As I stated in the Introduction, it is difficult to analyse sexism in the way that Second Wave feminists did in the past, because of changes in gender relations and in sexism itself. However, it is nevertheless important to be able to describe the forms that overt sexism takes, since it is clear that sexism does make an impact on the lives of women and men. There have been changes in the way that people use language in the public sphere so that sexist language and other discriminatory forms of language are no longer tolerated, or at least are less tolerated than they were. However, it seems as if it is no longer possible to agree on what constitutes overt sexism, even when it is clear to the hearer/reader that sexism was intended. Pauwels (1998: 67) notes:

Whilst people still use language to be sexist, they perhaps do not always do so using the terms which have been used in the past and they may use these terms ironically or humorously to deflect the responsibility for sexism (see Chapter 5). Most models of sexism in the past have assumed that sexism is intentional; as Zwicky (1997: 25) argues: ‘By their choice of words, people are actively negotiating conceptualisations as personal and political acts.’