What is the females?

We explain what is the feminism, its differences with feminism and its relationship with machismo. In addition, the debate it raises.

1. What is the females?

Femalehood means sexual discrimination against men, by women . It is a neologism that is proposed as the inverse and opposite concept of machismo , and whose existence or even real possibility is currently debated.

In no case should it be confused with feminism , which is a critical school of thought that seeks equality between men and women, dismantling patriarchal thinking .

The use of this term has become popular in many contemporary discussions of gender equality and feminist claims, especially intense and visible during the second decade of the 21st century. It has been proposed as a radical correlate of machismo, that is, a form of exclusionary thinking exerted by women towards men.

It is understood as a response or retaliation for the traditional machismo of most human cultures. However, not all language and cultural institutions have admitted its use, nor have they incorporated it into formal or official speeches.

To cite two cases, in the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy it is not mentioned, but Professor Manuel Alvar Ezquerra, from the Complutense University of Madrid, defines femalehood as “sex discrimination, of a dominant nature, adopted by women”.

However, the term feminism was used in the 1960s by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, in his book The Male Domination . Paradoxically, the theoretician used it to refer to the excessively servile attitude that traditional macho culture assigns and imposes on women.

In other words, for Bourdieu, it consisted of a complementary concept of machismo: if the latter is the male domination of 

2. Debate on the female

The feminist criticism authorities claim that the feminism does not exist , but that it is a neologism created by certain conservative sectors that, denied to cede their sexist privileges. In other words, it is used to discredit the vindictive struggle of feminism, wanting to sell it as a supposed hatred of the entire masculine gender.

However, in other cases the term is used to refer to the existence of a radical feminism , as a way to separate it from less violent, more reformist currents, if desired.

The resurgence of feminism at the beginning of the 21st century has generated in some communities the idea that masculinity is under attack and that feminism would pursue an agenda to symbolically castrate men. The use of the term female as a “radical feminist” seems to arise from these sectors.

For example, it is frequently used in the neocon (neoconservative) or alt-right or alternative right movements, who accuse society of suffering an agenda of “cultural Marxism” that would threaten traditional Western values . One of the most famous voices of this type of collectivities is the Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson.

For most traditional academics, on the other hand, these types of claims are based only on the defense of the privileges of the conservative class and should not be taken seriously. The debate, however it is, is in force.