reverse sexism
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}{{Short description|Sociological concept}}
{{See Wiktionary}}
{{Masculism sidebar|topics}}
Reverse sexism is a controversial term for discrimination against men and boys, or for anti-male prejudice.{{cite book |editor1-last=Monroe |editor1-first=Kristen R. |title=Political Psychology |last1=Suedfeld |first1=Peter |date=2002 |publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum Associates |location=Mahwah, N.J. |page=321 |isbn=978-1-135-64661-5 |chapter=Postmodernism, Identity Politics, and Other Political Influences in Political Psychology}}{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Allan G. |title=The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy |date=1997 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=978-1-56639-518-2 |page=170 |url=https://archive.org/details/genderknotunrave0000john/page/170/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Neely |first1=Carol Thomas |title=Feminist Modes of Shakespearean Criticism: Compensatory, justificatory, transformational |journal=Women's Studies |date=1981 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=3–15 |doi=10.1080/00497878.1981.9978551 |issn=0049-7878}}
The term has been used to claim that men have become the primary victims of sexism.{{cite journal |last1=Roden |first1=Jessica |title=#MeToo Movement Backlash: How Evaluations of Women Advocates as More 'Sexist' Weaken Movement Support |journal=Media Psychology |date=2022 |volume=25 |issue=6 |pages=763–778 |doi=10.1080/15213269.2022.2064877 |issn=1521-3269 |quote='Reverse sexism' is the notion that men have replaced women as the victims of gender discrimination, despite ample evidence showing otherwise.}} Specifically, opponents of affirmative action argue that men and boys are systematically discriminated against in employment and school admissions.{{Multiref2 |{{cite book |last1=Masequesmay |first1=Gina |editor1-last=O′Brien |editor1-first=Jodi |title=Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, Volume 2 |date=2008 |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=Thousand Oaks, Calif. |isbn=978-1-4522-6602-2 |page=750 |chapter=Sexism |quote=In a cultural backlash, the term reverse sexism also emerged to refocus on men and boys and their disadvantages, especially under affirmative action.}} |{{cite web |last1=Masequesmay |first1=Gina |title=Sexism {{!}} Sexism and the men's movement |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/sexism/Sexism-and-feminism#ref321547 |access-date=17 March 2025 |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |date=11 June 2014}} }}
Reverse sexism has been compared by sociologists to the concepts of "reverse racism" and "reverse ethnocentrism" in that both are a form of backlash by members of dominant groups (e.g., men, whites, or Anglos).{{cite book |last1=Renfrow |first1=Daniel G. |last2=Howard |first2=Judith A. |editor1-last=DeLamater |editor1-first=John |editor2-last=Ward |editor2-first=Amanda |title=Handbook of Social Psychology |date=2013 |publisher=Springer Netherlands |isbn=978-94-007-6772-0 |page=496 |doi=10.1007/978-94-007-6772-0_17 |chapter=Social Psychology of Gender and Race}} Reverse sexism is rebutted by analogy with the criticism of reverse racism as a response to affirmative action policies that are designed to combat institutionalized sexism and racism.{{cite book |last1=Garcia |first1=J. L. A. |editor1-last=Zack |editor1-first=Naomi |title=Race/Sex: Their Sameness, Difference and Interplay |date=1997 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-203-76060-4 |page=46 |doi=10.4324/9780203760604 |edition=1st |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/racesextheirsame0000unse/page/46/mode/1up?view=theater |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter=Racism as a Model for Understanding Sexism}} In more rigid forms, this stance assumes that the historic power imbalance in favor of men has been reversed,{{cite journal |title=Sociological Abstracts: Supplement — Issues 67-77 |journal=International Review of Publications in Sociology |date=1977 |page=202 |issn=0038-0202}}{{full|what is the article title? who are the authors?|date=March 2021}} and that women are now viewed as the superior gender or sex.{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Georgia |last2=Sandell |first2=Renee |title=Women, art, and education |date=1984 |publisher=National Art Education Association |location=Reston, Va. |isbn=978-0-9376-5233-6 |page=14}}
Feminist theorist Florence Rush characterizes the idea of reverse sexism specifically as a misogynist reaction to feminism; men's rights activists such as Warren Farrell promote the idea of reverse sexism to argue that the feminist movement has rearranged society in such a way that it now benefits women and harms men.{{cite book |last=Rush |first=Florence |editor-last1=Leidholdt |editor-first1=Dorchen |editor-last2=Raymond |editor-first2=Janice G. |title=The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism |date=1990 |publisher=Pergamon Press |pages=168–169 |isbn=978-0-0803-7458-1 |chapter=The Many Faces of Backlash}}
In the preamble to a study on internalized sexism, Steve Bearman, Neill Korobov and Avril Thorne describe reverse sexism as a "misinformed notion", stating that "while individual women or women as a whole may enact prejudicial biases towards specific men or toward men as a group, this is done without the backing of a societal system of institutional power".{{Cite journal |last1=Bearman |first1=Steve |last2=Korobov |first2=Neill |last3=Thorne |first3=Avril |date=2009 |title=The Fabric of Internalized Sexism |url=http://www.jiss.org/documents/volume_1/issue_1/JISS_2009_1-1_10-47_Fabric_of_Internalized_Sexism.pdf |journal=Journal of Integrated Social Sciences |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=10–47 |issn=1942-1052}}