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Chauvinism is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior. It can be described as a form of extreme
patriotism Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
and
nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
, a fervent faith in national excellence and glory. In English, the word has come to be used in some quarters as shorthand for
male chauvinism Chauvinism is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior. It can be described as a form of extreme patriotism ...
, a trend reflected in ''
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary ''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843), as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's ...
'', which, as of 2018, begins its first example of use of the term ''chauvinism'' with "an attitude of superiority toward members of the opposite sex".


As nationalism

According to legend, French soldier Nicolas Chauvin was badly wounded in the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...
and received a meager pension for his injuries. After
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
abdicated, Chauvin maintained his fanatical Bonapartist belief in the messianic mission of Imperial France, despite the unpopularity of this view under the
Bourbon Restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to: France under the House of Bourbon: * Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815) Spain under the Spanish Bourbons: * Ab ...
. His single-minded devotion to his cause, despite neglect by his faction and harassment by its enemies, started the use of the term. ''Chauvinism'' has extended from its original use to include fanatical devotion and undue partiality to any group or cause to which one belongs, especially when such partisanship includes prejudice against or hostility toward outsiders or rival groups and persists even in the face of overwhelming opposition. This French quality finds its parallel in the English-language term ''
jingoism Jingoism is nationalism in the form of aggressive and proactive foreign policy, such as a country's advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national int ...
'', which has retained the meaning of ''chauvinism'' strictly in its original sense; that is, an attitude of belligerent nationalism. In 1945, political theorist
Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...
described the concept thus: In this sense, chauvinism is irrational, in that no one can claim their nation or ethnic group to be inherently superior to another. An example of a modern-day English nationalist extreme enough to be considered a chauvinist is Nigel Farage.


Male chauvinism

Male chauvinism is the belief that men are superior to
women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...
. The first documented use of the phrase "male chauvinism" is in the 1935 Clifford Odets play ''
Till the Day I Die ''Till the Day I Die'' is a play by Clifford Odets performed on Broadway in 1935. Description The play is a seven-scene drama written by Clifford Odets. It was originally written as a piece to accompany ''Waiting for Lefty''. Productions It w ...
''.


In the workplace

The balance of the
workforce The workforce or labour force is a concept referring to the pool of human beings either in employment or in unemployment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic reg ...
changed during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. As men entered or were conscripted into the military to fight in the war, women started replacing them. After the war ended, men returned home to find jobs in the workplace now occupied by women, which "threatened the self-esteem many men derive from their dominance over women in the family, the economy, and society at large." Consequently, male chauvinism was on the rise, according to Cynthia B. Lloyd.Lloyd, Cynthia B., ed. ''Sex, Discrimination, and the Division of Labor''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975. Print. Lloyd and Michael Korda have argued that as they integrated back into the workforce, men returned to predominate, holding positions of power while women worked as their secretaries, usually typing dictations and answering telephone calls. This division of labor was understood and expected, and women typically felt unable to challenge their position or male superiors, argue Korda and Lloyd. Michael Korda, ''Male Chauvinism! How It Works''. New York: Random House, 1973. Print.


Causes

Chauvinist assumptions are seen by some as a bias in the TAT psychological personality test. Through cross-examinations, the TAT exhibits a tendency toward chauvinistic stimuli for its questions and has the "potential for unfavorable clinical evaluation" for women. An often cited study done in 1976 by Sherwyn Woods, Some Dynamics of Male Chauvinism, attempts to find the underlying causes of male chauvinism. Adam Jukes argues that a reason for male chauvinism is
masculinity Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors ...
itself:
For the vast majority of people all over the world, the mother is a primary carer...There’s an asymmetry in the development of boys and girls. Infant boys have to learn how to be masculine. Girls don’t. Masculinity is not in a state of crisis. Masculinity is a crisis. I don’t believe
misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practice ...
is innate, but I believe it’s inescapable because of the development of masculinity.


Female chauvinism

Female chauvinism is the belief that women are superior to men. Second-wave feminist
Betty Friedan Betty Friedan ( February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book '' The Feminine Mystique'' is often credited with sparking the se ...
observed that "...the assumption that women have any moral or spiritual superiority as a class is ..female chauvinism." Ariel Levy used the term in her book '' Female Chauvinist Pigs'', in which she argues that many young women in the United States and beyond are replicating male chauvinism and older misogynist
stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for exampl ...
s.''Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture'', Ariel Levy, 2006,


See also

*
American exceptionalism American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is inherently different from other nations.Avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...
* Blind nationalism *
Carbon chauvinism Carbon chauvinism is a neologism meant to disparage the assumption that the chemical processes of hypothetical extraterrestrial life must be constructed primarily from carbon (organic compounds) because as far as we know, carbon's chemical and ...
* Great Russian chauvinism * Han chauvinism * National symbolism *
Planetary chauvinism Planetary chauvinism is a term to describe a commonly held belief that human society will always be planet-based (even if extended beyond Earth), and overlooks or ignores the potential benefits of space-based living. It's thought to be coined ...
*
Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
*
Sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers pri ...
*
Social chauvinism Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...
* Supremacism * Welfare chauvinism


References


Further reading

Huddy, Leonie; Del Ponte, Alessandro. (2019)
''National Identity, Pride, and Chauvinism—their Origins and Consequences for Globalization Attitudes''.
In
Liberal Nationalism and Its Critics: Normative and Empirical Questions
' (eds) Gina Gustavsson, David Miller. Oxford: Oxford Academic, pp. 38–56. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198842545.003.0003 Tuchowski, Andrzej. (2017). ''Nationalism, Chauvinism and Racism as Reflected in European Musical Thought and in Compositions from the Interwar Period.'' Bern: Peter Lang. ISBN 9783631787274.


External links


The Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism
(ASEN) *
Nostalgic Nationalism, Welfare Chauvinism, and Migration Anxieties in Central and Eastern Europe
' at th
Lund University Research Portal
{{Authority control Prejudices