Science and stuff that’s not possible. And were the above mentioned matriarchy-from-hell to be implemented, it would still just be “sexism,” though those who are oppressed and those who oppress would be reversed.

So what is actually happening if a business proactively seeks to hire women, or if a scholarship exists solely for women? These sorts of positive discrimination are attempts to combat the structural, systemic, and exclusionary effects of sexism, often within the workplace and education (in particular graduate school and professorial positions). They are not part of a social fabric which privileges women - the opposite, in fact. 

Finally, let’s say I’m at a bar, and out of the blue, a stranger approaches me and accuses me of being an abusive, insensitive, disgusting brute. And let’s say this stranger even clarified that this accusation was based on my identifying as a male. Is this reverse-sexism? No, that’s impossible. Is this sexism? No, for it does not contribute to any sort of structural oppression I experience from being a man. However, that accusation is certainly a form of objectification, an instance wherein my subjectivity is violated and my being is collapsed into a category. So, maybe it hurts my feelings. But it ain’t oppression, and thus, it ain’t sexism.