Sexism- Cudd and Jones

Cudd and Jones Sexism

                  “There are one hundred million missing women. Many more in the world lack access to education and many more are illiterate.” (Cudd 73) With this words in their [Cudd and Jones] opening paragraph, they set the table for their piece on sexism. I personally had no idea that such an enormous amount of women are simply missing from the world. Just as scary of a fact is how many more women are being exploited due to sexism. I found many of Cudd and Jones’ ideas on sexism interesting in that they were able to outline why the different forms sexism takes place, why there is sexism in the world, and lastly, they explain how there are two views that feminists have towards sexism. 

                  There are two possible reasons as to why sexism and inequality is so present in our world today. The first could be purely biological. That is that many, including both women and men; see that by nature and biology women are a inferior and weaker species. There is one problem with this view that many people have. The reason is that men and women are the species so one cannot be inferior to the other either biologically or intellectually. They go hand in hand; an example of this is to look at a bird and its wings. One of these wings is man and the other is women. It is not until both of these wings are equally developed biologically can the bird fly and should one of the wings remain weak then flight is impossible. In essence then not until men and women are seen as equals then society will be unable to flourish. Another reason why there are so many inequalities among us today is that women are systematically disadvantaged by society. It is because of this that without a massive change in society then women will continue to be victims of sexism.

                  Cudd and Jones divide sexism into three levels. The first two are standard and quite easy to understand, however, I originally had some difficulties fully comprehending the last one. The first is Institutional sexism. This is sexism through social institutions and the sexual inequalities within “the explicit rules and implicit norms governing and structuring these social institutions” (Cudd 78). The example that is given in their piece is within the Catholic Church in that how all priests are to be men and all women are to be nuns. I can definitely understand how this could create controversy and that many they should have used a less critical example in order to sway more people to their side of the argument. I do have to agree with them though that the fact that such a prominent aspect of today’s society that practically everywhere around the world is practiced shows this aspect of sexism within a revered institution is a major cause for concern.

                  The second level is interpersonal sexism which “involves interactions between persons that are not governed by explicit rules”. (Cudd 78) In essence interpersonal sexism takes place through the interactions among individuals in everyday life, whether between friends or co-workers. The main example of this is in sports. When reading this part I instantly thought back to the aspect of how women are seen as biologically inferior to men. I felt that using sports as an example of sexism could create a problem for readers on the feminist fence. The reason is that Cudd and Jones are not saying that women should compete with men in sports because in some cases this simply is not able to happen however, what they are saying is that girls and women should still have the same opportunity as boys and men to at least be able to play or even succeed at sports that boys do at such a young age. Without a doubt boys are clearly much more encouraged to become involved with sports then girls.

http://pfitzinger.com/labreports/womenmarathoners.shtml                 
That last level of sexism is the Unconscious level. This “refers to the psychological mechanisms and tacit beliefs, emotions and attitudes that create, constitute, promote, sustain, and/or exploit invidious sexual inequalities.” (Cudd 79) Well this is a lot for just a definition of one part of something and I originally had some difficulties unpacking it and I wish Cudd and Jones had made this definition somewhat more clear. I ended up deciding what it meant was the personal level of both the cognitive and effective processes of individuals and how these create a sexist world. In essence unconscious sexism is the precursor to the first two levels and they are each the result of unconscious sexism.

                  Lastly Cudd and Jones reflect on the two feminist views on sexism. I first have a problem with this. The reason is that if feminists would like to be seen as a prominent group of people then they need to be unified in their decisions that they make or the views that they have because they are simply not powerful enough to have different views on different features and that this creates a sense of anarchy. Perhaps the biggest example of this is religion. Christianity has hundreds of sects and has thousands of problems with it and how it is run, specifically resulting from being disunities.  The first view that feminists have is equality feminism which believe that social institutions are the main medium of sexism and that these institutions must be torn down in order to end sexism. The second group of feminists is difference feminists which explain that unconscious desires are the main medium of sexism and that social institutions are the result. I felt that each of the views has ideas that I can agree with and was curious if there was any view that was a combination because I would be on board.