Category: Gender

Is Buddhism Sexist?

The short answer is yes. Buddhism has always been sexist.

But the core principles of Buddhism should prevent sexism or any kind of judgement based on forms and appearances. So are there just a bunch of people doing Buddhism really badly?

In Florence Caplow and Susan Moon’s carefully curated selection of Zen koans, The Hidden Lamp, Rita M Gross concisely outlines the prevalence of sexism and misogyny in traditional and contemporary Buddhism:

Vajrayana Buddhists in Tibet also believe, in common with many Asian Buddhists, that it is impossible to attain full enlightenment in a woman’s body and that being born female is unfortunate. That tells us a lot about what women have had to go through!

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“It’s women’s fault that we’re terrible men”

Even before the recent Gillette ad (and the backlash it sparked from angry “men’s rights activists” who felt personally attacked by the assertion that some men are not good role models), I was seeing this little gem being copied around on twitter:

“In America 43% of boys are raised by single women. 78% of teachers are female. So almost half of the boys have 100% female influence at home, and 80% female influence at school. Between 2009 and 2011 children from single parent households (overwhelmingly single mothers) accounted for 80% of rapists motivated by displaced anger. Toxic masculinity is not the problem. Lack of masculinity is. Meaning, we need more intact families.”

This has appeared on my twitter feed dozens of times, and now it is also being propagated on Facebook.

Let me first summarise what it’s saying, then debunk the stats, and finally expose the motives behind it.

Continue reading ““It’s women’s fault that we’re terrible men”” →