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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microaggression | 3/7 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microaggression | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:13:14.791929+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Gender ===
Gender microaggressions may replace more blatant forms of sexism and gender discrimination when a society evolves sufficiently for those forms of outright prejudice to be deemed no longer acceptable. For instance, explicit sexism in the society of the US is on the decline, but still exists in a variety of subtle and non-subtle expressions. Women encounter microaggressions in which they are made to feel inferior, sexually objectified, and bound to restrictive gender roles, both in the workplace and in academia, as well as in athletics. Microaggressions against sexual and gender minority people and cisgender women share many common themes.
Influential early studies on gender microaggressions documented common themes across incidents. The themes are sexual objectification, treatment as an invisible or second-class citizen, assuming inferiority, denying the reality of sexism, assuming traditional gender roles, using sexist language, denying one's own sexism, and systemic or environmental issues. As one example, when one employer paid women less than men for the same work, it sent the message that the company believed women were less smart or capable than men, fitting the themes of second-class citizen and environmental mistreatment. Researchers continue to draw out further themes for classifying gender microaggressions, like expectations for people's appearances.
Gender microaggressions fit into the three types of microaggressions: microassault, microinsult, and microinvalidation. Catcalling is a form of sexual objectification and gendered slurs are a use of sexist language, but both could be classified as blatant, likely conscious, acts of microassault. Overlooking women for physical tasks, which signals an assumption that women are weak, has a theme of assuming inferiority: this can be considered a microinsult due to its more subtle insulting message. Dismissing an employee's complaint of a coworker's sexist behavior can be a form of denying the reality of sexism, and also a microinvalidation. However, researchers have debated how the frameworks of gender microaggressions, sexual harassment, and sexual assault intersect. Behaviors classified as gender microassaults frequently overlap with harassment and assault, so labeling them as microassaults may thus be confusing and invalidating.
Some examples of gender microaggressions are "[addressing someone by using] a sexist name, a man refusing to wash dishes because it is 'women's work,' displaying nude pin-ups of women at places of employment, someone making unwanted sexual advances toward another person". Microaggressions based on gender are applied to female athletes when their abilities are compared only to men, when they are judged on "attractiveness", and when they are restricted to "feminine" or sexually attractive attire during competition. Some of the most-studied environmental microaggressions include biased media portrayals of women, gender disparities in leadership across society or for a career, and overheard everyday discriminatory messages. Makin and Morczek use the term gendered microaggression to refer to male interest in violent rape pornography.
Microaggressions specifically targeting transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people are documented in a growing body of studies, usually involving interviews with transgender people about their experiences. One 2012 study documented a set of themes that commonly occur in these microaggressions: the use of transphobic or misgendering language, threatening or harassing behaviors, assuming a stereotypical trans experience, exoticizing, pathologizing, or disapproving of trans people, assuming roles based on the gender binary, denying that transphobia exists or denying one's own transphobic actions, and invading bodily privacy. One theme centers around family settings, where family members may refuse to use a trans person's pronouns or the name that aligns with their gender identity. A 2014 study noted another theme among microaggressions towards trans people, where the perpetrator questions the legitimacy of a gender identity or invalidates the target's specific gender identity.
Some studies suggest that the microaggressions a trans person experiences from their friends tend to vary depending on the sexuality and gender identity of their friend. Microaggressions coming from trans friends may involve invalidating someone's trans identity or questioning their authenticity as a trans person, and these may be the most distressing microaggressions because of the similar identity of the friend. Microaggressions coming from queer friends who aren't trans may feel disappointing because the friend is in a relatedly marginalized group but still committed the behavior. Microaggressions from straight cisgender friends often follow the set of general themes of microaggressions towards trans people, and these occur much more frequently than microaggressions from queer friends.
Systemic microaggressions targeting trans people frequently happen in the context of public restrooms, the criminal justice system, emergency healthcare, and government IDs. Sociologists Sonny Nordmarken and Reese Kelly (2014) identified trans-specific microaggressions that transgender people face in healthcare settings, which include pathologization, sexualization, rejection, invalidation, exposure, isolation, intrusion, and coercion.
=== Sexuality and sexual orientation ===