Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
sexism (n.), sexist (adj., n.)
Sexism, like racism and feminism (which see) and some other isms too, is a much-vexed and tormented term today. Its literal senses are “belief in the superiority or supremacy of one sex over the other,” “prejudice or discrimination against members of one sex,” or “the fostering of stereotyping of social roles for members of a given sex.” But the energy and vituperation that have controlled much of the term’s use, the nature of the issues it raises, and the attitudes involved in the programs people have devised to defeat (or defend) it have encrusted it with an emotional loading—almost wholly pejorative—that makes nearly impossible any use of the term sexism or the noun and adjective sexist in rational discussions. Both are so heavily governed by ideas of what is politically correct (which see) and the heat of the issues to which they refer that they are rarely usable as other than insulting epithets. This is true both of today’s overwhelming specialized senses of these words—prejudice and discrimination, etc., toward women—and of the rarer but still-encountered ideas of reverse discrimination and prejudice in these matters. Hence, except when we know we are addressing fellow believers, if we are to be able to discuss and treat the issues sexism raises, we must at present either control context sufficiently to neutralize these terms or give them up entirely in favor either of temporary and probably short-lived euphemistic substitutes or (a more cumbersome but probably more promising course) in favor of circumlocutory descriptions that avoid any whisper of name-calling.
