Confession time: I got in a fight with a stranger on facebook the other day. I wasn’t trying to, but he was commenting on a link to That Girl Magazine so I kept getting notifications and sometimes I can’t stop myself. #Aries
Anyway, the argument was mostly over privilege and gender, and it made me realize not all of us take sociology classes freshman year (although I really do recommend it — sociology is mad interesting, yo). And even if we can’t all be gender studies majors, I think we should all know a little bit about privilege.
I’m not an expert on the topic by any stretch of the imagination, but maybe I can try to explain.
So what is privilege?
Privilege, on the most basic level, is a set of advantages that society gives you for being in some group. For example, I have white privilege. In America, most people in positions of power are going to be of my race. It’s easy for me to buy makeup that suits my skin tone. No one has ever been racist towards me.
Now, I’m not an asshole for having these things. I didn’t run around punching racial minorities in the face so that I could buy a white Barbie doll when I was a kid. It’s just something that society gives to me.
It is a status that is conferred by society to certain groups, not seized by individuals, which is why it can be difficult sometimes to see one’s own privilege.
I used to have such a hard time wrapping my head around this. When you’re a kid, they tell you everybody’s equal (because they are optimists and this stuff is hard enough to explain to adults). Unfortunately, in the eyes of society, we’re not.
To be honest, it’s still an uncomfortable topic. I’d much rather write about the privilege I don’t have than the many that I do. I don’t want to sound too excited about my privileges, because then it might sound like I’m endorsing them, which I’m totally not. The world would be a better place if white privilege weren’t a thing anymore. But that said, I drew a pretty sweet card, privilege-wise, and it would be disingenuous to pretend I’m not secretly kind of psyched about it.
But in any case, I understand privilege best in the context of male privilege — because it’s much easier to notice what you don’t have. Male privilege is a set of perks guys don’t even realize they have most of the time.
- Guys can look at the US presidents and see 43 people who look like them. (This counts double for white guys).
- Guys can go to a party where they don’t really know the hosts and be fairly confident that no one is going to try to drug and assault them.
- Guys can wear whatever and not be seen as ‘putting themselves in danger’.
- And more!
A couple days ago, a friend of mine and I were at a club meeting. As he and I were leaving, he turned to me and said, “Wow, it sure is a gynocracy in there.” He was totally right — the meeting was probably 2/3 girls. But if the genders were reversed, I don’t think I would have noticed it (much less pointed it out). A bunch of dudes in charge is totally the norm.
Are there also perks to being a woman? Sure. (This is what facebook-acquaintance and I were fighting about). There are definitely advantages to being a woman, as there are advantages to pretty much any demographic. Men apparently get mugged more often. Ladies, at least we aren’t under as much pressure as men are to be breadwinners for our families. If we want to stay home with the kids someday, no one is going to think we’re stupid slackers. That’s kind of nice! But it doesn’t change the fact that male privilege exists (similarly, just because I think it’s cool that my gay friends can do guy-things with their boyfriends, that doesn’t negate straight privilege, which is a huge thing).
So next time you feel like something isn’t fair, look around for privilege. It’s probably sneaking in there somewhere. As individuals, we can’t stop it. It will take generations to change. The best we can do is be aware of it.
The post privilege: i can’t walk alone at night, but barbies look like me appeared first on that girl magazine.
