"Women Are Kind And Men Are Strong"

Benevolent Sexism

What is benevolent sexism? It's a type of sexism that can be seen as a compliment and is not always meant to be sexist. This is a type of sexism that most people do not even consider. Even small comments like “'You have to try John’s pie. It’s so good. And he made it himself! His wife didn’t even help!'” or "'Oh, I’m sure you are so slammed during this time of year. Nurses are saints.' 'Actually, I’m a doctor,' she responded" can be seen as sexist. As we talked about in class, we often assume that women are all nurses and men are doctors simply because that is how it has "always" been, or that men cannot cook because that is the woman's job around the house. 

A lot of people and most importantly, parents, make these comments to their peers and children will hear them. In turn, this will rub off on the children and feed into the gendering of children from a young age. As a child I was taught that women were always the better cooks in the household and was often shocked when a friend would say that their dad is the better cook. When my dad cooked dinner, we always joked when it came out great because we say that mom helped him. Even that small comment insinuated that he was incapable of cooking a good meal just because of his gender. Children in a sense will always identify with their gender at one point or another, but should not feel like they should limit themselves because of it.

On my friends at Gordon College brought a group of students together and talked about why they need feminism. This picture stood out to me most because it says that when she's told that she does not look like a physics major, she should take it as a compliment. This is an example of someone who has noticed that benevolent sexism is a problem and has decided to change it.

One interesting point that was made in the last paragraph of the Forbes article was "So, while we might feel like a hostile sexism is fading as we become a more equal society, the effects of hostile sexism are being carried on by ambivalent sexism." They should not longer be seen as compliments and the article teaches how to combat a sexist comment. This is something that could help change the genderization of specific occupations and skills.