Sexism For Dummies (And Everyone Else)

Are you any sex or gender* at all? Then this applies to you.


Sexism does not only apply to women. In fact, women are quite often sexist towards men without necessarily realising. Women have had it tough in past centuries/millennia, but now they are finally grasping at equality, it’s about time we actually paid attention to ‘male sexism’ (the term we’ll use to refer to sexism aimed at men).

Have you ever heard a young boy be told to ‘man up’ for displaying emotion? Or perhaps you’ve heard someone tell a man to ‘grow a pair’? These are just a couple of examples of extremely common male sexism. The issue with statements like this is that it creates an unrealistic expectation for boys and men to live up to. What does it mean to ‘man up’ or be ‘manly’? We’ve accepted this to refer to strength and lack of emotion. It implies that a man is not a man unless he is strong and burly, and that if he shows any emotion then he is not a real man. Women are finally fighting unrealistic expectations placed on them, yet why do we still ignore what society is doing to men? This isn’t to say that the battle fought by women isn’t real, merely that everyone should be aware that everyone has things to face.

An interesting example of the difference between the sexes is the verbs ‘to mother’ and ‘to father’. ‘To mother’ a child generally implies to nurture it and rear it, but ‘to father’ a child implies a mere contribution of DNA towards the creation of a child. Why is it that our language also reflects that it is supposedly inappropriate for men to display emotion or offer care without being seen as weak and unworthy?

There are a few campaigns fighting to raise the awareness of these matters but the first step is to learn more about it yourself. Being aware that nurturing aggression and lack of emotion in boys and young men is what causes some of the behaviour that later leads to sexism towards women which causes fear of violence and rape. It’s not that simple, but you get the idea. If we all finally opened our eyes and allowed fluidity of gender and individual interpretation of what masculinity truly is, we might make life for boys and young men much easier. Making life smoother for anyone is worthwhile, especially when we are already to striving to achieve as much for women who have fought against inequality for centuries and more. Men are capable of emotion, of multitasking, of nurturing children and so much more; it’s about time we realised that men are just people with different bits between their legs, and that this doesn’t impair their ability to behave like kind and caring, fully-functioning human beings.


*To read about the difference between sex and gender, read this article about transsexualism.

What Does Trans Even Mean?

Liz - TransphobiaYour sex is what you are defined as in terms of your genetics and your biological makeup, for example if you have two X chromosomes, you are of the female sex. Gender, however, is how you identify. For example, you can have an XY chomosome pair (which is the marker for the male sex) but identify as a woman. This is an example of being transgender, trans- simply meaning different. If you are transgender, you identify as a gender different to the sex you were born as. If you identify as the same gender as the sex you were born as, you’re technically cisgender (cis- meaning the same).

Someone who is transgender identifies as a different gender to their birth sex, this is often found in ‘drag’ culture. Whereas someone who is a transexual has had a ‘gender reassignment’ so that they outwardly appear to be of the opposite sex in a biological way. For example, someone who is a transexual* may have had surgery and hormone therapy so that they feel they can live as the opposite sex, the sex they felt they should’ve been born as. The term ‘transvestite’ is pretty much transgender and is fairly outdated by ever-changing, modern-day standards.

Transgender is to do with gender identity, transexual is to do with biological sex: trans 101.


LGBT (or LGBTQ) standards for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (Q = community). Although being transgender or transexual is not sexuality, it is to do with gender identity. Many people received prejudice and discrimination over the expression of their gender and sexual preferences; the first step to fighting this is through awareness. Being transgender is the feeling that your mind is of the opposite sex to your body (in gender-binary terms**), simple as.


*’Transexual’ is the word often used but the technical term using rules of the English language is transsexual with two Ss, but this is actually quite trivial.

**’Gender binary’ refers to the idea of the existence of only two unique genders; female (XX sex chromosome pair) and male (XY sex chromosome pair). Some people prefer an identity that does not neatly fall into one category or the other, even if they may have the reproductive organs of only one biological sex. Some people are born with abnormalities on the chromosome pair that determines sex, resulting in combinations such as X (Turner’s Syndrome), XXX (Triple-X Syndrome)and XXY (Klinefelter Syndrome); these genetic conditions are largely irrelevant to transsexualism.   tdor1

Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day

Yom HaShoah is the Hebrew name for Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is held primarily in Israel, but probably observed to some extent by Jews all over the world. Yom HaShoah is today. It began as sundown last night and will end at sundown tonight*.

This video shows what happens in Israel when the Yom HaShoah siren goes off, as the population of Israel remembers the 6 million Jewish people, amongst others, who were ruthlessly and brutally killed in the European Holocaust.

*In the Jewish calendar, a day is counted from when the sun sets to when it sets the following evening.

New Missive on Facebook

New Missive on Facebook

After hitting 25 likes, the page was eligible for a custom Facebook URL!

Help support New Missive by liking the blog’s Facebook Page!

By liking New Missive on Facebook, you will be able to see when new articles are posted without having to keep checking the blog! Also on the Facebook page, you’ll be directed to the New Missive archives and kept up to date on how New Missive is going!

So click that like button and invite your friends! 

Putin’s Put His Nose In It: Anti-Semitism In Ukraine

Ukraine CrimeaBy now, some of you may have heard of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea. Crimea, which has officially been part of Ukraine, has been claimed by Russian forces. However, it doesn’t end there…

I’m not politician; I do not claim to be an expert in politics at all, but I’ll take a crack at it.

Aside from the conflict over Crimea, there has been developments in east Ukraine. As of earlier this month, Ukrainian Jews have been told they must ‘register’ the fact they are Jewish, or risk being deported. Jews been forced into ‘owning up’ to their faith? Sound familiar? This decision bears an uncanny resemblance to the beginning of Hitler’s term in power when the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (aka, the Nazis) gradually stripped Jewish people of their rights, before completing the transition into committing horrific acts against their Human Rights. Now, I’m not necessarily accusing Ukraine of setting up any labour camps, yet. BUT, you have to admit, that there is an uncomfortable similarity.

Vladamir PutinAlthough, hang on a minute, is this really Ukraine’s fault? Some sources beg to differ… An article in The Moscow Times quite explicitly suggests that Putin has quite a big hand in this. Some attacks that have taken place have heard victims being verbally assaulted in Russian, not Ukrainian. Being the amateur I am in the politics game, I don’t have a solution to present to you. I do, however, suggest that everyone scoots forwards onto the edges of their seats because we all want to see what goes down when forces unite against power-hungry Putin, which they will… I hope.

Donetsk's Anti-Semetic Flyer

To read more on what’s been happening with the anti-Semitic developments in east Ukraine, check out these links:,7340,L-4510688,00.html


Sentenced To Death For Being A Lesbian





Why Sweetener Won’t Kill You

