Justice League of America #31

[superfan1.insanejournal.com]

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Comments

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

It certainly isn't unreasonable for women to demand spaces where they're in charge - more power to them, that's great. That does not, however, mean they aren't being sexist - it just means they aren't being HARMFULLY sexist. Sexism means discrimination against the opposite gender. There's nothing in there that says the discrimination has to be harmful or hurtful, just that it's there. Discriminating by gender, whether for negative or positive ends, means sexism - period. That's the definition.
The thing is, sexism has become such a buzzword in western culture that its usage automatically brings up a negative connotation. That's not, however, always the case - there are times when it makes perfect sense to discriminate by gender. If you've put together a safehouse for abused women, for example, it's obviously not a good idea to allow men on the premises. And if you're organizing one of those back-to-nature male bonding trips where you go out in the woods and thump drums around a campfire or whatever, having a woman along would be somewhat awkward, since the whole point is to bond in brotherhood with other men. Both of those are examples of sexism free of xenophobia, and that's what I'm talking about here - women have every right to demand spaces where they're in charge, but that is sexist, because it discriminates against men. For a good reason, yes. For a perfectly benevolent one, sure. But it IS sexist, because it discriminates against the opposite gender, whether for good or ill - that's what the word means.