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Second sexism

-definition -david benatar book

-counterpoints -digby article

CITE AT THE END OF EACH CHUNK

Bib

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23559076?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=male&searchText=expendability&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dmale%2Bexpendability%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_SYC-4693%2Ftest&refreqid=search%3Ae9e1ae6b2f80a3ca18b0cf91e107bfcf&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

http://hettingern.people.cofc.edu/Intro_Philosophy_SP_2011/Benatar_Second_Sexism.pdf

Second Sexism
The term Second Sexism was coined by David Benatar in his book The Second Sexism: Discrimination Against Men and Boys, published in 2012.

David Benatar defines second sexism as gender discrimination against men. Benatar posits that society leaves men behind in discussions about discrimination, focuses entirely on women's struggles while ignoring the fact that men are the main victims of discrimination. This causes sexism against men to be neglected where both men and women should be addressed in order to understand the scope of sexism fully, leading to men being more disposable where the loss of women is felt more than the loss of men.

He focuses on how men are expected to be the ones to fight in wars and suffer the physical costs of battle. According to Benatar, women are consistently kept away from war. He describes situations where women are casualties of war as out of the norm, where if only men are casualties, that would be more socially accepted and expected. He gives an example of how news broadcasts explicitly mention if women and children suffer from a tragedy, as opposed to merely the number of people who suffered or even if men suffered.

He concludes that he aimed to show that men can experience discrimination based on their gender, not to claim that women have it better than men. He also claims that while the fact that women tend to want to switch roles with men more so than men want to switch roles with women, observing that phenomenon does not indicate that women have a more comfortable life. Benatar implies that this experience would mean just the opposite.

Opposition
Tom Digby's article Male Trouble: Are Men Victims of Sexism? is a direct counterpoint to Benatar's text. Digby claims that the concept of "second sexism":


 * fails to identify the perpetrators of sexism against men
 * takes sexism out of its historical context
 * oversimplifies the definition of sexism

While Benetar claims that men suffer more from war because they are expected to do so in place of women, Digby writes that men are the ones insisting that society spare women that struggle. He also writes that society created the situation where men have been chosen as the disposable sex when it comes to war because of women's ability to give birth.