Making sense of everyday sexism: Young people and the gendered contours of sexism

Abstract

Synopsis Many feminist scholars have traced the discursive effects of postfeminism with concern, noting how its ascendency has made sexism difficult to name and to challenge. As feminist critiques of persistent, pervasive gender inequalities trickle into media and popular consciousness, we ask whether and how possibilities for identifying and accounting for sexism might be transformed. We draw from an action-oriented research project that explored whether (and how) feminist ideas offered secondary school students critical purchase on their everyday experiences. Participants described copious examples of everyday sexism directed at women and girls but very few instances of “sexism” towards men and boys. Even so, interviewees often spoke about sexism in ways that prioritised boys' and men's experiences while downplaying sexism towards girls and women. In this article we explore how young people made sense of sexism around them, attending to the discursive effects of their talk.