> 1. It's not "being born" but identifying with a group. Gender, race, sports team, etc. You're more likely to act favorably toward people in your group.

Gender is a performance, not a thing. You act in alignment with what you portray to others as your gender.

> 2. Clearly not everyone has the same opinion of what's sexist.

While this is true, the vast majority of disagreement about what sexism is are deflections that serve to discredit actual instances of sexism or to pretend that sexism doesn't happen.

> 3. If women were not "sensitive" to this, then they wouldn't be complaining so much. They are complaining, therefore I conclude that they are sensitive to it.

This is totally true, women are sensitive to sexist depictions of their gender that are objectifying. Who wouldn't be?

> 4. Women can be mean to other women, but why would they be sexist against women on purpose?

Sexism is more than just conscious actions taken against others, it is about cultural and social contexts and structures. The same misogynistic messages in our culture are heard by men and women and that means everyone is affected by them to some extent. Misogyny isn't limited to men against women, some women may have internalized misogyny: http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/10/20/internali...

> 5. Women being sexist to men is not relevant to this context. We're talking about treatment of women.

Women cannot be sexist against men in a systemic way. Advertising that objectifies men's bodies doesn't increase the rhetoric that devalues men nor does it contribute to a culture where sexual assault against men is the vast majority of occurrences.

I agree with you on points 1-3. I think your point 4 is not relevant; the question was about women being sexist on purpose and not just incidentally. Also in the situation in the article, the question is not whether the degradation was intentional, but rather whether there was any degradation at all.

Whether someone is sexist on purpose or not is irrelevant, it doesn't make things any less sexist. Often people will claim lack of knowledge when they do something that is sexist and use that as an accuse to continue engaging in sexist behavior, so its important to call out sexism regardless of how it occurs and for those responsible to make that apology and commit to recognizing that sexism.

As to whether or not this marketing event was degrading, the answer is quite clearly yes. Women's bodies were used as a marketing ploy to sell a product. Women's bodies as a commodity is a long running sexist theme in our society, including marketing. Commodify-ing women's bodies is dangerous and is directly related to violence against women. For an overview, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_objectification#Sexual_o...

The context here is someone claiming that women are less sexist than men simply /because/ they're women. I was responding to this one comment/sentiment, rather than to the thread as a whole.

#1, while I will accept that at face value you're more likely to root for the home team - I disagree with the unspoken assumption that that translates into less sexism.

#2, right, but even with that being the case we know enough about what sexism is to blanket say that an entire gender is less likely to conduct it?

#3, some women are complaining, some men are complaining about the reverse (e.g. /r/mensrights). Therefore using identical logic I can claim that because some men have complained about sexism that men are "less likely" than women to be sexist. See how that works (or doesn't)?

#4, because women are people and people are sexist? What is it you want me to explain? If someone calls something sexist and it was produced by a women, earlier discussion not withstanding, it is.

#5, women being sexist to ANYONE is entirely relevant to this discussion. The discussion is: "women are less sexist." Therefore ANY sexism on the part of a women is fair game.

Oh, OK, this is about some kind of misunderstanding upthread. I didn't mean that women are universally less sexist, but that including women on the team means the "message" of the booth is less likely to be offensive to women.