Efforts to assist minorities to achieve parity are sometimes labelled as positive or reverse discrimination. For example, an effort to do outreach to women and recruit them to a software project may be described as reverse sexism. The term is also used as a conversation card to silence discussion and/or devalue feminism.

The problems with claims of "reverse sexism" include:

  • Men may be complaining that a privilege they have is being eroded; there is an expectation that the vast majority of attention, effort, and resources will be given to them, and any diminution of this is cause for complaint.
  • Accusations of "reverse sexism" are used as an attempt to derail conversations, or to silence women.
  • "Reverse sexism" claims are often disproportionate, or used to obscure larger problems. For instance, in an environment where there are 99 things that marginalise women, and one that marginalises men, loud and vigorous complaints of "reverse sexism" may be made, without any reference to the relative scale of the alleged sexism.

Examples

Here are some examples of men claiming "reverse sexism" regarding women in geek communities:

"To those organizers I challenge them to look in the mirror and realize that you’ve now become the same evil and sexist pigs you started out with the goal of overcoming."

Further reading

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