Thinking About Privilege

Prompted by the comments on a post a couple of weeks ago, I started thinking more about privilege, and how we all have it, in some form or another. Male privilege is everywhere - men are assumed to be the default, and women are assumed to be weaker, less capable. If a man fails at something, it's not because he's male. If a man has sex, he's not a slut - he's a stud. Men can be loud or aggressive without being called a bitch. Men are under less pressure than women are to be thin and sexy.

But there is privilege EVERYWHERE, you guys, and we all have privilege too, even if we're not male. There's straight privilege - having the assurance that no matter where you go, your relationships will be considered valid. There's white privilege - having a way lesser chance that you'll be racially profiled (assuming you're in a white-majority area, and often even if you're not). There's cisgender (read: non-transgender) privilege. There's a LOT of it. There is privilege for just about everything out there.

The important thing about privilege is how we DEAL with it. When we're blind to our privilege, and don't even see it as being there, because that's 'just how things are'? That's a problem. When we actively work to unpack our privelege and deal with how it effects us? That's us winning. That's making a better world.

One of the most insidious things ABOUT privilege is the level of obliviousness it allows. Men who've never thought about how certain things would effect women, whites who don't bother to think about Asian or African experiences, straight people can be puzzled and confused by how queer couples could ever possibly have sex, and cisgendered people can ask 'oh, so have you had the surgery?' without maliciousness - because it was never intended to be malicious, only curious or helpful.

When we ignore privilege because 'that's how it is', it's not because we're actively trying to oppress people. It's because we're blind to the fact that we're oppressing people through our actions, because we could never imagine being so. These privileges are instead everyday, normal entitlements and customs. Not needing to think about just HOW everyday or normal these entitlements are is yet another expression of privilege.

So what can you do? A lot, actually.

You can think about your privilege in day-to-day life, and see when and how it motivates your actions. You can call out others on their privileges, privileges they might not have been aware that they had. Just by being aware of privelege, you fight it. Because when we're aware of our own privileges, we destroy the patriarchal notions that uphold them just by existing.

And that is awesome.