Imagine a society structured around eye colour, where those with brown eyes dominated those with blue. Or organized around height, where whether you were shorter or taller than 4 ft 10 in. determined how you lived your life. We do not live in this society, but we do live in one where skin colour and biological sex have been determinants of our social structure. But why? These relationships all rely on the interaction of exploitation and oppression, domination and subordination; clearly they are unhealthy for many within them and yet …

MeToo/#MeToo has brought into sharp focus conversations about sexism; the very real sexism that affects women's (and men’s) lives; the sexism that characterizes the society in which we live; and the sexism that is perceived as ‘the natural order of things’ in the way in which our society is organized. To repoliticize sexism, we need to understand it. So what do we mean when we talk about sexism? The term sexism suggests discrimination based upon sex. This implies a biological difference between men and women. This might suggest sexism is a gender-neutral category, in the sense that sexism can apply to both men and women because it is grounded in biological difference. However, sexism is not located solely in biological difference but the power structures that result from this difference. These are power structures premised on masculine dominance and feminine subordination, and in turn are referred to as patriarchy.

The term sexism can be used to define experiences within these structures which are underpinned by female subordination and male power. Sexism as experienced can be the source of great psychological distress. Sexism as enacted strategy can also take the form of misogyny (a word that every woman needs to know how to spell!). Misogyny, interwoven with sexism, serves to reinforce this ‘natural order’ of a society constructed around the interests of the entitled, heterosexual, white male. In this chapter, I explore how the term sexism has come into being, the assumptions that underpin and have led to the construction of a society premised upon distinctions between men and women, and the ways in which this has become ‘naturalized’, established as a system of social order (patriarchy) and internalized. Once we make these distinctions visible, we can name them.