A while ago I was talking to a girl I was dating about male privilege.
She used as evidence of male privilege the difference in the way her father was treated and she was treated by the same people.
Let’s start with the differences. She’s in her twenties, he’s in his late fifties, early sixties.
He’s active in his church, goes to a weekly men’s bible study at a restaurant. He carries himself like a man that believes in himself and what he’s doing. (This is not a moral statement, it’s a statement of attitude).
He also has a fairly rigid routine. He goes to the same places, and interacts with the same people.
She parties a fair amount. Smokes and drinks. The smoking, sadly, is starting to show around the eyes.
When they go some place together, people are more deferential to him. She pointed this out as male privilege.
It had nothing to do with his age, demeanor or that he frequented the place they were at and knew everyone.
It was because he was male.
It occurred to me that male privilege is not a privilege because someone is male, it is any privilege a male has for any reason.
If they are born into wealth, that is male privilege, if they are born with brains that too is privilege. Anything they have that is an advantage, even one earned through experience, or time, or wisdom is a privilege because it sets them apart.
For feminists there will never be an end to male privilege, until men are so completely disadvantaged that nothing they can do will advance them in life, their station will never be above a single girl’s. Only then will they be satisfied.
