Second, sexism is prejudice and dsicrimination based on gender, period. That's the damned definition. What you're saying is the same saying that racism isn't bad, up to a point.
Then I shouldn't have used the word "sexism", prejudice and discrimination is wrong no matter on what it's based. But men and women are different, both physically and behaviourally. However, that doesn't mean that they should be judged differently, and they aren't; people are intelligent enough to understand that.
Except that many people don't see women and men as equal. This is why being feminine for a man is bad, and why being gay is bad. It's because feminie traits are perceived as weak. That isn't equal. That's sexist.
In my experience, many people do see women and men as equal. It's the feminists and the "Neanderthals" that don't see women and men as equal; one group wants both genders to be the same (which is physically impossible), and the other wants both to be as far apart from each other as possible (which is mentally impossible). Both are wrong, but they do not constitute a majority of the population. As such, feminine traits are not perceived as weak, they are perceived as different to masculine traits. And in essence, that's exactly what they are.
This is absurd. A woman who looks frumpy or lacks in what society deems attractive is going to get a lot more shit than a guy who falls in the same category. Likewise, a woman who is into sports and other traditionally male activities isn't going to endure the same criticism as a boy who behaves in a feminine manner and pursues feminine activities.
No, what you state is absurd. A woman who looks frumpy is going to get exactly the amount of shit a guy is going to get who fails in the same category. Years ago, guys who cared for their looks were still called "metrosexual". Nowadays, it's the norm. Both women and men are expected to care as much for their looks as for their behavior. If you experience otherwise, perhaps you're not mingling among the right people. As another example, when I was in primary school, it was expected of me to play soccer, instead of doing gymnastics. Nowadays, about half of those who play soccer are girls and half of those who do gymnastics are boys. There's no prejudice about such things anymore.
I call bullshit. A word is as good or as negative as the intentions of the person using it as well as the history behind that word. White people still can't use "nigger" -- even when singing along to a song or something equally as innocent -- because of the negative history of that word. Likewise, attempting to break "gay" from its association with homosexuality is pretty insulting, particularly when the word is being used in a negative light during a period when the GLBT community is still struggling for its civil rights.
Over here, white people can and do use "nigger". There isn't such a distinction as the United States obviously has, where only black people are allowed to call each other "nigger". Now, it depends on the context if "nigger" is derogatory. Just as it depends on the context if "white" is derogatory and just as "gay" can (but doesn't have to) be derogatory, depending on the context.
Besides, the gay community isn't struggling for it's civil rights over here; gays can marry, gays can adopt children and generally, a few points not withstanding, a homosexual couple are regarded, by law, as exactly the same as a heterosexual couple. Now there are still problems, but they are of the same nature as, for example, being a lone father, which in practice still doesn't work out the same as when you're a lone mother.
And people don't have to break "gay" from it's association with homosexuals, it already is. When people say "gay", they mean "feminine guy". Or they mean "stupid", or "ugly" or any other word which often is meant while using something else. Just as people mean "masculine girl" when they say "lesbian", unless they mean something different. When you mean to indicate homosexuality, you should not use the words gay or lesbian, since they don't indicate what you mean. You should use the word "homosexual"; that's what the word's for. Now, that should also go for meanings like "stupid" or "ugly" -- but then, people jumble words like that up all the time. "Gay" and "Lesbian" aren't the only words that get misused in place of "stupid" or "ugly", by far. If you call someone a "retard", you're not saying he's got Down Syndrome, even though that was the original definition of the word. If you call someone an "idiot", you're pointing out a deficiency in their actions, not their IQ.
Every word changes constantly. English isn't the same as it was 200 years ago, and it won't be the same 200 years from now. As such, one should not hold on to original definitions of a word, but what the definition becomes in the minds of the general population. That's also the reason why dictionaries are updated, you know.
edit: It wasn't making much sense due to a few wrong words. Spell checking only goes so far when it suggests the wrong words and you're not paying attention.
