Male privilege—Why do women assume they know about men or men’s lives?

DavidByron2 · 2014-10-22T17:28:03+00:00

I think that's a basic feature of the privileged over the oppressed. The oppressed need to know more about the privileged than vice versa, but the privileged will often talk as if they know the lives of those who are disadvantaged.

If you hang out at /r/AskMen you quickly realize a lot of women no nothing about men. Well, they don't need to, do they? But a man is often in a position of having to try and persuade or second guess what a woman wants, and men (not limited to heterosexual men) have to become experts on women.

guywithaccount · 2014-10-22T19:49:23+00:00

So, basic standpoint theory says that everyone has a different perspective based on their individual circumstances. Cool.

But something that got tacked onto standpoint theory is strong objectivity: the notion that marginalized people are more objective than dominant ones, because the marginalized perceive both their own circumstances and those of the dominant people whose circumstances are reflected in popular narratives.

This is why, for instance, white (and cis, straight, able, etc.) men are often told or treated as though their experiences don't count and their opinions are worthless. Under the premise of strong objectivity, white men would have the narrowest and most ignorant view because, being the most privileged and dominant (according to feminists and other SJW types), they have the least objectivity.

Except that strong objectivity is bullshit. Marginalized groups do not actually fully participate in their own culture and a dominant culture at the same time, and they often have little or no actual experience of cultures that they are not a part of - popular narratives notwithstanding. This is why feminism's attempts to address men's issues (such as with those two comics that made the rounds recently) always miss the mark; it's not just because they're apathetic or hostile toward men (though this is often the case); it's because they're unable to perceive what our issues actually are, because they do not live as or listen to men. They are no more objective than we are.

RedPill115 · 2014-10-23T00:27:57+00:00

No, no, no - "women" don't assume they know about men's lives more than men know about women's lives.

Feminists makes that assumption.

Lrellok · 2014-10-22T21:33:46+00:00

The first decision reached by the congress of the international at its very first meeting was "the emancipation of the working class can only be acomplished by the working class itself".

In that tradition I declair "The emancipation of men (from the patriarchal gender roles imposed upon men) can only be acomplished by men themselves."

RedPill115 · 2014-10-23T00:32:38+00:00

If you look at many oppressive and dictorial regimes, they often start with claims of "we're fighting against oppression". Most south african warlords groups are called something like "the people's part of *". The Nazi rhetoric (sorry about Godwin's Law) was that the German people were being manipulated and oppressed by a Jewish conspiracy. The Soviet Communists were fundamentally about removing the "oppressive" government.

"male privilege" is part of the same thing - using the idea of victimhood as a political tool to gain power. Creating a "villain" to base their movement against.

Is there anyone more privileged than the middle class white women that largely make up feminism?

wnoise · 2014-10-23T05:48:15+00:00

Visual harassment? Seriously? Everyone should be able to wear whatever they want.

Yodude1 · 2014-10-23T01:52:21+00:00

I gotta be honest, they don't know how we live our lives, but we don't know theirs either.

Title	Male privilege—Why do women assume they know about men or men’s lives?
Author	blueoak9
Upvotes	29
Comments	15
Date	October 22, 2014 5:00 PM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/2k0b7y/male_privilegewhy_do_women_assume_they_know_about/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/male-privilegewhy-do-women-assume-they-know-about.994393 https://theredarchive.com/post/994393

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