In which firecat discusses her isms

[firecat]

I've studied feminism for decades and have long believed that feminists—starting long before I was born and continuing today—have discovered some really important things about what my world is like and have done things to make my world better for me as a woman and better for a lot of other people too (although not all people).

Steeping myself in feminist viewpoints for a long time has made me pretty sensitive to gender-biased behavior among people I know, and gender bias in the media. (And has spoiled my enjoyment of a few authors I used to really like.)

Nevertheless, I have lived my whole life in a culture that privileges men over women and people of other genders in a number of ways, and I have internalized the assumption that the public sphere belongs to men. So despite decades of study, if someone mentions a person involved in making public policy, and I don't know who they are, and the name I hear doesn't strike me as "obviously feminine," I tend to assume they are male.

So I just saw a news headline, "Clinton stresses two-state solution," and my first thought is that Bill Clinton said it in a talk somewhere, and it takes me reading the first few words of the article, "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton stressed a two-state Israel-Palestine solution..." to realize who the story is talking about. *DOH*.

Despite decades of being involved with feminist thought, sexism is still so deeply rooted in me that I automatically envisioned Bill Clinton when I saw the name Clinton, even though Hillary Clinton is in a more prominent position in government now.

I have made some effort to learn about race issues but I haven't worked on that nearly as much as feminism. So I'm sure I have many more automatic assumptions about race than I do about gender.

When people who I think came from more or less the same upbringing as mine say they aren't racist or sexist at all, I really wonder where they got the module installed that erases all of the conditioning they received.

Comments

[marea93.livejournal.com]

My parents endeavoured to raise us without prejudice, but they had their blind spots and I've spent my life examining my own thoughts for traces of unwanted 'isms.' For instance, most people in California refer to anyone of Latino descent as 'Mexican.' When I realized that many of them were from Central and South America, I changed my language.

Now that I am most often the only white person in the room I am having ample opportunities to learn more about other cultures and destroy my own assumptions - or so you would think. But pretty much most of these people want nothing to do with me, trapped, I am guessing, in 'isms' of their own which tell them I'm the enemy.

As for the Clinton thing, I think most people will do that a time or two before we get used to seeing Hilary first. But I agree that it's at least as much because he was the more prominent Clinton for 10+ years and she is relatively new in that position.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.