Reverse sexism
Template:Use dmy datesTemplate:Short description Template:See Wiktionary Template:Masculism sidebar Reverse sexism is a controversial term for discrimination against men and boys, or for anti-male prejudice.<ref name="Suedfeld p321">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Johnson p170">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Neely 1981">Template:Cite journal</ref> The term has been used to claim that men have become the primary victims of sexism.<ref name="Roden 2022">Template:Cite journal</ref> Specifically, opponents of affirmative action argue that men and boys are systematically discriminated against in employment and school admissions.<ref name="Masequesmay 2008">Template:Multiref2</ref>
Reverse sexism has been compared by sociologists to the concepts of "reverse racism" and "reverse ethnocentrism" in that both are a form of backlash by members of dominant groups (e.g., men, whites, or Anglos).<ref name="Renfrow 2013">Template:Cite book</ref> Reverse sexism is rebutted by analogy with the criticism of reverse racism as a response to affirmative action policies that are designed to combat institutionalized sexism and racism.<ref name="Garcia 1977">Template:Cite book</ref> In more rigid forms, this stance assumes that the historic power imbalance in favor of men has been reversed,<ref>Template:Cite journalTemplate:Full</ref> and that women are now viewed as the superior gender or sex.<ref name="Collins p14">Template:Cite book</ref>
Feminist theorist Florence Rush characterizes the idea of reverse sexism specifically as a misogynist reaction to feminism; men's rights activists such as Warren Farrell promote the idea of reverse sexism to argue that the feminist movement has rearranged society in such a way that it now benefits women and harms men.<ref name="Rush 1984">Template:Cite book</ref> In the preamble to a study on internalized sexism, Steve Bearman, Neill Korobov and Avril Thorne describe reverse sexism as a "misinformed notion", stating that "while individual women or women as a whole may enact prejudicial biases towards specific men or toward men as a group, this is done without the backing of a societal system of institutional power".<ref name="Bearman et al 2009">Template:Cite journal</ref>