True, but from what I've seen there doesn't seem to be a consensus on the matter and I'm not really a fan of just taking someone at their word when simply for the sake of the point she is trying to make she has a vested interest in saying that those things aren't the norm. Maybe it's a case of a vocal minority, or maybe not. There must be some feminist organizations that have official opinions on the issue rather than just a bunch of people who all claim to be a part of the same group saying different things. As for the analogy you posted, I really don't think it addresses my problems with the concept of privilege, like that a lot of the things I've seen that are listed as privileges aren't actually privileges. "But because you’re playing on the “Straight White Male” setting, gaining points and leveling up will still by default be easier, all other things being equal, than for another player using a higher difficulty setting." The problem with this is that never in life will you find yourself in a situation where all other things are equal. I get the point of what he's trying to make, but there are too many other ignored factors. Many times you will find yourself in a situation where something that may almost always be an advantage becomes a disadvantage, and sometimes things that would normally be a disadvantage become an advantage. How much of an advantage or disadvantage everything about you often changes drastically from situation to situation. In one situation your gender might be the thing that holds you back from getting that job you wanted, in another situation whether you are left or right handed could make or break your career. Or what about the differences in life between ugly and attractive people? Even shit that has nothing to do with you physically can have a tremendous effect on your life, like imagine if your had a last name that started with a different letter than the one you do now. From what I've seen so far the concept of privilege is incredibly narrow minded and inflexible, and it ignores the two biggest factors of how privileged or unprivileged your life will be which are the socio-economic status of the family you are born into and where in the world you are born.
This perfectly explains everything. If, during your casual perusal of feminist concepts and privilege discussions that you ran across during your random google searches, you haven't managed to encounter any mention of the privilege that comes with wealth and living in a first world nation...you shouldn't be posting in this thread. Or, like, at all. You need to be doing much more reading, son. A lot.
Dude, I can't be any nicer about it to say that arguing really strongly while admitting that you don't have the background to know what you're talking about is not a good look. Feminism isn't a monolith, and there are assholes abound. However, most well-respected feminists today generally hold certain views. If you don't read a lot about feminism, you won't really know who's respected. Kind of like how if you had never read any film criticism, you wouldn't know that Roger Ebert was more well-respected and listened to than Will Schill from paidreviews.com. But he is! And once you started reading, that would become more clear. So don't believe PinkCup. Fuck it, don't believe me. Read some stuff, not just the bare minimum to make an Internet post, and then determine your own conclusion over time. You might wind up disagree with everything here, but at least the conversation would be worthwhile.
All of this stuff is irrelevent though. Having class privilege doesn't invalidate the existence of male privilege, even if class privilege gives a person more beneifits than other types of privilege. It's like saying that if I get robbed I shouldn't be angry or call the police because other people get murdered. Since the most we can achieve with this thread is a rudimentary level of 101 stuff, I'll refrain from making a snarky comment.
Dear Cult, There are many different types of privilege. Being female does not preclude me from having white privilege, socioeconomic privilege, educational privilege, or heterosexual privilege. I've got those. I acknowledge the privilege that I have and try not to abuse it, and I certainly don't want to undermine or invalidate the experiences of people whose privilege doesn't look like my own. There are plenty of men out there with less privilege than me, there are probably plenty of women out there who have more privilege than you. But that doesn't change the fact that male privilege exists in our society. You're absolutely right that socioeconomic privilege is enormously important in this country, but there is intersectionality between different types of privilege. Go look through your invisible knapsack and see what you find. Sincerely, SKL
This thread could afford to lighten up a smidge. Huzzah! And to think, we've reached 8 pages of mediocrity all in response to a poorly-written diatribe by a very confused, holier-than-thou college sophomore. I have nothing to show for it other than a shitty Christina Aguilera song that's been stuck in my head for the past 24 hours.
Dude I feel you're being diliberately obtuse. I don't think anyone is arguing that being a straight white male is an automatic life is easy button. And yes there are times when it can be disadvantageous. However, the factis that by and large being a white hetero sexual male is about the best starting point you can have. Just based on those three markers your chances of winding up in jail for a significant amamount of time are reduced, your chances of being, murdered, raped, or beaten are reduced, and the chance of you making more money with similar qualifications as a minority are increased. Hell there are studies suggesting that sight unseen even your name and voice are more likely to get a return call on a job or rental application.
I'm with shimmered. Don't be an asshole, slap my ass hard when I tell you to and don't tell me I can't vacuum out the parasite in my uterus and we're cool. As for walking the streets at night, I'm armed 99% of the time. It'll be a very nice surprise for Mr. Rapey or Mr. Robber if shit gets real.
I was trying to stay out of this, but this seems to be a stretch. This opens the whole "chicken vs egg" argument.
Ok, I'm struggling to understand the point of all this frenzied typing. You want me to admit that it's pretty cool being a straight white American male? Cause I can do that. Louis CK has a great bit on it. It's like winning the lottery as far as starting off life on this planet. But after that, I'm not going to continue on to say that my life is full of wondrous benefits due to my heteronormative male whiteness (Cisgendered? Gimme a fucking break. Now we're just inventing labels for the sake of inventing labels). I work for the shit I have. I apply myself, and study, and bust my ass in dangerous places to be paid well. And none of that is based on my gender, or skin color, or sexual preference. It just isn't. Claiming that I have some magic privilege that others don't is a bullshit copout. "My life is harder because I'm different than the majority." Fuck you. Everyone's life is hard, get a helmet and suck it up. You have struggles? I have struggles. We all have struggles. Yours may be more difficult than mine on a daily basis. Mine may be more difficult than others on a daily basis. Know what we all do? Move on and work through them as best we can. I'm just really failing to understand what it is you want from us because we were born this way. An apology? Subservience? A cookie? People have been hammering on about how women have scarier lives than men for pages now. Ok. I give. Yes you do. Is everything better now? I know most of this post comes off facetious, sarcastic, and frankly a little angry. See the first sentence of the preceding paragraph. But seriously, what are we looking to accomplish here?
How? I mean it seems perfectly obvious to me that being white is clearly better than being non-white in at least 95% of the circumstances I deal with on a day-to-day basis. Thinking a little further, I can say the same for being male.
Could you identify which ones and why, reather than just throwing your hands in the air and saying "It's all bullshit"? So how is this cisgender thing pronounced? It's pronounced such that it sounds like sister, sissy, Sistine Chapel, or Sisyphus. The argument is that, were you a equivalently hard-working person who was in a less privileged position, you would likely reap less reward from it. Not that you don't work hard, but that it is an implicit bonus.
I'm curious how this is a stretch all the numbers I found support this. Granted my research is a year old and not really in depth as it was for a paper for an intro sociology class. So I'm definitely not claiming to be an expert. And how do you mean a chicken vs. Egg argument? I'm not trying to be combative I'm just curious as to what you're saying.
I don't know where he's coming from with the chicken vs egg thing, but the problem is that you're stereotyping an entire class of people. People are individuals who make choices based on their circumstances and personalities. If you're saying that the circumstance of being a straight white male leads to better choices... well that's just racist. You also made a comment that no one was trying to say straight white male was easy-mode. Nom actually copy-pasted a many paragraph gaming analogy that said exactly that, repeatedly.
What do you mean by choices? It certainly, on average, leads to better options. And it is, on average and in almost any particular case, easier mode if not "easy" mode. For example, it's very hard to be a poor white person in rural America whose parents have a low education level. But it is easier than being a poor black person in rural America whose parents have a low education level. Instances when the opposite is true are exceedingly rare in modern American society.
Are less white people in jail for long periods of time, and less likely to be victims of violent crime because they are white? Or could it be that white people simply don't do these things and thats why the numbers are lopsided? I find that the incarceration and violent crime numbers don't even begin to tell the story. I could use 2 parent homes and get similar numbers, same with socioeconomic status. I don't feel those stats are related necessarily to being born white. You'll notice I left everything else out, just talking about these numbers. Chicken vs egg deal is you can't tell where it starts.
I feel a little bit like a broken record, but cisgendered isn't just made up to fuck with you. It was coined so people could talk about the relative differences between trans and nontrans experiences. I'm actually going a little crazy here, because the term cisgendered is actually shorter and easier than nontransgendered and nobody is forcing you to use it it's just a term and sorry I have to stop mashing my head into the doorframe ok i'm good now. "What should I do with this knowledge" is a good question. Here are a few possible things (and if you already do all of this, great job being a cool person! Keep on doing you): Stop making jokes that minimize rape. Hell, if you really want to get feisty, you could even say, "that's not cool" when somebody else makes such a joke. Vote for measures and candidates that seek to level the playing field. Make an effort to buy and consume things and media by companies that relieve rather than exacerbate these issues. Find a movie you like with strong female characters and go to it. Buy something from a really good female author. If you're out on the fuck market, get enthusiastic consent rather than just moving forward until you hear a no. Understand why certain situations might feel threatening, and keep that in mind when you're deciding whether to approach a strange woman on the street. If you happen to be having a conversation on a messageboard, maybe avoid angrily minimizing the problem at the very time you purport to understand it. Ok, that last one was me being a dick. It happens.
What I never really understood about these conversations about privilege is, why would a rational member of a privileged group want to voluntarily give up or reduce that advantage? Warm fuzzy feelings are great and all, but I'm not looking to make my life harder.