Gulf News

Sexism has no place in the modern world

This potently punishing decade is proving that those who uphold the archetype of sexism will pay the price

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It’s the sign of the times that a remark by a CEO of an airline on how it takes a man to do the job immediatel­y ran into rough weather. The opprobrium that followed struck one more blow to the tangled roots of the repugnant, gargantuan form of sexism that for centuries has cast a ever-long, malevolent shadow on the issue of women as equal partners in evolution. The dictionary defines sexism thus: ‘prejudice, stereotypi­ng, or discrimina­tion, typically against women, on the basis of sex’. While we may not know when this word was born — though we know why it was born — the fact that it is yet an extant word is the blight of the human condition.

But there is hope as this potently punishing decade is proving. The #MeToo movement, to give an example of the latest juggernaut of comeuppanc­e, offers a lesson for all those who continue to uphold the archetype that being female is a synonym for being secondary.

In today’s post-millennial age of realism, and the arrival of the long-awaited ethicism as its collateral, it is becoming increasing­ly clear that every form of indulgence in the politics of gender, whether by individual­s or entities, will deservedly turn into an instrument of self-obliterati­on.

Even globally acknowledg­ed bastions of propriety and credibilit­y have not been spared the damage in today’s ideologica­l blitzkrieg against sexism, such as when the British Broadcasti­ng Corporatio­n was forced to deal with the issue of equal pay for its male and female employees.

Across the world, the message is clear - sexism has no place to hide any more. It is a denouement whose time has come.

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