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Internalized sexism is a form of
sexist Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...
behavior and attitudes enacted by women toward themselves or other women and girls. Internalized sexism is a form of internalized oppression, which "consists of oppressive practices that continue to make the rounds even when members of the oppressor group are not present." Internalized sexism can have a range of effects on women and girls such as problems with mental health and body image. Modes of internalization of sexism include early childhood inculturation and consumption of media, especially of celebrity and entertainment news.


Effects

Internalized sexism has the potential to lead to body issues and a lack of self-confidence. It is a major setback in resolving issues of sexism as a whole.Paludi, M. A. ''The Psychology of Teen Violence and Victimization'', Volume 1. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2011. Ties to psychological distress such as anxious, depressive or somatic symptoms, have been identified as results of internalized sexism. Possible effects can be depression and suicidal impulses. Additionally, studies have found connections between
sexual objectification Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire (a sex object). Objectification more broadly means treating a person as a commodity or an object without regard to their personality or dignity. Obje ...
as a result of internalized sexism and body shame, sexual objectification, and
disordered eating Disordered eating describes a variety of abnormal eating behaviors that, by themselves, do not warrant diagnosis of an eating disorder. Disordered eating includes behaviors that are common features of eating disorders, such as: * Chronic restra ...
. Internalized sexism also plays a role in lowered academic goals and diminished job performance.


Types


Internalized misogyny

Misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against Woman, women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than Man, men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been wide ...
is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. Women who experience internalized misogyny may express it through minimizing the value of women, mistrusting women, and showing gender bias in favor of men. Women, after observing societal beliefs which demean the value and skills of women repeatedly, eventually internalize those misogynistic beliefs and apply them to themselves and other women. Internalized misogyny can be enacted on others through assertions of incompetence, construction of women as competitors, construction of women as objects, and invalidation and derogation of others or oneself. The implications of internalized misogyny include psychological disorders such as depression,
eating disorders An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person's health, physical or mental health, mental health. These behaviors may include eating too much food or too little food. Types of eatin ...
, low
self-esteem Self-esteem is confidence in one's own worth, abilities, or morals. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself (for example, "I am loved", "I am worthy") as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Smith and Macki ...
, and less social support among women. The Internalized Misogyny Scale (IMS) was created to assess one's internalized misogyny. It consists of 17 items measuring three factors: devaluation of women, distrust of women, and gender bias in favor of men. Its validity has been assessed and supported through multiple studies. Internalized misogyny assessed via the IMS has been found to be related to lower self-esteem, less social support, and more psychological distress among women around the world, and to negative body image, depression, low self-esteem, and less psychosexual adjustment among lesbian and bisexual women. The distrust of women subscale includes statements such as 'It is generally safer not to trust women too much' and 'When it comes down to it a lot of women are deceitful.' The devaluation of women subscale includes statements such as 'Women seek to gain power by getting control over men' and 'women exaggerate problems they have at work.' The valuing men over women subscale includes items such as 'I prefer to work for a male boss' and 'The intellectual leadership of a community should be largely in the hands of men.' Internalized misogyny may manifest differently depending on one's social and political identities; for instance, internalized misogynoir has been identified as a type of internalized oppression which results from the combination of internalized racism and internalized misogyny. Similarly, lesbians may face the combined effects of internalized misogyny and internalized homophobia as a result of their intersectional identities.


Internalized heterosexism

Dawn M. Szymanski and colleagues write: Internalized heterosexism is generally defined as the internalization of assumptions, negative attitudes and stigma regarding homosexuality by individuals who do not identify within the heteronormative spectrum and/or are categorized as sexual minorities to varying degrees. Internalized heterosexism is a manifestation of internalized sexism that primarily affects sexual minority populations (composed of people who identify
lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...
, gay,
bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...
,
transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...
, questioning, or other), however, it can also affect heterosexual populations by dictating how they interact with and relate to non-heterosexual peoples. This phenomenon manifests when sexual minorities begin to adopt rigid
heteronormative Heteronormativity is the definition of heterosexuality as the normative human sexuality. It assumes the gender binary (i.e., that there are only two distinct, opposite genders) and that sexual and marital relations are most fitting between peo ...
values into their worldviews. Examples of these heteronormative values are fundamentalist religious doctrines that condemn non-heterosexual orientations and activities, concepts of masculinity and manhood that emphasize restricted emotionality (scholastically referred to as RE), or restrictive affectionate behavior between men (scholastically referred to as RABBM). The internalization of heteronormativity often create gender role conflicts (GRCs) for people whose actions fall outside the parameters of acceptable cultural norms that promote unrealistic and constricting ideas about what it means to be a man or a woman in modern society. One of the most common consequences of internalized heterosexism is intense depression fueled by self-loathing and sexual repression.


Toxic femininity, tradwives, and marianismo

Gender-studies scholar Brenda R. Weber uses the term ''toxic femininity'' for a code of
conformity Conformity or conformism is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to social group, group norms, politics or being like-minded. Social norm, Norms are implicit, specific rules, guidance shared by a group of individuals, that guide t ...
and
social pressure Peer pressure is a direct or indirect influence on peers, i.e., members of social groups with similar interests and experiences, or social statuses. Members of a peer group are more likely to influence a person's beliefs, values, religion and beh ...
to rigid feminine
gender role A gender role, or sex role, is a social norm deemed appropriate or desirable for individuals based on their gender or sex. Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of masculinity and femininity. The specifics regarding these gendered ...
s, reinforced through (sometimes unconscious) beliefs, such as viewing oneself as unworthy, and imperatives to be consistently pleasant, accommodating, and compliant. According to Weber, such beliefs and expectations there is no a priori female
self In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...
" apart from the needs and desires of men and boys. Weber associates these norms with "usually white, mostly middle-class, relentlessly heterosexual, and typically politically conservative" expectations of
femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...
. In her book ''Sisters in Hate: American Women and White Extremism'', journalist Seyward Darby discusses the onset of the tradwife aesthetic (a
neologism In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...
of "traditional wife" or "traditional
housewife A housewife (also known as a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother/mom/mum) is a woman whose role is running or managing her family's home—housekeeping, which may include Parenting, caring for her children; cleaning and maintaining the home; Sew ...
"), depicted by Darby through interviews with women who self-identify as far-right extremists. Darby discusses with three women their personal view of themselves as docile, passive, and submissive in a male-dominated household. Darby also discusses her own observations and evidence of the interviewees' advocacy of tenets of the US political
far right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...
, including
white supremacy White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...
,
antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
, and other
ultraconservative Ultraconservatism refers to extreme conservative views in politics or religious practice. In modern politics, ''ultraconservative'' usually refers to conservatives of the far-right on the political spectrum, comprising groups or individuals wh ...
beliefs. One of those interviewed declares that "her primary duty is having children and supporting her husband." Columnist Annie Kelly posits similarities between tradwife aesthetic and white supremacist beliefs, such as conspiracy theories about demographic changes in the United States in an attempt to encourage white women to increase pregnancy to offset the declining white birth rate. While those who follow tradwife aesthetic have suggested that it is simply an anti-feminist ideal of a simpler time in the 1950s, which supports a return to traditional
family values Family values, sometimes referred to as familial values, are traditional or cultural values that pertain to the family's structure, function, roles, beliefs, attitudes, and ideals. Additionally, the concept of family values may be understood ...
, some feminists argue that feminism allows the choice of being a housewife to begin with: Media scholar Roopika Risam writes that charges of ''toxic femininity'' have become an
Internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...
, exemplary of tensions between feminists online over the concept of
intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...
, and directed primarily towards non-white feminists who are seen as disruptive of mainstream feminist discussions (). For example, the writer Michelle Goldberg has criticized online call-out culture as "toxic," likening it to feminist Jo Freeman's concept of "trashing." '' Marianismo'' is a term developed by scholar of Latin American studies Evelyn P. Stevens in a 1973 essay as a direct response to the male word ''
machismo Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1940s and 1950s and its use more wi ...
''. The ideas within ''marianismo'' include those of feminine passivity, sexual purity, and moral strength. Stevens defines ''marianismo'' as "the cult of female spiritual superiority, which teaches that women are semidivine, morally superior to and spiritually stronger than men."Evelyn P. Stevens, "''Marianismo: la otra cara del machismo en Latino-América''"; in: Ann Pescatelo, ''Hembra y macho en Latino-América: Ensaios.'', Edición Diana,
México Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
1977, p.123.
Hispanic-American feminists have criticized the concept of ''marianismo'' as it is often presented the opposite of ''machismo,'' which thus puts femininity "the realm of passivity, chastity, and self-sacrifice."


Hostile and ambivalent sexism

Social psychologists Peter Glick and Susan Fiske have posed a theory of ambivalent sexism, which presents two types of sexism: hostile and benevolent. Hostile sexism reflects
misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against Woman, women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than Man, men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been wide ...
and is expressed more blatantly to the observer. Benevolent sexism, on the other hand, appears much more positive and innocent to the observer, and possibly even to the receiver as well. However, benevolently sexist statements and actions end up implying sexist notions or stereotypes. Glick and Fiske elaborate on the definition of benevolent sexism in their paper:
We define ''benevolent sexism'' as a set of interrelated attitudes toward women that are sexist in terms of viewing women stereotypically and in restricted roles but that are subjectively positive in feeling tone (for the perceiver) and also tend to elicit behaviors typically categorized as prosocial (e.g., helping) or intimacy-seeking (e.g., self-disclosure) (Glick & Fiske, 1996, p. 491). enevolent sexism isa subjectively positive orientation of protection, idealization, and affection directed toward women that, like hostile sexism, serves to justify women's subordinate status to men (Glick et al., 2000, p. 763).


Modes of internalization


Early childhood inculturation

Just as misogyny can be acquired through multiple external sources, internalized misogyny can be learned from those same external forces, in a converse way. Internalized sexism may be promoted through the demeaning of men and women on the basis of their gender in relation to societal and behavioral standards. Internalized misogyny is learned in tandem with female socialization, the idea that young girls are taught to act and behave differently than their male counterparts. These same societal and behavioral standards are also thought to be spread through exposure in the media, which reflects the standards of the society that it serves to inform and entertain. Internalized sexism is learned primarily during adolescence through socialization into gender related practices. The time period between ages 11–14 has been identified as the most vulnerable period for girls around the world in terms of internalization of sexism. The social cognitive theory of gender development and differentiation elaborates on this socialization process; it describes that young girls learn gender-related behaviors, attitudes, and preferences by modeling others' gender-linked behaviors, learning from the effects of one's own gender-linked behaviors, and/or learning from direct instructions how to practice gender-linked behaviors. Young children are more likely to adopt gender-linked behaviors when they are rewarded, or see someone else rewarded, for that behavior. For example, a girl might wear more stereotypically feminine clothing after learning that conforming to society's expectations of what she should wear leads to social and personal rewards. This process continues as young women face increasing amounts of pressure to conform to the norms of adult women. Thus, internalized sexism is practiced and spread through a range of social situations and influences, including through everyday interaction with peers.


Television and cinema

There is a long-lasting connection between misogyny and mass media.
Sitcoms A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent setting, such as a home ...
often portray characters degrading the value of women and commenting on women's weight and size. This contributes to the internalization of gender size stereotypes, sometimes negatively affecting the mental and physical health of females. One of the primary problems in mass media is the under-representation of women in widely consumed productions.Wood, Julia T. ''Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture''. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 1994. The context of children's entertainment is especially pernicious because young minds are highly impressionable and cartoons have been known to play a pedagogical role in childhood development. A vast amount of early Disney movies showcase a young girl needing to be rescued by a "Prince Charming" to have a happily ever after. A few examples are Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty. '' The Little Mermaid'' has been criticized because it tells a story of a young woman, Ariel, who gives up her natural identity as a mermaid in order to meet the preferences of her love interest, a human male.


Social media

Social media is a significant part of modern life. It has the power to sway people's opinions and thoughts about themselves and others. Platforms such as Instagram and TikTok host a diverse population of users and utilize sophisticated algorithms to display videos that users are most likely to be interested in. However, this algorithm can backfire, for example if a user interacts with a video containing pro eating disorder content, as they will then start seeing more and more similar videos, potentially leading to the internalization of these values. There has also been a significant trend known as "Pick Me Girls" on TikTok. "It can be defined as a social media phenomenon dominated by women who always consider that they are the best in any kind of condition. As they are feeling perfect, they easily hate, insult, and compete with other women." Women viewing other women as competition has been prevalent for a long time across various relationships, including between mothers and daughters, among girlfriends, or even between two strangers on the internet. Thanks to social media, this issue is now being openly discussed in large numbers.


Language and communication

Differences in communication across genders is influenced by internalized sexism portrayed in everyday conversation. The main target of internalized sexism are predominantly women who are regarded as inferior. In everyday conversation, women are scrutinized by objectification, called derogatory terms, or invalidated not just by men, but other women as well. Other forms of language use toward women include the use of derogatory terms, such as "bitch," "slut," and "hoe," as forms of invalidation. These terms are used as a form of gender role policing for women who defy gender norms or hold more assertive and vocal qualities. The latter two in particular is an example of slut-shaming, which, either consciously or unconsciously, is prevalent in discussions surrounding women. These conversational practices objectify, invalidate and perpetuate internalized sexism. There are significant differences in language use between genders. Language can also act as a moderator of the maintenance of power imbalance between groups. Derogation and criticism perpetuate
social stigma Stigma, originally referring to the visible marking of people considered inferior, has evolved to mean a negative perception or sense of disapproval that a society places on a group or individual based on certain characteristics such as their ...
, which then become internalized by those affected. They become critical of themselves and members of their own gender or diminish their own voices. This is known as horizontal oppression, influenced by systematic invalidation and internal dynamics of internalized sexism.


Combating internalized sexism

Research on interventions and techniques which effectively combat internalized sexism is scarce despite the ubiquity of this phenomenon.Haffner, Brittney. "Implications for Interventions regarding Internalized Sexism and its Effects on Sexual Minority Women of Different Races and Ethnicities." Order No. 29161894, Long Island University, Brooklyn, 2021. However, raising awareness of internalized sexism and the mechanisms behind it enables women to recognize and impede their own internalized sexism. For instance, this awareness may discourage women from participating in derogation of fellow women and encourage them to support other women rather than treat them as competitors. Learning about internalized sexism can therefore empower and support women throughout their everyday lives. A few other ways to combat internalized sexism is: * Critical Media Consumption ** Analyzing media with a critical mind to question the different portrayal of gender and stereotypical representations. ** Seeking diverse media sources is also a great to see women in different roles and challenging gender stereotypes. * Dialogue and Communication ** Engaging in open conversations with peers and friends to help see and challenge commonly held beliefs. ** With open conversations, it can build a strong support systems with those around and encourage more women and girls of all the diverse roles in society. ** Equal household chores is also a great way to promote gender equality and combat internalized sexism as women are not the only ones in charge of doing all the household chores. ** Calling out certain jokes or a certain portrayal of comments to help discourage people from derogating fellow women. * Education and Awareness ** Understanding the root causes of sexism and teaching children from young ages on gender equality. ** Teaching children, teenagers, and young adults on what sexist and derogatory language is and what are some respectful ways to talk about and to each other.


See also

* Bad boy archetype * Campaign for the Feminine Woman * Culture of Domesticity * Ideal womanhood * Internalized racism * Internalized oppression * Kinder, Küche, Kirche * María Clara * Molly Mormon * Mythopoetic Men's Movement *
Self-hatred Self-hatred is a state of personal self-loathing or low self-esteem. In psychology and psychiatry The term "self-hatred" is used infrequently by psychologists and psychiatrists, who would usually describe people who hate themselves as "people w ...
* The Angel in the House * The Stepford Wives * Toxic masculinity *
Yamato nadeshiko ''Yamato nadeshiko'' ( or ) is a Japanese language, Japanese term meaning the "Anthropomorphism, personification of an idealized Japanese woman." The term is the archetype of conservative and traditional femininity. Name origin and connotatio ...


References

{{Reflist Sexism Self-hatred