Male privilege theory is, ironically, the result of privilege.

3889-1274 · 2021-06-01T02:18:54+00:00

Bill Burr made this point in one of his stand ups, when he pointed out white women basically put themselves in the oppressed camp even when they had all the benefits handed to them that elitist white men had. It's ridiculous hypocritical bullshit for these kinds of people to disparage anyone for their "privilege".

DavidByron2 · 2021-06-01T03:32:45+00:00

Well sure this is true but not for the reasons you're giving.

It goes back to the mid 19th century roots of the feminist movement in the USA. Feminism came out of the women who supported the Abolitionist movement (though they later betrayed it) and decided that as rich upper middle class women with time on their hands and their husbands' money to spend while lower class women cared for their children, they were the most oppressed people on earth. Anecdotally this idea was formed during a European cruse to attend a meeting of the abolitionist movement in the UK. Gosh aren't we upper middle class white women with the freedom to flit about the planet on our hobbies, really the moral equivalent of black slaves they said to themselves.

In reality these women were the largest demographic in all history to live in the lap of luxury. Excluding the genuinely rich elite which are too small to be a real demographic, these middle class white women as a group were the most privileged group in all history to that date. Their husbands weren't going with them on European vacations; they had to work, albeit at their office jobs, not down a coal mine.

problem_redditor · 2021-06-01T06:54:03+00:00

I see your post is getting brigaded by tons of shithead feminists who are trying to perform apologetics for their shit ideology.

Sorry about that - I've had this happen to me before. It's the least fun thing to have happen.

mhandanna · 2021-06-01T02:15:51+00:00

Camille Paglia talks about this a lot.... Karen Straughn mentions it too.... here we go great interview btw:

https://www . reddit. com/r/Feministpassdenied/comments/n25y71/feminism_is_always_has_been_from_sufragettes_days/

DefiantDepth8932 · 2021-06-01T02:07:20+00:00

That's hella interesting!

Blauwpetje · 2021-06-01T08:15:16+00:00

The connections between Gloria Steinem and the CIA aren't even a secret - and still a lot of people considering themselves leftists think she's a great leader of a liberation movement.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-gloria-steinem-cia-20151025-story.html

theCourtofJames · 2021-06-01T07:48:20+00:00

What annoys me is how people seem to get fixated on the wrong privileges and biases.

Class privilege is by far the greatest offender and should be focused on so much more then male privilege or straight privilege or whatever.

And even age to some extent needs to be talked about. It NEVER is and infuriates me. Feminists talking about the wage gap for women that doesn't exist. I work in the UK and my girlfriend is in the age bracket below me. We at one point worked the EXACT same job and I was getting paid £4 an hour more than her because of our ages.

atheist343434 · 2021-06-01T03:03:50+00:00

I don’t know what ‘privilege theory’ is but intersectionality was developed by the Combahee River collective. There’s a long history of coopting social movements by more privileged groups but there’s a baby and bathwater phenomenon very present as well.

BloomingBrains · 2021-06-02T18:13:12+00:00

Only people who have plenty of extra time on their hands because they don't have to work that hard would be able to come up with labyrinths of warped logic like this.

If you look at the data showing that men largely generate most of the income in society and pay the most taxes while women spend the most money, it reminds one of the class divide between nobles and peasants in medieval times. The nobles had to justify/distract from the fact that they were so privileged, so they said the peasants were the way they were because of defects like sin, stupidity, mishandling money, etc. (even though its all bullshit) and talked about things like their "divine right to rule". How they were so benevolent for giving the peasants jobs, etc. The constant pathologizing of men and virtue signaling about femininity that feminists due is basically the same thing. I've often found that if you look at any issue in life, the people who are doing one thing are often saying they're the exact opposite and projecting their flaws onto some scapegoat. Well, men are feminists scapegoat. They don't want to reveal the fact that they actually still enjoy the benefits of conservative gynocentrism and are happy to keep it that way.

hackeronethrowaway · 2021-06-03T06:55:40+00:00

Male privilege is very easy to disprove. At no point in history has the privileged group also been the only group it is okay to openly deride, belittle, and despise, while the non privileged groups are off limits from any criticism. That's literally the opposite of how privilege works.

YesAmAThrowaway · 2021-06-01T08:31:31+00:00

Well, nobody is truly "privileged." We all have problems of our own. The only difference is which problems we do have and which we don't and the nature of these problems is different. Some do have it a lot harder, of course.

The problem with being spiteful about who's more privileged or more oppressed is that it turns into a race for who is the most privileged or oppressed so people can be assigned or detracted brownie points, which essentially serves as a mechanism to hate people. To have an excuse to hate them and discredit/promote them. People will get all bitchy about it.

Does that constant battle solve any problems or combat actual discrimination in any way? No, not really. It seems to make it more difficult, because those issues aren't being tackled at their actual core. Even where collective subconscious biases are a thing, attacking people who hold them is not going to make it any better. On the contrary, it's going to get people stuck in their beliefs and turn them into bigots.

Reframing disadvantage as “privilege,” promotes the perverse notion that freedom from discrimination/oppression is a privilege rather than a basic right.

PepperJack_ · 2021-06-01T11:39:10+00:00

I think we shouldn’t play the who’s more privileged/who’s the bigger victim game, not saying that you are, but my point is that person A can have more privilege than person B in certain scenarios and Vice versa. For example I have a friend who is a lower class straight white male, and another who is an upper middle class pansexual woman. My female friend is more privileged in the sense that she has more economic and therefore educational and job opportunities available because of her class. But my male friend is more privileged when we talk about not having his sexuality belittled, he’s more likely to be taken seriously because of his gender in certain scenarios, and he isn’t judged as harshly for his appearance because he is a guy.

Complaints from either friend about being disadvantaged from lack of economic opportunities, or the rigidity of gender norms are both real problems, and just because being poor is, imo, worse doesn’t mean the problems of the upper class shouldn’t be ignored if they come from expectations placed on them by society. Or other unjust sources.

TL;DR I think both are real problems though a lower class male probably has it worse than an upperclass woman. But both have problems stemming from oppressions we can fix at the same time

peanutbutterjams · 2021-06-01T02:26:32+00:00

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2021-06-01T02:13:16+00:00

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AutoModerator · 2021-06-01T02:14:59+00:00

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LastRounder · 2021-06-04T13:43:28+00:00

Same as "The Capital" was written by Marx, a 40 y.o living on Egels's parents money.

All this "fighters against opression" are the same.

DirtyBoyzzz · 2021-06-01T03:15:59+00:00

I think the idea of privilege is better thought of as “be thankful for the shit you DIDN’T have to deal with”. Most men don’t have to deal with sexual harassment the same way women do. I would consider that a male privilege. That being said class is privilege is, in my opinion, the worst and most impactful type of privilege.

Uppmas · 2021-06-01T04:32:40+00:00

Class has always been the main privilege in marxist analysis, no doubt about that.

Only someone economically privileged could claim that a coal miner
working 12 hour shifts to support his family is more privileged than a
rich, white, urban, liberal, female academic.

Does someone actually claim this? Intersectional analysis exists for a reason, there's many axises for privilege.

There are/have been many PoC feminists developing feminist theory. Saying privilege theory is concocted by white rich feminists (while maybe true in some sense) is inane imo.

Phantombiceps · 2021-06-01T09:34:51+00:00

They have never claimed that a male coal miner is more privileged than a female academic, and academics are rarely rich. That said, your point stands as they would consider the two individuals sort of on par. Importantly their class conception is only about prestige, wealth and poverty, so if the miner makes a decent living, then they wouldn’t give a shit that he’s still being robbed by the company or how unhealthy and disempowering his job is.

Title	Male privilege theory is, ironically, the result of privilege.
Author	peanutbutterjams
Upvotes	284
Comments	148
Date	June 1, 2021 1:59 AM UTC (2 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/npj1tz/male_privilege_theory_is_ironically_the_result_of/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/male-privilege-theory-is-ironically-the-result-of.1061200 https://theredarchive.com/post/1061200