Reverse sexism is a controversial term for discrimination against men and boys or for anti-male prejudice. Often, the debate surrounding reverse sexism involves the innate definition of sexism, for example, whether the concept of sexism itself requires systemic power, or can exist on an individual level, and whether males can experience prejudice and discrimination in a system that some would argue benefits them. Reverse sexism has been compared by sociologists to reverse racism, and "reverse ethnocentrism," in that both can be a response to affirmative action policies that are designed to combat institutionalized sexism and racism, and are a form of backlash, through which members of majority categories (e.g., men, whites, or Anglos) assert that they are being discriminated against. In more rigid forms, this stance assumes that the historic imbalance in favor of men in the contemporary era is no longer applicable, or that women are now viewed as the superior gender or sex. Feminist theorist Florence Rush characterizes the idea of reverse sexism specifically as a misogynist reaction to feminism; men's rights activists such as Warren Farrell promote the idea of reverse sexism to argue that the feminist movement has rearranged society in such a way that it now benefits women and harms men. History The concept of reverse sexism was first documented during the 1960s at the same time as the emergence of the women's liberation and feminist movements. A men's liberation movement was formed, led by psychologists who argued that femininity and masculinity were socially formed behaviors and not the result of genes. The men's liberation movement tried to balance the two ideas that men were responsible for oppressing women, but also being oppressed themselves by strict gender roles. In the mid-1970s, the movement began to focus on the oppression of men and less on the effects of sexism on women. This shift was influenced by author Warren Farrell, who wrote The Myth of Male Power. He emphasized how male gender roles disadvantaged men by forbidding them from being seen as caring or having emotion. In the 1980s, a new men's rights movement began to form which focused only on the ways that sex roles discriminated against males rather than the oppression it inflicted on both genders. Author Herb Goldberg claimed that the U.S. was a "matriarchal society" because women have the power to transgress gender roles and assume masculine and feminine roles, while males are