{"id":11101,"date":"2025-04-30T23:05:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T20:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/belarus.fm\/?p=11101"},"modified":"2025-09-20T20:40:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T17:40:49","slug":"but-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belarus.fm\/en\/im-not-a-feminist\/but-8\/","title":{"rendered":"What is sexism? Sex education, abortions, and \u201c16 and Pregnant\u201d: the country needs cannon fodder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"podcastplayer\"><figure class=\"wp-block-audio podcastplayer\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/anchor.fm\/s\/1000c70c8\/podcast\/play\/102002321\/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-3-30%2F399366858-44100-2-63ae2306b37a4.m4a\" preload=\"none\"><\/audio><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"mks_dropcap_letter\" style=\"font-size: 72px; color: #dd3c7a; \">I<\/span>n the eighth episode of the podcast, I talk about sexism and why reverse sexism doesn\u2019t exist; about abortions, sex education, and whether men need feminism explained to them.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>If you think about it carefully, sexism and misogyny \u2014 which I talked about a lot in previous episodes \u2014 are very similar concepts. So what\u2019s the difference between them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Misogyny is hatred or prejudice specifically against women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Sexism is hatred or prejudice toward people based on their gender.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>In the binary structure of the world, divided into men and women, the privileged group \u2014 men \u2014 holds prejudice against the oppressed group \u2014 women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, misogyny and sexism are synonymous concepts that describe a set of biases and a certain attitude \u2014 only in the case of misogyny, it&#8217;s specified that it&#8217;s directed specifically against women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The actions that result from this attitude are called discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, in various sources, sexism is described not only as an attitude or set of biases, but also as an act \u2014 discrimination itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve come to the following definitions: misogyny is hatred toward women \u2014 that is, a biased attitude (not an action). What happens as a result of misogyny is discrimination and sexism \u2014 that is, actions. For me, the terms discrimination and sexism are synonymous in this context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The difference between them is that discrimination can be based on various factors and affect both men and women \u2014 for example, skin color, disability, marital status, appearance, and many others. Sexism, however, is discrimination specifically against women. So sexism is a form of discrimination, a subcategory focused on women.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So, in my understanding, misogyny is an attitude, while sexism is an action that stems from that attitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also define sexism as the systemic discrimination of one class by another. That is, the dominant class \u2014 men \u2014 oppresses the marginalized class \u2014 women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s why, in my worldview, reverse sexism doesn\u2019t exist. Because cases of discrimination against men are not systemic \u2014 they do not relegate all men to an oppressed class. These are isolated instances of discrimination, which can certainly occur against men for various reasons, as I\u2019ve already mentioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>So, when feminists say that reverse sexism doesn\u2019t exist, they are not denying that men experience discrimination! They\u2019re saying that it\u2019s not systemic discrimination, and therefore it cannot be called sexism. But it absolutely does have its own name \u2014 discrimination. And yes, of course, men can be hurt too \u2014 meaning, they can also be discriminated against.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t consider abortion to be murder, which is why I say termination of the fetus, not killing a child. However, when it comes to selective abortions, this means the deliberate termination of female embryos to prevent the birth of girls specifically. And this happens as a result of misogyny \u2014 the belief that boys should be born, not girls. This is not about a woman\u2019s free choice to continue a pregnancy or not based on her individual circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sex education reduces the number of teenage pregnancies \u2014 this has long been confirmed by statistics. But in traditional patriarchal societies, instead of proper sex education, they offer other types of \u201clessons\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, in other countries, steps are being taken to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies, and the most effective approach has turned out to be the Dutch model of sex education. The Netherlands has the lowest rate of teenage pregnancies, and on average, the age at which people start having sex is higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is a link to the Dutch Centre for Sexual and Reproductive Health: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zanzu.nl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/www.zanzu.nl\/<\/a><br>You might find it helpful to look for answers to certain questions yourself or to discuss some topics with your children \u2014 the ones you hesitate to raise because you were raised in a patriarchal country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I personally believe that we don\u2019t need to explain anything about feminism to men. Let me say right away: other feminists may think differently and work with male audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>So, feminism is about women\u2019s rights. Where in this sentence do you hear the word \u201cmen\u201d? Why should we \u2014 or why would it even be a good idea \u2014 to explain anything to men about our rights as women? What does it matter what men think about something that doesn\u2019t concern them? We\u2019re talking about women\u2019s rights \u2014 so what do men and their opinions have to do with it?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s a saying: \u201cNothing about us without us\u201d. It means that laws affecting a specific group of people must be made with input from that very group. In other words, the interests of each group should be promoted by people who actually belong to that group and share the same needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A man cannot truly understand or feel what\u2019s wrong with the status of women, because he simply never faces those problems or restrictions. So why explain it to him? For what purpose? No matter how much you explain, he\u2019ll keep repeating that it\u2019s all wrong, that you\u2019re imagining things, that we live in a matriarchy already, and that you\u2019re fighting the wrong fight, in the wrong place, and in the wrong way. All in one sentence, you\u2019ll get both gaslighting (\u201cyou\u2019re imagining things, darling\u201d) and mansplaining (\u201clet me explain how you should fight for your rights\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>My personal opinion \u2014 don\u2019t waste your energy explaining things to men. You don\u2019t need them to understand, agree, or give you permission. You don\u2019t need to consider their opinion on matters that don\u2019t concern them. No, this is not misandry \u2014 this is about setting boundaries and defending your own interests.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to contact us but are afraid to use comments, you can send us an e-mail. After that it will be enough to delete your letter from the \u201cSent\u201d folder.<br>Our e-mail address is: <a href=\"mailto:help@belarus.fm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">help@belarus.fm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you think about it carefully, sexism and misogyny \u2014 which I talked about a lot in previous episodes \u2014 are very similar concepts. So what\u2019s the difference between them? Misogyny is hatred or prejudice specifically against women. Sexism is hatred or prejudice toward people based on their gender. In the binary structure of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[381],"tags":[352],"class_list":["post-11101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-im-not-a-feminist","tag-audio-in-russian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/belarus.fm\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/belarus.fm\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/belarus.fm\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belarus.fm\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belarus.fm\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/belarus.fm\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belarus.fm\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/belarus.fm\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belarus.fm\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belarus.fm\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}