Sexist women exist, and these 5 attitudes define them

Machismo is a complex phenomenon that, over the centuries, has found different ways of expressing itself. This means that in different cultures it is reflected through different attitudes and actions. However, there is another aspect that adds complexity to the matter: machismo is not only expressed in men.

And it is that the fruit of the inequality and millenary discrimination that women have suffered has also been reflected in the type of values, ideas and attitudes that many of them, like the rest of society, have adopted.

Sexist women are a realityeven if their ideas about gender roles put them in the spotlight. This article is dedicated to exploring some of the basic ideas and actions through which this sexism manifests itself.

• You may be interested: "Micromachismos: 4 subtle samples of everyday machismo"

Why are there macho women?

It must be taken into account that machismo, being the product of a collective rather than individual phenomenon, cannot be analyzed as it is done, for example, with the experimentation of pain. Most people avoid painful situations, but machismo does not have to have immediate negative consequences for the women who reproduce it.

Thus, being a woman is fully compatible with being a macho, at least in practice, although it hurts her in the long run. But This does not mean, of course, that they should be criminalized; after all, their actions harm them, feeding the rigidity of gender roles in which the female gender has the worst of it.

Raising awareness and improving the material subsistence situations of these people should be the objective, but for this it is necessary knowing how to detect internalized misogyny that occurs in people of both sexes.

• Related article: "Misogyny: 9 attitudes that portray misogynists"

Macho attitudes that appear in some women

These are some patterns of behavior that are relatively common in sexist women. All of them also appear, with some variations, in macho men, but there are some nuances that It is worth taking into account in the first case, since in this case the internalized misogyny is usually more subtle.

1. Criticize others by judging them for their sex life

Women with internalized misogyny can come to judge others very harshly for no reason, simply because in their opinion they do not adapt well to their gender roles. Y one of the most ingrained gender roles It is that of the person oriented towards the private and family sphere, in which all sexual and reproductive potential has to be exclusive to a single man.

As much as we have been through the decade of so-called sexual liberation today, the idea that the woman must preserve her virginity until marriage continues to leave a mark on the morals of many people.

• You may be interested: "Sexist prejudice: explanatory theories"

2. They judge women who get promotions negatively

As we have seen, the traditional role of women has been confined to the domestic sphere. Therefore, in the case of the female gender, the possibility of carving out a professional career is seen as a phase prior to marriage and, therefore, something in which it does not make sense to invest a lot of effort and weather.

That is why women who are promoting and progressing in their professional careers they are viewed with suspicion by those who have internalized misogyny, among which are sexist women.

3. They assume that motherhood is destiny

By traditional standards, reproduction is the raison d'être of women. In addition, it is not about any type of reproduction, but one that goes hand in hand with the nuclear family model: husband, wife and children. It is common for all the mental complexity of the female gender to be reduced to tasks related to caring for children emphasizing the role of genes or "the feminine essence" above learning or freedom to choose other ways of life.

Thus, these people use their position as women to speak with authority to point out what is feminine and what is not, thereby establishing a a kind of competition to find a husband and have children before passing a certain age threshold, and allowing oneself the luxury of criticizing those who do not follow those rules of play.

4. They make the departure of youth pay dearly

As from a macho perspective, aesthetics speaks a lot about the value of women (as elements reproductive that they are supposed to be), those women who pass a certain age are ridiculed and undervalued thus. It is a type of discrimination that points to what you are, not what you do, same as him racism.

5. They tightly monitor compliance with the canons of beauty

For the same reason that we have seen in the previous section, the macho woman looks with a magnifying glass at the possible aesthetic imperfections that occur in the others, and publicly point them out. The result is an increase in social pressure that guides the female gender towards an obsession with beauty in its smallest details.