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With you for most of this. But saying > So no, there's no such thing as "sexism against men" because even if non-men had sufficient bias, they don't have the p

With you for most of this. But saying > So no, there's no such thing as "sexism against men" because even if non-men had sufficient bias, they don't have the power. is obviously a horrendous over-generalisation, based on otherwise rational argument you laid out. It's just that it's much, much rarer (especially when we're talking about IT). But the pendulum swinging too far the other way isn't going to help society, either. The reason why I'm even bothering to call this out is that this attitude does everybody a disservice. By all means, fight sexism when you see it, in any form. Treat all people as equal. Avoid lumping them into groups and labelling them. Maintaining that one group deserves special treatment seems equally patronising and misguided, whether that's in a negative or positive way.

wpietri 7y ago
No, it's not an overgeneralization. Sexism is a societal system of power, like capitalism or communism or racism. It's possible to have anti-male bias, of course. It's also possible to have biased anti-male action in limited circumstances. E.g., it could be that a woman might buy a gun go on a calculated anti-male killing spree, the way that men so often do to women. But it's not possible to have anti-male sexism in our society because men are a dominant group here. Being anti-sexist in a society dominated by men means dismantling the system that gives men unequal power. (As a side note, I understand that sometimes men use "sexism" to mean anti-male bias, the same way white people use "racism" to mean anti-white bias. I'm using them here in a technical sense, the one used by most people who study this professionally. Common terms are often wrong in a technical sense. E.g., the way people talk about how much "memory" their computer has, or the many things people mean by "energy". That can be fine when speaking casually, but it also can obscure what's really going on.)

wpietri 7y ago

No, it's not an overgeneralization. Sexism is a societal system of power, like capitalism or communism or racism. It's possible to have anti-male bias, of course. It's also possible to have biased anti-male action in limited circumstances. E.g., it could be that a woman might buy a gun go on a calculated anti-male killing spree, the way that men so often do to women. But it's not possible to have anti-male sexism in our society because men are a dominant group here. Being anti-sexist in a society dominated by men means dismantling the system that gives men unequal power. (As a side note, I understand that sometimes men use "sexism" to mean anti-male bias, the same way white people use "racism" to mean anti-white bias. I'm using them here in a technical sense, the one used by most people who study this professionally. Common terms are often wrong in a technical sense. E.g., the way people talk about how much "memory" their computer has, or the many things people mean by "energy". That can be fine when speaking casually, but it also can obscure what's really going on.)