The human world is made up of the relationships that people have with one another. These relationships play out every single day, in each of our dealings with another person. More insidiously, much behaviour isn’t consciously thought-out and chosen because it is the best, or most loving action. Most behaviour is chosen because it is ‘easiest’ or more logical. Logical because we’ve seen in played out before by parents and others who’ve dealt with those situations before.
There are some people who are overtly racist or sexist. But they aren’t usually a problem for anarchists, because anarchists know to reject overt racism and sexim. It just isn’t on to tell a woman to ‘get in the kitchen’ in anarchist circles. But there are more subtle forms of sexism that do make it into all relationships, no matter how vigilant. This is because sexism is ingrained in this society, and we learn it from the time we are born. This can be difficult to acknowledge, confront and accept, as Chris Crass documents in his article Going Places That Scare Me. Crass uncovers an important aspect of sexism: it is not about gender, it is about power and for some reason, men have it and women don’t. Though that power is often unconscious and unsought, it is no less tangible because of this.
Sexism is an action that is repeated and repeated without being caught by the actor. The only way to beat it is to be open to admitting it.
