Chauvinism

Not to be confused withChavism.

Chauvinism(/ˈʃoʊvɪnɪzəm/SHOH-vih-nih-zəm) 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.TheEncyclopaedia Britannicadescribes it as a form of "excessive and unreasonable"patriotismandnationalism,a fervent faith in national excellence and glory.

In American English, the word has also come to be used in some quartersas shorthand formale chauvinism,a trend reflected inMerriam-Webster's Dictionary,which, as of 2018, began its first example of use of the termchauvinismwith "an attitude of superiority toward members of the opposite sex".

As nationalism

According to legend, French soldierNicolas Chauvinwas badly wounded in theNapoleonic Warsand received a meager pension for his injuries. AfterNapoleonabdicated, Chauvin maintained his fanaticalBonapartistbelief in the messianic mission ofImperial France,despite the unpopularity of this view under theBourbon Restoration.His single-minded devotion to his cause, despite neglect by his faction and harassment by its enemies, started the use of the term.

Chauvinismhas extended from its original use to include fanatical devotion and undue partiality to any group or cause to which one belongs, especially when suchpartisanshipincludes 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 termjingoism,which has retained the meaning ofchauvinismstrictly in its original sense; that is, an attitude of belligerent nationalism.

In 1945, political theoristHannah Arendtdescribed the concept thus:

Chauvinism is an almost natural product of the national concept in so far as it springs directly from the old idea of the "national mission".... [A] nation's mission might be interpreted precisely as bringing its light to other, less fortunate peoples that, for whatever reason, have miraculously been left by history without a national mission. As long as this concept did not develop into the ideology of chauvinism and remained in the rather vague realm of national or even nationalistic pride, it frequently resulted in a high sense of responsibility for the welfare of backward people.

In this sense, chauvinism is irrational, in that no one can claim their nation or ethnic group to be inherently superior to another.

A historical example of chauvinism from the century following Chauvin was the German-Jewish poetErnst Lissauer,whose extreme nationalism after the outbreak ofWorld War 1included writing the "Hymn of Hate against England" ("Haßgesang gegen England") in 1915. As David Aberbach remarks, "There is nothing in modern Hebrew literature, however devoted to the cause of Jewish sovereignty, remotely comparable to the super-chauvinisticHassgesang('Hate Song for England')... "

Despite chauvinism's irrational roots, at the time, it was explicitly seen as almost obligatory for any German patriot. AsWalter Rarthenaucommented just prior to the outbreak of the war, "Whoever loves his Fatherland may and should be something of a chauvinist."Lissauer's poem was exceedingly popular, to the extent that it was praised by the Kaiser himself, and Lissauer's slogan "Gott strafe England!"was used as a daily greeting. However, whilst someGerman Jewsdid take the opportunity of the war to demonstrate their patriotism, Lissauer was an extremist, and in contrast many other German Jews disagreed with Lissauer and the way that mainstream opinion had shifted.

The Christianity-centric imagery used to document theKriegserlebnisby authors such asWalter Flexalienated Jewish soldiers. Whereas Lissauer attempted to sign up as a soldier (but was rejected as unfit) as soon as war broke out, then penned the poem, and in the words ofStefan Zweigconsidered everything published by the German newspapers and army to be "gospel truth" andEdward Greyto be "the worst criminal". The last lines of the poem read:

We love as one, we hate as one,
We have one foe and one alone —
ENGLAND!

Male chauvinism

See also:Sexism,Misogyny,Androcentrism,Machismo,Patriarchy,Toxic masculinity,andHegemonic masculinity

Male chauvinism is the belief thatmenare superior towomen.The first documented use of the phrase "male chauvinism" is in the 1935Clifford OdetsplayTill the Day I Die.

In the workplace

The balance of theworkforcechanged duringWorld War II.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 andMichael Kordahave 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.

Causes

See also:In-group favoritism,Closure (sociology),andInfrahumanisation

Chauvinist assumptions are seen by some as a bias in theTATpsychological 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.

Male chauvinism was studied in thepsychoanalytictherapy of 11 men. It refers to the maintenance of fixed beliefs and attitudes of male superiority, associated with overt or covert depreciation of women. Challenging chauvinist attitudes often results in anxiety or other symptoms. It is frequently not investigated in psychotherapy because it is ego-syntonic, parallels cultural attitudes, and because therapists often share similar bias or neurotic conflict. Chauvinism was found to represent an attempt to ward off anxiety and shame arising from one or more of four prime sources: unresolved infantile strivings and regressive wishes, hostile envy of women, oedipal anxiety, and power and dependency conflicts related to masculineself-esteem.Motherswere more important than fathers in the development of male chauvinism, and resolution was sometimes associated withdecompensationin wives.

Adam Jukes argues that a reason for male chauvinism ismasculinityitself:

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 believemisogynyis innate, but I believe it's inescapable because of the development of masculinity.

Female chauvinism

See also:Sexism,Misandry,Feminism,Gynocentrism,Internalized sexism,Marianismo,andMatriarchy

Female chauvinism is the belief that women are superior to men.Second-wave feministBetty Friedanobserved that "...the assumption that women have any moral or spiritual superiority as a class is [...] female chauvinism."Ariel Levyused the term in her bookFemale Chauvinist Pigs,in which she argues that many young women in the United States and beyond are replicating male chauvinism and oldermisogyniststereotypes.

See also

• American exceptionalism
• Blind nationalism
• Carbon chauvinism
• Great Russian chauvinism
• Han chauvinism
• Identity politics
• Moral hazard
• Planetary chauvinism
• Sexism
• Social chauvinism
• Welfare chauvinism

References

Sources

• Haglund, David G. (2019). "Getting Their English Up: The Culture Wars and the Ending of American Neutrality, 1914–1917".The US "Culture Wars" and the Anglo-American Special Relationship.Springer.ISBN9783030185497.
• Bayerdörfer, Hans-Peter (2009). "Jewish Self-Presentation and the 'Jewish Question' on the German Stage from 1900 to 1930". In Nahshon, Edna (ed.).Jewish Theatre: A Global View.IJS Studies in Judaica. Vol. 8. BRILL.ISBN9789004173354.
• Mendes-Flohr, Paul(1998). "TheKriegserlebnisand Jewish Consciousness ". In Benz, Wolfgang; Paucker, Arnold (eds.).Jews in the Weimar Republic.Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des Leo Baeck Instituts. Vol. 57. Mohr Siebeck.ISBN9783161468735.ISSN0459-097X.
• Madigan, Edward; Reuveni, Gideon (2018). "The First World War and the Jews". In Madigan, Edward; Reuveni, Gideon (eds.).The Jewish Experience of the First World War.Springer.ISBN9781137548962.

Further reading

• Huddy, Leonie; Del Ponte, Alessandro. (2019).National Identity, Pride, and Chauvinism—their Origins and Consequences for Globalization Attitudes.InLiberal Nationalism and Its Critics: Normative and Empirical Questions(eds) Gina Gustavsson, David Miller. Oxford: Oxford Academic, pp. 38–56.doi: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.ISBN978-3-631-78727-4.

External links

• The Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism(ASEN)
• Nostalgic Nationalism, Welfare Chauvinism, and Migration Anxieties in Central and Eastern Europeat theLund University Research Portal.