Serious question: what privilege do we actually have, in 2016?

soalone34 · 2016-02-24T04:53:59+00:00

Men don't walk down the street afraid at night oh but wait they do because men are 11 times more likely to be a victim of a violent crime oops.

AggiePetroleum · 2016-02-24T05:19:18+00:00

When people say "male privilege" or "white privilege", or the category to which I belong, "white male privilege", I think that they are just mistaking these terms with "rich privilege" out of an ignorant bias. It doesn't matter what race or sex you are, money talks. To claim that some poor white man in a trailer park in Arkansas has more privilege than a wealthy black woman in Southern California is infuriating.

SporkTornado · 2016-02-24T05:22:39+00:00

You have a penis.

90+% of the people on the fortune 500 list have penises.

How can you not see the privilege. /s

ACB-Chapstick · 2016-02-24T04:57:43+00:00

If a man is the victim of a domestic dispute the police will always remove from that situation and take him to a nice safe jail!

EvrythingISayIsRight · 2016-02-24T06:18:30+00:00

I sat here for a good 5 minutes trying to think of a clear cut privlege that men get, but I can't think of one.

I guess theres the privlege that you're much less likely to be overpowered and raped in a dark alley, but you're much more likely to be mugged, assaulted or killed in return... And if you ever went to prison you'd have a much higher chance of being forcefully raped there....

One could argue that you have the privlege of not having to grow a baby inside you, which could potentially allow you to slightly further your career in the time that other women would be taking maternity leave, but many men here would love a short paid vacation to spend time with your new baby after starting a family. Not to mention this is one of the reasons women usually get child custody in divorce cases. Women spend more time with the kids -> kids like their mother more -> judges give custody to the woman

A lot of the times people mention male privlege, its imaginary. If you're a man and you get a job it was because you were privledged. If you're a woman and you don't get a job/raise/promotion, its because the world is being sexist towards you.

RobDog101 · 2016-02-24T07:22:54+00:00

It's not that if you woke up tomorrow as a girl, with all your experience up till now, you would be worse off. It's that women do not have the vast majority of common-sense-instilling experience and responsibilities that men do. They do not live in a world of normalized violence, though feminists think they do precisely because the anomaly of violence against women is all that stands out to them (in other words, the vast majority of violence is to them like water to a fish). Women face much less pressure in every area of life, yet feminists think they face more precisely because it's so startling to them when women are told to smile or dress sensibly, whereas they wouldn't notice even the most obvious of the myriad of ways boys' behavior is policed if the discussion on gender didn't force them to acknowledge it (thanks mostly to antifeminists). Women are so unequipped to handle even a fraction of the criticism, let alone the constant threat to their reputations, which men take for granted, that many of them throw an absolute fit over the most trivial inconveniences and say they're signs of oppression.

MalibuStayZ · 2016-02-24T11:31:37+00:00

Assuming you only mean as men over women in Christian/Jewish/Atheist Western society, I could see the following to be considered as male privileges (excluding biological "privileges"):

Men are more often the protagonists in works of art and have therefore somebody to identify with.
You feel more included by generic masculine pronouns in many languages.
Society tries less to victimize, protect, patronize and alarm you.
In at least some (most?) subcultures, you're less judged by your looks, sleeping around or swilling too much.
Most well-payed, interesting jobs are male dominated and you're not considered special if you work in one of them.
If you're a boss, your authority is questioned less by some people.
Maybe some more I just can't think of...

For some of them the opposite could of course also be considered as a female privilege. The grass is always greener on the other side...

probably_a_squid · 2016-02-24T08:32:59+00:00

The only one I can think of is you can have your shirt off in public.

unpicked-username · 2016-02-24T08:43:39+00:00

A woman can, at any time, nominate a man to go to a special type of housing where you eat for free, get a free gym membership, free accomodation, and not having to go to work every day.

5th_Law_of_Robotics · 2016-02-24T16:00:01+00:00

The only thing I can think of, based on what some trans people have said is being seen as more credible in a few areas.

TurbulentThinking · 2016-02-24T15:31:29+00:00

I've struggled with this question myself over the years.

I don't make more than a woman (that's impossible at minimum wage).
I'm not listened to more than a woman.
I will not be considered for a job before a woman.
If I am assaulted, I will be considered weak or pathetic for speaking up about it, by both men and women alike.
If I need help in an abusive relationship, there is one men's shelter in my hometown, serving a city with a population of 700,000.
Should I seek help from this shelter, the program will assume that I antagonized the abuse, and provide "care and treatment" that involves eliminating my toxic masculinity and correcting my behaviour problems. Because if I was just a better man, I wouldn't get beaten.
If I am raped (that is, rendered unable to remove myself from a sexual encounter, but unwilling to participate), I will be told that I cannot be. I'll be told that rape requires penetration (therefore I raped her), or that since rape is about control and oppression, and I as a man cannot be oppressed, what happened to me cannot be considered rape.
If my rapist gets pregnant, the law will paradoxically refuse to allow me to keep the child, but also requires me to pay my rapist to care for the child. Parental law currently recognizes the mother as the principal caregiver, and that custody belongs with the mother unless extenuating circumstances make the mother unable to act as the parent.
If my rapist is convicted, she will spend less than half the time in jail that would be spent if I was female and my attacker was male - assuming the judge does not suspend her sentence altogether.
There are many places I cannot go because of my gender, and many events that are organized that either target or admit exclusively women. Attempting to attend one of these events or visit one of these locations will be met with intolerance.
Events that target or admit exclusively men are either protested and harangued until it is cancelled, or will endure serious backlash from the feminist community for being "a breeding ground for misogyny" (as if men's thoughts cannot be civil without the tender administrating oversight from a feminist). People who attend men's rights speaking engagements will be harassed as "scum" and "woman-hating". Some will be assaulted; a few may actually be injured as a result.
An exclusively women's scholarship is liberating and empowering to women. An exclusively men's scholarship is discriminatory and sexist, and represents a regression of ideals.
I can be forcibly kept from my child by its mother, while still being forced to provide care to it, and the law will shelter her actions.

Now, if I was a woman...

I would be presumed to be telling the truth when I claim to have been raped or assaulted. The legal system will use the entire due process to give me the best chance of acquiring justice. Even if the result either doesn't find my attacker or put anyone in jail, I will feel like the police utilized the breadth of its resources to solve the crime.
I would be considered for entry into college or for a job opening before a man.
I will not be expected to choose a particular field of study.
I will have lower entry standards for military, police and firefighting, should I wish to enter one of these fields of work. Even though this puts other people at risk of death because I am potentially the smallest member of the team, I am entitled to the lower standard (as though an enemy soldier, the criminal, or indeed the fire will account for my gender, and give me a fair chance to fight).
I would have the liberty to keep a pregnancy that the other party didn't want. While this demonstrates my desire to raise the child alone, I would have to explicitly contract with the father that I am absolving him of fatherhood in order for him to get out of child support. Of course, I would not fathom doing so, because a man who wants nothing to do with fathering a child must compensate for this by paying 100% of the child support amount. And that's free money!
There are at least 8 women's shelters in my hometown, who will help me escape my abusive relationship, provide me with care and counselling for the abuse I endured, and help me gain the strength I need to return to a normal life. I will not be presumed to have antagonized the violence or abuse, nor will I be presumed to need re-education to change my toxic thoughts. Because nobody asks to be abused.

I could make this such a longer list, but it would start getting a little nitpicky.

redgreenyellowblu · 2016-02-24T09:56:24+00:00

None, of course. The entire notion of privilege is something I reject, anyway. I'm more comforable with the idea of being "advantaged" or "disadvantaged". This is specific to the circumstances of the individual. We can all agree that someone raised in a poor and broken or chaotic home in the inner city or by meth addicts out in the country is disadvantaged. Disadavantaged is a concept back from the time before people went crazy.

Anyway, my position is that if anyone claims I have a male privilege, I'm going to demand that privilege. I have the privilege of talking over women? Fine, then give it to me, and be quiet while I talk over you. Because that's what a privilege is. I haven't actually used that argument yet, but it's all ready to go!

toooooommmmmy · 2016-02-24T08:23:39+00:00

If you woke up as a girl your quality of life would probably rise over time because, well, women tend to have a better quality of life, objectively. But you'd have to pay a price, put on makeup, for example, to get treated (even) better.

Then again you you could feel worse because women, and girls in particular, suffer more from anxieties (on the other hand, women all over the world tend to be happier than men).

Perhaps your thinking would change. You'd be more interested in people and less interested in systems. That could lead you to a career that was paying less. You would avoid competition more than before which could probably mean a career disadvantage. Status and power would mean less while home and kids more.

But in the end we are individuals more than representatives of any group. So, perhaps nothing big would change. You'd just spend ten minutes more in the bathroom in the morning and you'd have to ask men to help you with heavy stuff.

Lethn · 2016-02-24T10:47:23+00:00

The problem here is feminists have turned oppression into a competition, as others have said the 'oppression olympics' there are pro's and cons to either side when you think hard enough without bias ( Do we really need to go into how women are treated in the middle east? Which is something feminists remain completely silent on ) but the problem is when you throw shitty gender and identity politics into everything it becomes a "My side is more oppressed than your side" load of crap.

By the way, while MRAs don't do this anyway near as much as feminists do, I find even in this thread they are guilty of trying to turn it into a competition. I do agree in general that men really do get the short end of the stick and as you know I have been rabidly against feminists ever since I started studying their tactics and bullshit myself and can find very little redeeming features about them.

Let's not though turn MRM into a "them or us" situation, not only will you lose a lot of supporters including me because I hate that kind of narrow minded thinking, you'd fulfill the accusations other twats have of you of being simply an inverted form of feminism.

Don't play the game of identity politics and just ignore the fuckers, keep arguing for equality and use facts in your arguments not "I'm more oppressed" whining.

IRKittyz · 2016-02-26T00:43:10+00:00

I guess because of social pressures being able to spend more time working and making money than females without being called out on. The pressure now adays is on females to take care of the child, with the father being forced into a money/tax/child support slavery.

RatsSewer · 2016-02-24T08:58:14+00:00

You'd get fucked by men instead of the law

throwaway1939503 · 2016-02-24T15:23:02+00:00

Can I ask you a question? If I have a problem -- for example, I can't think of any good reasons for WWI, or of any good uses for quantum computers or even for oats -- I try to actually research it. I mean, if I can't think of the answers, others probably have, and thanks for the internet, knowledge (or experts) is easy to come by. I mean, I'm sure it's nice to try to answer all questions without any help and without research, as the answer is likely to affirm whatever it is you believe in, but, can you actually learn anything this way? OK, so you can't think of a single aspect -- that's a valid starting point. So how about doing actual research or asking those who have some actual knowledge of the subject? Are you content with believing that your own knowledge is the extent of all knowledge (or with asking others who are likely just as knowledgeable as you)? Seems very "low effort" to me.

Title	Serious question: what privilege do we actually have, in 2016?
Author	Dent18
Upvotes	15
Comments	47
Date	February 24, 2016 4:01 AM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/47aom6/serious_question_what_privilege_do_we_actually/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/serious-question-what-privilege-do-we-actually.955464 https://theredarchive.com/post/955464

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