Julian Real on Unpacking the Male Privilege Jockstrap
Oct 4th, 2008 by admin
I will limit my own modified version to apply to what I know of male privilege from Western white-dominant societies, but not white-only societies. I want to thank Barry Deutsch [Amp of Alas, a Blog-- Heart] for creating and further compiling the list which identifies 43 forms of male privilege. I will also offer up a critique of that list, as I find some of it to be racist, heterosexist, and classist, among other things. But thanks, Barry, for getting the ball rolling. (Pun probably intended.) And I hope you have stopped allowing misogynists and racists to degrade and harass women of color and white women on your blog…
The Male Privilege Checklist
[Barry Deutsch: let me know if you'd prefer I offer my criticisms of your list in another way other than bracketing them below. -- Julian Real.]1. My odds of being hired for a job, when competing against female applicants, are probably skewed in my favour. The more prestigious the job, the larger the odds are skewed. [However, men who appear to come from poverty or the working class are much more likely to be turned away from a prestigious job than a middle class or wealthier-appearing man.]
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. [This is far more true for white men than for many men of color.]
3. If I am never promoted, it’s not because of my sex. [But may well be due to my race or ethnicity, if I'm not white.]
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. ["Black mark" is part of racist speech. Black Monday, black mark, black sheep of the family: all generate negative associations with blackness and Blackness. See Dreaming The Dark, by Starhawk, for more on this.]
5. The odds of my encountering sexual harassment on the job are so low as to be negligible. [This is much more likely to be the case for men perceived to be heterosexual.]
Read the rest here at Julian Real’s place, and thanks, Julian, for sending the link to me.
Heart
I left a comment at Julian Real’s blog, but even then I feel dislike being part of drawing traffic to Barry Deutsch’s Alas A Pimp blog. I hope everyone reading understands I am using that word because that is exactly what he is. Not name-calling, truth telling. Barry Deutsch is a pimp. He apparently sees no conflict in Barry calling himself a feminist, while living off the avails of pornography.