General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: There seems to be a lot of confusion about benevolent sexism. [View all]klook
(12,692 posts)The labyrinth of nuance and meta-upon-meta involved in the discussion of benevolent vs. ambivalent sexism is new to me, and, frankly, is making my head spin this tired and late afternoon at the end of a long week. I'm going to bookmark this Wikipedia article you linked to and finish reading it (and hopefully understanding it better) later. Very interesting stuff.
And yes, obsessing over questions that devolve into "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" kind of thinking certainly can drive good people away from movements. Some seem unable to stop their quest for purity until it has driven off all but a core of True Believers. Thus the process can ultimately become a maddening (though inadvertent) way of undermining a worthy cause.