Neil Faulkner wrote:
Things become altered when, say, a cowboy meets another cowboy, or cowboy meets cowgirl. Or cow. Replacing Avon with Blake or Kirk does not alter the ideological significance of the situation, replacing him with Jenna or Cally (or Mr Humphries) does.
Bearing in mind that I don't know who Mr. Humphries is...
It sounds very much to me as if you are saying that any time there is a transaction between a man and a woman of unequal power, sexism must by definition exist. Since there is no such thing as equal power, that will mean every m-f transaction is sexist. That's far too broad a definition of sexism for my taste. I prefer to reserve it for the expression of the idea that one gender or the other is or should be considered better or superior to the other; otherwise we risk defining persons by their gender and nothing else.
Mistral