I cant really decide how to start this post, and I don't wanna sound like I think im definitely correct in anything I currently think, so I guess Ill just ramble off..

So, It's never sat right with me to call conservatives misandrist and misogynist. I disagree with them on everything, but their beliefs come from perceived differences; not hate or a notion of total across the board superiority of one of the sexes over the other. but I would say that to say men are inherently more cabable, or women are inherently less violent, or men are inherently less moral, or any other gender essentialist view of theirs IS sexism, but total superiority is clearly a different thing.

So.. sexism seems poorly defined, and maybe "racism" is poorly defined too.

heres what im thinking.. there should be a distinction between racism that:

sees different ethnicities as which are superior (like nazis), or i guess seeing ethnicities as indicators of how human a person really is (asians are monkeys, etc)

vs

Racism that sees all races as equally human and deserving of human rights (vague as that is), but inherently different, and sometimes deserving of different rights. "Asians are just better at math, but theyre cowardly" "black people are less intelligent, but more athletic". I cant think of examples on how their rights would differ legally, but socially I can.

both are obviously awful, but a distinction makes sense to me, because only one really involves racial superiority, and it makes it easier to more constructively view and understand other similar domains like sexism

for the first, it would be understandable they might treat some ethnicities as cattle. for the latter it would be understandable for someone to have a family member who has a different race relative who they love, and see as human, but just an inherently different type of human and apply generalizations to them and treat them differently (but not necessarily worse) because of it.

sexism, specifically conservative sexism, is only the latter. I think defining the difference between superiority racism/sexism and asymmetry racism/sexism would be important.

it just seems.. useful to make the distinction. I cannot argue that sexism doesnt exist in conservative ideology (saying mothers should be the primary parent, or only men should go to war does feel right to define as sexism), but I can argue that conservative gender ideology is mostly, if not only, asymmetry sexism.

Now we'd have a useful analogy (not racism, but 'asymmetry racism'), and can express thoughts more clearly.. saying youre for racial equality can mean you wish to abolish racial superiority, and saying youre an advocate for racial symmetry can mean you wish to abolish racial asymmetry (both are obviously not mutually exclusive), and the same about sexism, and better deconstruct conservative idology.

For now, Ill prefer calling myself a gender symmetry advocate, primarily, and a gender equality advocate secondarily, only due to feminism being such a huge thing, and that group being the only close to gender superiority thought. the latter is just too vague, and gender being a pure, unidirectional prejudice and having a tendency to regard an entire gender as subhuman in the same way racial superiority might just doesnt seem like it was ever a major thing in society, but maybe just something edge case chauvanists think. Gender symmetry would mean disagreeing with conservative ideas around gender.

does that make sense? I dont know how to organize my thoughts more concisely, but am I missing anything obvious?