Modern-Day Sexism

Sexism towards women is something that is not yet decidedly shocking. Even girls and women are not offended by it as much as we should be. Often we will laugh along with the perpetrator, at sexist jokes and derogatory remarks. We too will call girls who sleep around slags, but boys with a different girl every week? Well, they're just hot. What infuriates me most of all, other than how we put up with it, is that to make a flippant comment, however light-hearted the intent, about how women should be in the kitchen is not considered shocking in the least. I am going to use racism against black people as an example of this, although this is in no way encouraging that transgression as I am as against that as I am sexism. Which is precisely my point! It is absolutely appalling to make a loose crack, in jest or no, about black people: it will straight away course a fiery rebuttal, accusations, indiscreet insults, fury, shock and general disagreement. When a comment is made such as 'You're a woman, go make me a sandwich', or 'Women can't drive', or simply a casual 'Show us yer tits, love!', there is nowhere near the level of outrage there is in the presence of racism. This makes no sense. You can't go up to a black person and say 'You're black, you should be my slave' - and I am not saying in any way that this should be allowed, I'm just making a comparison - and yet you can say to a woman/girl 'You're a woman/girl, you should be my slave.' Yes, there may be a dirty look and a snide comeback, but often there is just a titter from the girl in question and a roar of approval from the nearby males. What people don't seem to understand is that women were mistreated just as much as black people, and still are in many places in the world! Women were treated as objects rather than people, for sex, food, cleaning and sons. They were used to make good marriages between families, and were never their own person: until they were married they were their father's property; once married they were their husband's. If they were not to the satisfaction of their male 'owner' they could be beaten and abused without the law ever intervening. A husband could do what he liked to his wife. She was his property after all! Women were discriminated, disallowed many things the ruling men decided they were not clever or worthy enough for, such as the right to vote or their own property. A daughter did not inherit once her father died; a wife did not inherit her husband’s property on his death: instead the closest male relative was presented with the fortune. Women were powerless to dispute or object when it was men who ruled. In fact, in the UK women are still paid less than men in many jobs! Meanwhile in school my girl friends and I are still subject to remarks such as ‘Go back to the kitchen’, meant in jest but nonetheless antagonizing, and tiresome in their immature relentlessness and ignorance. But why is it not shocking? Why is sexism something to be laughed at rather than taken seriously for what it is: unjust inequality, the intimidation of the sexual inhibitions of men pandered to, degradation, demeaning slights, and a whole lot more? However elusive to label and define in its existing form, and however accepted it now is because of how unaware people are of its scale, sexism is something that still festers in society, in schools, homes and the House of Commons, feral, malignant and immoral. I hope in some small way I have managed to convert with this the unaware, the ignorant, the accepting women who happily endure or even the endorsers of the offence to my way of thinking.