To not understand why racism is worse than sexism?

[GreenTea98]

In schools, boys often throw around sexist comments; nothing is ever done about it. Maximum a lunch time detention (rarely) but if a racist comment is throw around, it is most always an isolation and can lead to an exclusion (which I agree with) but why is sexism not seen as bad?

Completely agree with you. It's shocking.

What sort of sexist comments?

I agree, racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, religious slurs etc should all be treated as unacceptable.

Please can you clarify what the sexist comments are.

I and most girls I know have walked down the street and been harassed many times. It's intimidating and misogynistic; should be potentially considered hate crime. Not to mention the misogyny I've heard from some boys and seen online. Two of my closest friends are WOC and have often brought up the point you're making GreenTea98.

And disabilism! Where victims can often not defend themselves properly be either mentally or physically.

@Notadacrefan racism is horrible, but myself and lots of women have walked down the street with sexist comments like 'nice tits' shouted at us.

In a broader historical context, racism was a driving force behind the transatlantic slave trade which is one of the most horrendous things that have happened in the last thousand years. So it has an unenviable special status. (You can argue, and some feminists would, that the institutional oppression of women within marriage for centuries is comparable, but that's not the way it's generally seen).

And structurally racism can lead to systematic inherited inequality and deprivation for generation after generation in a way that sexism doesn't for obvious reasons.

However neither of those points lessen the harassment that these girls are experiencing so if I were you I'd push for a stronger line, and I'd feel free to use the racism analogy.

Deja Vu

I've walked down the street and been called "slut" many many many times to the point I "got used to it" by the time I was about 17

Funny since I didn't lose my virginity until I was 20 😤

I think it's primarily because sexism is almost always a problem for women alone, and women's problems aren't important. We are over sensitive and should just be able to take a joke, etc

My 18 yr old daughter has just started work and has older men leering at her and making comments (in the street, Not in the office) Every. Single. Day.
It is getting her down :(

I think discriminatory comments should all be treated equally as unacceptable.

I suspect the reaction from authorities on it reflects that society is slow to catch up with it being unacceptable.

I think it's easier to be overly racist, and low level ongoing sexism is far harder to tackle and jump on.

Hence the original point, I suspect, if it was tackled earlier it would be less socially acceptable.

This is a really interesting topic, but the baby is objecting to my interest.

Agreed OP. When I was at school (and obviously afterwards) sexist insults like slut, slapper, whore and slag - as well as constant comments on girls' appearances and bodies - were quite simply a daily occurrence. You just learnt that it was normal. Nothing was ever done about it. But kids making racist comments would face serious sanctions. I just don't understand it.

The slave trade was horrific. The systematic servitude of women is pretty much on par, especially since it is enduring today, in many countries around the world. This is why I put racism and sexism on the same level of deshumanisation, and deserving of the same level of penalty.

They are equally disgusting.

As are other forms of discrimination/ abuse.

The slave trade originated with sub-Saharan Africans capturing and selling other sub-Saharan Africans. Tribal prejudice, maybe, but not strictly racial. Only when East Africans and Arabs became involved could you really say it was to do with ideas of racial superiority and, even then, it took a long time before Europeans became involved.

It seems odd - not to mention historically inaccurate - to use this as an argument as to why one prejudice is 'less bad' than another.

In schools, I believe that the policy is based on the fact that racism can be a hate crime, whereas sexism isn't classified that way. See e.g. www.cps.gov.uk/publications/docs/hate_crime_leaflet_support.pdf

Completely morally equivalent, if you ask me. Both utterly abhorrent.

In Nottinghamshire it is a hate crime. Not sure if that impacts sexism in schools, though.

All racists comments come from a place of hate. The user of the word knows this to be true. Often they can revel in it.

I am not sure how many sexist comments come from that same place of hate (although some certainly do). It makes it harder to police and punish.

Funny since I didn't lose my virginity until I was 20 😤

So losing your virginity under the age of 20 makes you a slut?

It's the transatlantic trade specifically which was backed up by racism, and which further incentivised the actions of the local slave traders. And it's the institutional, industrial nature of that system which has a specific horror, much like the Holocaust. You can't deny the fact that other truly terrible things have been done by groups of individuals spontaneously picking up machetes or pitchforks and butchering their neighbours, but it's the production line aspect that makes us see them differently, and that was built on racism.

I often think of the 2 women die a week at the hands of loved ones statistic and think if it was 2 POC died at the hands of racists a week or 2 gay men died in homophobic attacks that it would be dealt with differently.