Social action and social media production unit: Sexism Report

Sexism is a prejudice or discrimination that is based on a person’s sex or gender. Although sexism can affect any gender, it is particularly documented as affecting women and girls (Age doesn’t matter). Sexism can come in the form of a comment such as “Women belong in the kitchen” and extend to extreme sexist crimes such as rape and other types of sexual violence. There are many ways in which people can express sexism and it typically extends from stereotypes and gender roles society forces upon us. Sexism is the belief that one gender is superior to the other and this belief is acted upon in one way or another.

As long as there have been people walking the earth there has been sexism. In biblical times it was a man who chose their woman, it was a man who would divorce their wife if they simply found her annoying, they only had to hand her a letter explaining that they were divorced. Up until the last centaury women had no rights to vote for who lead their country and were unable to enter into many professions just because of their sex. Although much sexism has been and still is aimed towards women, they are not the only ones who can experience sexism. Men everyday experience their own form of sexism, not only from women but also from other men in society. The idea that their worth is determined by their traditional masculinity is what society puts on men, this idea is completely bogus. Whether you are a man is not determined by what kind of job you have, by how much muscle you have or your sexual orientation, you’re a man because you say and who you know you are.

Sexism isn’t just a few words or the way in which a peer treats you, it’s something that society pretends isn’t there or hasn’t been around in decades but the reality is that sexism is all around us, it’s very real today. Many people claim that sexism no longer exists and feminism isn’t needed, this is not the case. With fashion trends and job roles changing, the development of social media in recent years, people’s ways of behaving towards the opposite sex have changed. For example many people hide behind a computer screen and anonymously post sexist things online and these days the sad truth is that people haven’t changed, their methods are the only things that have changed so instead of a man saying in public “Go back to the kitchen, that’s the only thing you’re good for” he would take to an online forum and say the same thing in the form of a debate, maybe in a paragraph.

An example of a campaign where this is shown is the UN women ad series which shows images of women’s faces and google searches covering their mouth saying “women shouldn’t”, “Women cannot”, “Women should” and “Women need to”, and the searches below come up as all sexist finishes to the sentences. These google searches were real ones taken from online and used to make the audience think about the sexism that lives in our society. The same could definitely work the other way round with a woman degrading a man online in the exact same way. Our society today is full of cowards that hide behind facebook, twitter and instagram accounts.

I am lucky that I live in a country where I am free to vote and express my opinion as a woman however; in many other countries Women have no rights or freedom of speech. In places like India women are treated with the degree of sexism as it was in the medieval age in the UK. In India women are treated like property, especially in the poorer communities. Women are treated as the weaker sex and are abused and tormented. A horrible example of this is in an article from the guardian where a gang of 18 men attacked a student leaving a bar for 45 minutes before the police arrived, no by passers stopped to help her and when the police arrived none of the men were arrested and the blame was being place upon the young woman because she was apparently “drunk”. There are far too many similar stories of events like this occurring in countries like India. The fact that the east has yet to catch up with what has been in the west for nearly a centaury is simply appalling. I don’t want to see children grow up in a world where your place in society is determined by your sex.

However many campaigns have been put out there online, on Billboards and on TV to deter sexism. One campaign which gained a vast amount of popularity was Always’ “Like a girl” campaign. This is an advert where a bunch of young girls/young women and men are asked to do a bunch of different actions “like a girl” and they do the first thing that comes to mind which is usually quite weak and prissy for the men and young women. When the young girls are asked the same things like “throw like a girl” they do it the way they normally would which is strong and like they are trying. And when someone behind the camera asks one little girl what it means to “run like a girl” her response it “to run as fast as you can”. After that the question asked is “When did like a girl become an insult?” and the young kids are asked whether it was a bad thing to be called like a girl and their response it yes. The message that this advert is trying to give is that young girls don’t think that “like a girl” means to be weak and the older girls think they do because they have been constantly been told by society that it is and they lose their self confidence to do these things because of it. This campaign is really quite amazing because it makes you think about the sexist remarks that you make and how that can affect someone in the long run.

As well as researching campaigns online for opinions I took it upon myself to create a survey and ask young people of both sexes between the ages of 17-20 on their opinion of sexism and the relation to our society. The responses were unsurprising. When asked if they had seen or experienced a form of sexism in their life 75% said yes. And then when asked to recall a time one person said “Guys are always making jokes about women making a sandwich for them and telling them to go to the kitchen” whilst another said “I remember numerous times of people being surprised I enjoy playing video games such as COD or Crash because of my gender and because it’s a boyish or gore-ish game." The most shocking thing wasn’t that everyone taking my survey agreed that sexism is still a problem in today’s society but the further explanation that came after from one person, “in work places, if you’re a girl you’re not meant to do certain things or can’t and if you’re male there are certain things expected of you. For example girls should wear high heels for work. Some companies make women wear high heels which is very unfair” This survey proved everything that is said above in this report. However the fight for equal treatment is strong and campaign’s such as the “like a girl” ad and the UN women ad series will spread the word and help stop sexism around the world because there is so much still to be done and that can be done.

For any help or advice on sexist behaviour or domestic abuse please contact the National Domestic Violence Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or at www.nationaldomesticviolencehelpline.org.uk because asking for help is the strongest thing you can do.