Now, to preface, the main focus of the article is race, not gender. However, there is an undeniable gender-slant (to coin a phrase). The whole thing thoroughly pissed me off, but I'm not exactly sure why. Give me your input on it.

EDIT: dammit, forgot the link http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html

EDIT 2: In case anyone gives a shit, here's the paper I wrote on it. It started out as a half-assed attempt to just get through the damn assignment, but I tried to through in a few viewpoints from the opposition here and there.

The concept of privilege is inherent in most any society. With the exception of true Communism, there have always been and will always be haves and have-nots. These privileges can be as simple and unassuming as seeing many people of your race represented in the media or as dangerous and sinister as receiving preferential treatment in the job market or possessing more civil liberties than those of different races or ethnicities. In the last half century or so, great strides have been made in correcting some of the more lopsided privileges in the United States. Women and blacks have achieved suffrage, Affirmative Action helped correct some of the more blatant inequality in the workplace, education and basic health care is no longer a benefit afforded only to the wealthy, and marriage rights are slowly becoming available to same-sex couples. It’s entirely possible that, from a legal standpoint, within the next 20 years, all races, sexual orientations, genders, and economic groups will all be on level footing. A problem that is, unfortunately, oft-neglected is the flawed and frequently hypocritical manners in which societal inequalities are addressed. It’s a dangerous misconception that the way to correct inequalities is to reverse them 180 degrees. To put it another way, giving Group B dominion over Group A is not the solution to 100 years of oppression by Group A. This can sadly be seen in the overwhelming bias towards women in custody disputes, domestic abuse prosecution, and the guilty-till-proven-innocent mentality in rape allegations. It seems that one of the rarely-addressed problems with social inequality is the “equally unequal” shift of power once the inequality is addressed. As the article “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of White Privilege” said, relinquishing the privileges we have, or are perceived to have, isn’t easy. Nor is it always fair, or even necessary. As McIntosh points out, it shouldn’t be necessary to give up most of the privileges she lists. Many of these aren’t things we’d consider privileges so much as basic human rights. Perhaps this is the point. What she fails to address, however, is that one group need not give up privileges in order for another group to enjoy them. There’s no reason that we can’t all see representatives of our respective races or purchase “skin colored” band-aids. As a white male, I’m endowed with more than my share of societal privileges. In addition to having full voting and marriage rights, I’m less likely to be discriminated against when applying for a job and, on average, my salary will be 25% higher than my female counterparts. The flipside to this is my increased likelihood of being fallaciously accused of sexual assault, the assumption that any interaction I have with children is motivated by my desire to molest them, the fact that I wouldn’t likely be able to take time off work after my children are born, the social pressure to conceal feelings, my ability to be charged with and arrested for rape just by being reported to the police, and the knowledge that any reports of domestic abuse at my home will lead to my arrest. No group has only privileges or only prohibitions. The privileges we grow up with can greatly affect our achieved and ascribed statuses. Perhaps the best example of this economic standing. It’s more likely that a wealthy black man will closely identify with a wealthy white man than a poor black man. More importantly, when we grow up with certain privileges, we naturally assume that they simple facts of life and that everyone has them. Perhaps that’s how it should be. There are some things that every human being is and should be entitled to. Some are less obvious than others, but are no less important and, if we are to survive as a species, it is imperative that we begin to afford every member of every society, not only the same legal standing, but the same sense of dignity and respect.