Virtually everyone experiences sexism at one time or another. Whether it’s directed at you or someone else in the room, it can be hard to know how to respond.
Fortunately, there are plenty of fantastic examples of people clapping back at sexism. The next time you see someone being a sexist POS, try out one of these responses.
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Seriously, what’s with dress codes?
Dress codes are always enforced on the basis that clothes can’t be ‘distracting’. But when it comes down to school administrators measuring the width of a spaghetti strap, it starts to make the whole endeavour feel useless.
A fair point.
While there are steps anyone can take to make themselves safer, taking this attitude far enough kind of places the onus on the person who might be attacked — rather than, y’know, the person who might be the attacker.
Do it, but not like that.
It sometimes feels like women have an incredibly narrow acceptable path to follow in terms of sexuality. To be accepted, they need to be somewhat sexual, but if they’re too sexual, it’s seen as a bad thing.
Men is too headache.
A lot of men would react to this with accusations of misandry or say “Not all men.” But maybe we can just take this for what it is: a nice story about an old lady being accepting.
Hollywood taught us wrong.
Too many men I know seem to have been warped by romantic comedies, believing that they’ll get the girl through sheer persistence or grand romantic gestures. Maybe we can start to push back against these weird tropes.
Schools are in the business of enforcing what kids wear.
This is an excellent point. School boards have spent decades measuring the length of girls’ skirts and forcing kids to turn shirts with certain messages inside out. It doesn’t seem like much of a challenge to make sure kids are wearing masks.
It’s necessary.
Sometimes, you see a particularly inflammatory sexist remark online. You might want to launch into an impassioned rebuttal, but just don’t have the time or energy. In these situations, it’s best to just leave a downvote and move on.
Shift the paradigm.
This is worth considering for anyone in the dating world. If you’re pursuing someone who’s happy with their own company, your aim should be to be so awesome that they’d rather spend time with you than by themselves.
Stop it, Michael.
I hope this story actually happened because it’s downright delightful. The only reason I have doubts is because I’m not sure someone who whistles at women and someone who calls out this behavior could exist in the same group.
Have a kid to lighten the load.
Lots of people have kids because kids tend to take care of parents later in life. But it’s weird to extend this philosophy in such a gendered way. Like, you might have a girl who doesn’t want to be caring to her siblings.
You’re almost there!
A standard misogynist claim is that men are more likely to experience assault, but a counterpoint to this is that women are way more likely to experience sexual assault. It’s a way to diminish the violence so many women face.
Speaking purely hypothetically…
Lawmakers have been fine-tuning restrictions on women’s bodies for generations now. At a certain point, it’s important to fight back against this and even poke fun at the system, if necessary. This is funny, but it raises an important point.
Cause and effect.
I don’t ever want to condone assault, but after looking into what happened here, it’s hard for me to be morally opposed to the way things unfolded. I mean, by the logic of his sign, maybe he deserved it.
That’s bodily autonomy for you.
Those organ donor cards you fill out are the only way you can donate organs should you die. If you don’t fill out the card, no one can mess with you. Compare this to how we police women’s bodies.
You tell him.
I love the idea of someone making a joke that isn’t funny enough to merit a chuckle or even a smile, then go after the person for not smiling. Like, maybe try being funnier next time.
You’re so close to getting it.
If you’re a man, and you’ve ever been made uncomfortable by someone hitting on you, think about how you felt at that time, then try to apply that the next time you’re flirting with someone who isn’t interested.
Keep moving forward.
This is entirely true. Also, when men supposedly gave women voting rights, it wasn’t out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s because enough women made a big enough deal of it for lawmakers to change course.
Olympic uniforms are messed up.
Top-level sporting events show a clear double standard when it comes to attire. Male figure skaters are all covered up, while women have to show their legs. Across the board, women are expected to wear tighter uniforms than men.
The hard facts.
If we can socialize boys to seeing girls as potential friends rather than solely crushes or potential girlfriends, we might be able to normalize the idea that men and women can be platonic friends. We can dream, right?
Turn the tables.
It feels like feminism is constantly under attack, which seems ridiculous when you consider the fact that it’s centered around the idea that women should be equal. Like, what’s the problem with that? Is it a controversial stance?
