I saw an image of the Charlottesville “alt-right” protest and didn’t see a single woman in the crowd - just a sea of white men.
Why does it seem like women are less racist than men? Is it possible they’re more likely to sympathize with minorities because they’re the minority gender? Is it the higher empathy quotient? Does the ideology of white supremacism appeal more to the male mind?
They’re home, shoeless and pregnant.* Baking stuff. Keeping the home fires burning like a good woman should.
*Not that there’s anything wrong with this.
Actually there were some women there. They were blonde. One of them in particular was yelling racist epithets. But yeah, lots of guys. Really, I would like to think that women have better sense, but I’m kind of afraid their men just won’t let them, and they agree to that.
I don’t think women are less racist, or in general less extremist, than men; either by numbers or by level. But we are less likely to go about it in a way that involves physical violence.
-isms involve a high level of irrationality. Lots of people belong to an ideology that goes against their own benefit, or even existence: nazi simpathizers who would have been considered “of impure blood” or whose religion would have made them suspect, nativists who are married to immigrants or the children of immigrants, and so forth. You’re looking for a rational response where there is none.
There are some. Not a lot, because that particular brand of idiocy goes hand-in-hand with more … conservative attitudes to the roles of women. But some.
Women are a minority?
Not really in a numerical sense, but in the sense of being a marginalized group, yes. Just like black people in apartheid South Africa were a minority despite being the numerical majority.
Racism and sexism go hand in hand. If you’re dumb enough to believe you’re better than other people because you have white skin, you’re probably also dumb enough to believe you’re better than other people because you have a penis.
So a lot of those white supremacists are also male supremacists. Which means a lot of them are failures at relationships. Think about how long it’s been since some of these guys got laid and you can see where the hostility is coming from.
There are going to be some of them who beat the odds and find a woman. But if the woman doesn’t agree with the man’s ideology the relationship isn’t going to last. And if the woman does believe in the man’s ideology, she’s doing what that ideology tells her she should be doing: staying home.
This month’s Harpers Magazine cover story is: Women of the Alt-Right. https://harpers.org/archive/2017/09/ It attempts to answer the OP’s question.
I’ve never heard Black South Africans referred to as a minority before. Oppressed, sure, but never minority. This usage may be idiosyncratic to you.
In fact, during the apartheid regime in South Africa (and even more so during the Ian Smith regime in neighbouring Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe), the term “majority rule” was used as the antonym for apartheid: “Majority rule” was understood as a political system in which all ethnic groups within the country would have equal political rights, which, given the demographics, was understood to result in a government led by black politicians. The apartheid regime, in contrast, was dubbed “white minority rule”. It was not common to regard the black population as a minority.
A lot of irrational male behavior is driven by high testosterone levels. Or by bitterness that their testosterone level isn’t high.
Women are more likely to be comfortable with their testosterone levels.
My WAG is that if you want to start a violent extremist movement you target disaffected young men who feel they’re not getting the jobs, success, and women they deserve. They’ve got lots of free time, they’re easily led, and they’re more likely to hit somebody than, say, men in their 40’s or young women or any other large demographic segment. Too many historical examples to count.
There are plenty of white nationalist women, but I do think there is a gender disparity.
The white nationalist movement is motivated in large part by a perceived or threatened loss of social status. They fear going from being the top dog to being one part of an equal and multicultural nation. That ideology is more motivating to white men because white men are at the top of the social status pyramid.
Why are there women in religions that don’t think women are good enough to lead them?
White supremacist women “know their place” as second class citizens.
Men are over represented at the extremes of almost everything. There are more men who are terrorists, murderers, Neo-Nazis, violent schizophrenics, and other bad things but also more men who are CEOs, inventors, and nobel prize winners. This is called the male variability hypothesis.
Moved to Great Debates.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Women are less likely to gravitate to the political extremes in general and are more temperamentally ‘conservative’ than men. They’re less likely to be ethnic nationalist and also less likely to be communists.
I’ve heard of it, too. I first encountered it exactly as used in this thread, in calling women a minority. I believe it is used because there is exactly one group in the U.S. that seems to actually fit that isn’t a literal minority, and it makes it easier to just talk about minorities instead of always saying “women and minorities.”
You can just Google women as a minority to see it used all the time.
I admit I’ve never heard it applied to South Africa, but I never really hear much about that anymore, anyways. Americans seem to focus on how it affects America, and Americans seem to to be the ones on the forefront of minority studies.
“Why is it the greatest champions of the white race always turn out to be the worst examples of it?” (Garth Ennis)
The contemporary white supremacy movement is very much rooted in a sense of being an embattled group, under siege from all sides. They claim a desire to “take back the country” from the interlopers they perceive as having illegitimately assumed control. In their minds, most of these people belong to minority ethnic or religious groups. But there is also a deep sense of male rage against women, especially (but not limited to) women in positions of power and authority. The anxiety around feminism and fear of (metaphorical) emasculation constitute a significant part of their rhetoric. So it is not surprising that the movement is heavily weighed toward male participation.
Of course, some women follow this ideology as well. It’s hardly the first or only time that some people have chosen to identify with a philosophy that is directly opposed to their own interests.