Chauvinism

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Chauvinism (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell) is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior.<ref name="Global politics">Template:Cite book</ref> The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes it as a form of "excessive and unreasonable" patriotism and nationalism, a fervent faith in national excellence and glory.<ref name="Chauvinism">Template:Cite web</ref>

In American English, the word, since 1940s,Template:Sfn has also come to be used in as a shorthand for male chauvinism, a trend reflected in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, which, as of 2018, began its first example of use of the term chauvinism with "an attitude of superiority toward members of the opposite sex".<ref name="quickanddirtytips.com">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite Merriam-Webster</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

As nationalism

According to legend, French soldier Nicolas Chauvin was badly wounded in the Napoleonic Wars and received a meager pension for his injuries. After Napoleon abdicated, Chauvin maintained his fanatical Bonapartist belief in the messianic mission of Imperial France, despite the unpopularity of this view under the Bourbon Restoration. His single-minded devotion to his cause, despite neglect by his faction and harassment by its enemies, started the use of the term.<ref name="Chauvinism" /> The French term had originated in the early 1830s, and spread into English language slowly, arriving in the United States in 1867.Template:Sfn

Chauvinism has extended from its original use to include fanatical devotion and undue partiality to any group or cause to which one belongs, especially when such partisanship includes prejudice against or hostility toward outsiders or rival groups and persists even in the face of overwhelming opposition.<ref name="Chauvinism" /><ref name="quickanddirtytips.com" /><ref name="oed.com">Template:Cite web</ref> This French quality finds its parallel in the English-language term jingoism, which has retained the meaning of chauvinism strictly in its original sense; that is, an attitude of belligerent nationalism.<ref name="oed.com" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1945, political theorist Hannah Arendt described the concept thus: Template:Blockquote

In this sense, chauvinism is irrational, in that no one can claim their nation or ethnic group to be inherently superior to another.<ref name="Global politics" />

A historical example of chauvinism from the century following Chauvin was the German-Jewish poet Ernst Lissauer, whose extreme nationalism after the outbreak of World War 1 included writing the "Hymn of Hate against England" (Template:Lang) in 1915.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As David Aberbach remarks, "There is nothing in modern Hebrew literature, however devoted to the cause of Jewish sovereignty, remotely comparable to the super-chauvinistic Hassgesang ('Hate Song for England')..."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Despite chauvinism's irrational roots, at the time, it was explicitly seen as almost obligatory for any German patriot. As Walther Rathenau commented just prior to the outbreak of the war, "Whoever loves his Fatherland may and should be something of a chauvinist."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Lissauer's poem was exceedingly popular, to the extent that it was praised by the Kaiser himself, and Lissauer's slogan "Template:Lang" was used as a daily greeting.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn However, whilst some German Jews did take the opportunity of the war to demonstrate their patriotism, Lissauer was an extremist, and in contrast many other German Jews disagreed with Lissauer and the way that mainstream opinion had shifted.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The Christianity-centric imagery used to document the Template:Lang by authors such as Walter Flex alienated Jewish soldiers.Template:Sfn Whereas Lissauer attempted to sign up as a soldier (but was rejected as unfit) as soon as war broke out, then penned the poem, and in the words of Stefan Zweig considered everything published by the German newspapers and army to be "gospel truth" and Edward Grey to be "the worst criminal".Template:Sfn The last lines of the poem read:Template:Sfn

<poem>
We love as one, we hate as one, We have one foe and one alone — ENGLAND!Template:Sfn
</poem>

Male chauvinism

Template:See also Male chauvinism is the belief that men are superior to women. The closely related terms are male supremacy, male oppression, and patriarchy.Template:Sfn It becomes an insult in the male chauvinist pig variation.

History

While the first variation of the English term chauvinism, "literary chauvinism", appeared in 1888,Template:Sfn the growing popularity of variations is attributed to the American Communist Party that stressed the "white chauvinism" and "male chauvinism"Template:Sfn in the early 1930s ("white chauvinism" dates back to the "Resolution on the Negro Question" of 1930). At this time the brief term "chauvinism" frequently was used to designate the white chauvinism.Template:Sfn The term "male sex chauvinism" appeared in the New York Times (NYT) in 1934,Template:Sfn while the form "male chauvinism" is first documented in the 1935 Clifford Odets play Till the Day I Die<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> to reflect a pattern of patronizingly claiming the superiority of males, "You and your male chauvinism!".Template:Sfn Outside the Communist party, the term was very rarely used for the next 30 years (about one mention in NYT every three years). At the same time, the "male chauvinism" term was regularly used in the Communist press in the US, where the "chauvinism" now standing for both white chauvinism and male chauvinism.Template:Sfn The party sanctions against male chauvinists were employed, but were less severe than the ones against white chauvinists.Template:Sfn

The second coming of the male chauvinist term in 1969 is associated with the women's liberation movement. This time it became widespread (130 articles in NYT used the term in 1972 alone). "Male chauvinist pig" quickly followed in 1970 and, useful for teasing and impossible for the target to interpret is as a joke, it turned out easier for activists to adopt, becoming a vogue word or even an early meme (the rate of its spread can be compared to that of "groovy").Template:Sfn

By the early 1990s 63% of Chicago women acknowledged calling someone a "male chauvinist pig". 58% of the women who did not self-identify as feminists, and did 56% of conservatives among them, 60% of non-voters, and 51% of African Americans. For comparison, much fewer women at the time used the word "sexist".Template:Sfn The phrase was spreading through both everyday talk and the mass media.Template:Sfn

In the workplace

The balance of the workforce changed during World War II. As men entered or were conscripted into the military to fight in the war, women started replacing them. After the war ended, men returned home to find jobs in the workplace now occupied by women, which "threatened the self-esteem many men derive from their dominance over women in the family, the economy, and society at large."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Consequently, male chauvinism was on the rise, according to Cynthia B. Lloyd.<ref name="Lloyd, Cynthia B. 1975">Lloyd, Cynthia B., ed. Sex, Discrimination, and the Division of Labor. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975. Print.</ref>

Lloyd and Michael Korda have argued that as they integrated back into the workforce, men returned to predominate, holding positions of power while women worked as their secretaries, usually typing dictations and answering telephone calls. This division of labor was understood and expected, and women typically felt unable to challenge their position or male superiors, argue Korda and Lloyd.<ref name="Lloyd, Cynthia B. 1975"/><ref name="Korda, Michael 1973">Michael Korda, Male Chauvinism! How It Works. New York: Random House, 1973. Print.</ref>

Causes

Template:See also Chauvinist assumptions are seen by some as a bias in the TAT psychological personality test. Through cross-examinations, the TAT exhibits a tendency toward chauvinistic stimuli for its questions and has the "potential for unfavorable clinical evaluation" for women.<ref>Potkay, Charles R., Matthew R. Merrens. Sources of Male Chauvinism in the TAT. Journal of Personality Assessment, 39.5 (1975): 471-479. Web. 31 January 2012.</ref>

An often cited study done in 1976 by Sherwyn Woods, "Some Dynamics of Male Chauvinism", attempts to find the underlying causes of male chauvinism.

Template:BlockquoteAdam Jukes argues that a reason for male chauvinism is masculinity itself:

For the vast majority of people all over the world, the mother is a primary carer...There's an asymmetry in the development of boys and girls. Infant boys have to learn how to be masculine. Girls don't. Masculinity is not in a state of crisis. Masculinity is a crisis. I don't believe misogyny is innate, but I believe it's inescapable because of the development of masculinity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Female chauvinism

Template:See also Female chauvinism is the belief that women are superior to men.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Second-wave feminist Betty Friedan observed that "...the assumption that women have any moral or spiritual superiority as a class is [...] female chauvinism."<ref>Friedan, Betty. 1998. It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women's Movement. Harvard University Press</ref> Ariel Levy used the term in her book Female Chauvinist Pigs, in which she argues that many young women in the United States and beyond are replicating male chauvinism and older misogynist stereotypes.<ref>Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, Ariel Levy, 2006, Template:ISBN</ref>