I was reading a business blog
written by a male.
He talked about
an employee being emotional.
Although it was a vague example,
he made that employee female,
using ‘she’ instead of ‘he’.
He’s male.
His default should have been
and often is male.
(We all have met
some over emotional men.)
I felt he deliberately
made the employee female
because the issue dealt with emotions.
That’s sexism.
Pure and simple.
It is reinforcing a harmful stereotype.
As a woman,
I can share brutal truths
about my gender
that men cannot.
I can say things like…
“Don’t wear skirts
if you work for
a manufacturing company.”
If a man said that,
he’d be accused of being sexist.
If we make a comment or judgment
about a group we don’t belong to,
we set ourselves up
to be viewed as
one of the ‘ists
(sexist, racist, ageist, etc).
We’ll be perceived as having an agenda
and not one that is supportive
of that group.
Be very careful
about using negative examples from
or making negative comments about
another group.