It relates to sexism but a lot of the bias in reporting has to do with individual bias. Because gender identity is given such a strong importance in our society men are more likely to pay attention to incidents involving men and women more likely to pay attention to incidents involving women. As one poster mentioned about 3/4s of writers at infoshop are men. The problem is that men are more likely to get involved in activism than women. Men are encouraged to take a more active role in society than women, though those attitudes aren't as bad as they used to. Men and women socialize these ideas and so women are less likely to take interest in activism.

Also, the problem of racism is more discussed and recognized on the left than sexism, so any individual bias towards reporting on victims of one's own race is countered by this heightened awareness of racism. Sexism is often taken for granted. Even where it is considered a problem people tend to mentally associate "police brutality" with "racism" and "wage inequality" or "sexual harrassment" with sexism. If the situation were reversed, if sexism was considered a worse problem than racism we'd see more stories about incidents about white women.

Sexism does tend to be behind the attitudes that enable crimes like rape and spousal abuse. However, these crimes do happen to men and are sometimes committed by women, rarely but they do. I doubt that the women that do these crimes are motivated by sexism, and in same-sex cases I doubt the perpetrators are motivated by self-sexism. I think sadism and a desire for dominance over others is the major motivator for these kinds of crimes. But sexism does make it easier for men to feel ok acting on those impulses against women, and for women to accept it or blame themselves for it.

http://freenj4.wordpress.com/

Inherent

I hate to be the butt-disease who links to the dictionary on a message board, but in this case it's important. Did you know that there are bourgeois commentators who actually argue that revolutionary leftism is "inherently" sexist, in the proper sense of the word? When I clicked this thread I thought for sure that was what I was in for.

Anyway it turns out the topic starter was making solid, important criticisms and is understandably disheartened; the left is sexist, more sexist that it is racist, nationalist or anything else. Misogyny is by far the oldest form of intra-social chauvinism on earth; male-supremacist ideologies are much more pervasive than any other form of reaction that comes to mind. We're all breathing it.

That the left is the least sexist corner of the political arena, though true, isn't saying much at all. I wouldn't blame you for abandoning all other leftist concerns and focusing solely on the struggle against patriarchy; a good argument can be made that, given its pervasiveness and, uh, venerability, sexual oppression is the real "primary contradiction" in every society. If anyone hasn't read The Dialectic of Sex, I recommend it as one of the best arguments to this effect; it definitely had me convinced for quite a while.

Over time, for various reasons related to practice and experience, I became increasingly dissatisfied with theories that relied on patriarchy as the framework for all other forms of oppression, and had already been burned by the alternative: the stupid, intentionally-isolated struggle that puts feminists at odds with persons (women!) of color, workers etc.

Uh I guess I'm just telling a story about myself at this point? I don't think I'm making an argument. I'm going to bed.