House of Eratosthenes

In 1990, Wellesley College professor Peggy McIntosh wrote an essay called “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”. McIntosh observes that whites in the U.S. are “taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group.” To illustrate these invisible systems, McIntosh wrote a list of 26 invisible privileges whites benefit from.

As McIntosh points out, men also tend to be unaware of their own privileges as men. In the spirit of McIntosh’s essay, I thought I’d compile a list similar to McIntosh’s, focusing on the invisible privileges benefiting men.

Due to my own limitations, this list is unavoidably U.S. centric. I hope that writers from other cultures will create new lists, or modify this one, to reflect their own experiences.

Since I first compiled it, the list has been posted many times on internet discussion groups. Very helpfully, many people have suggested additions to the checklist. More commonly, of course, critics (usually, but not exclusively, male) have pointed out men have disadvantages too – being drafted into the army, being expected to suppress emotions, and so on. These are indeed bad things – but I never claimed that life for men is all ice cream sundaes.

And so the list of male privileges commences, and what a Pandoras’ Box it has become.

Some folks like me will tactfully suggest that there, lies a lesson for us all. Anyway, here are the first five:

The Male Privilege Checklist

1. My odds of being hired for a job, when competing against female applicants, are probably skewed in my favor. The more prestigious the job, the larger the odds are skewed.

2. I can be confident that my co-workers won’t think I got my job because of my sex – even though that might be true.

3. If I am never promoted, it’s not because of my sex.

4. If I fail in my job or career, I can feel sure this won’t be seen as a black mark against my entire sex’s capabilities.

5. I am far less likely to face sexual harassment at work than my female co-workers are.

ballgame at Feminist Critics points to a creative destruction, and then responds with more than a few articles of Female Privilege.

His first five…

As a woman …

1. I have a much lower chance of being murdered than a man.
2. I have a much lower chance of being driven to successfully commit suicide than a man.
3. I have a lower chance of being a victim of a violent assault than a man.
4. I have probably been taught that it is acceptable to cry.
5. I will probably live longer than the average man.

This is then cited and linked by David Thompson, who points to a couple more interesting tidbits. An unbelievable article linking violence with maleness; yet another feminist take on male privilege; and, a hodge-podge of more bullet points for the female-privilege list:

Brandon Berg offers a few further points to mull, including:

If I marry, there is a very good chance that I will be given the option to quit my job and live off my husband’s income without having my femininity questioned.

If I become pregnant, I and I alone choose whether to terminate the pregnancy or have the baby. As a result, I can be reasonably certain that I will never be held financially responsible for a child I didn’t want to have, and that I will never have my unborn child aborted without my consent.

Because I am not expected to be my family’s primary breadwinner, I have the luxury of prioritising factors other than salary when choosing a career path.

Although I am every bit as likely as a man to allow my sex drive to compromise my judgment, I will never be accused of thinking with my clitoris.

Sweating Through Fog also shares some checklist possibilities:

I’m entitled to the benefits of a safe, orderly society, but no one expects me to risk my personal safety to maintain it.

When I find myself with others in a terrifying, life-threatening situation, I have the right to be evacuated first, once the children are safe. Others can wait.

If I see someone else being attacked, I’m not expected to risk my own safety to defend them. It’s okay for me to wait for others to intervene, and it’s also okay for me to criticise others if they don’t.

And this is linked by Ace, who is then linked by Maggie’s Farm, where I found it.

As an intellectual exercise, each side of this list-building is only useful to me insofar as it helps to peg down how much jealousy and resentment there is out there. That, and once again the feminist movement has been nailed the same way it usually is: It organizes for the purpose of calling attention to what females are supposedly missing, never once pausing to contemplate the surpluses that are packaged with those deficits. The unmistakable moral, which I ordinarily would not deign to repeat, is the one from John Badham’s War Games (2003) — but since that’s from twenty-five years ago I suppose I should go ahead and pop it up.

Joshua: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?

The one from Teddy Roosevelt seems even more relevant…

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent

Items of Interest

Monthly Archives

What They Say

Links

PrivilegeFriday, July 11th, 2008

Privilege
Friday, July 11th, 2008