Privilege
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| − | For instance, [[heterosexual]] imagery is used in the vast majority of [[advertising]] despite the fact that as high as 10% of the population may be gay or [[bisexual]]. In short, heterosexual behaviour is on constant display, it's rarely ever challenged and is "normalised". So, consider the cases where people say that they're ''for'' [[LGBT]] equality, but disapprove of it being displayed prominently and "rammed down their throats". This is a classic case of privilege and privilege-blindness because ostensibly overt displays of affection from homosexuals are actually no more or less overt than those from heterosexuals. Boy-girl hand-holding is unlikely to even register for most people, while boy-boy or girl-girl combinations in the street - because of their relative rarity - are likely to produce a much stronger single. | + | For instance, [[heterosexual]] imagery is used in the vast majority of [[advertising]] despite the fact that as high as 10% of the population may be gay or [[bisexual]] -- which means that nine out of ten people (90% of the population) would not be attracted to the advertising and may even boycott the prodcut. In short, heterosexual behaviour is on constant display, it's rarely ever challenged and is "normalised". So, consider the cases where people say that they're ''for'' [[LGBT]] equality, but disapprove of it being displayed prominently and "rammed down their throats". This is a classic case of privilege and privilege-blindness because ostensibly overt displays of affection from homosexuals are actually no more or less overt than those from heterosexuals. Boy-girl hand-holding is unlikely to even register for most people, while boy-boy or girl-girl combinations in the street - because of their relative rarity - are likely to produce a much stronger single. |
In short, those who ask homosexual couples to be less open and "in your face" about their gayness simply don't realise how open and "in your face" heterosexual couples are.<ref>''Yes'', there are "exceptions" to this. If you find a gay talking about the grisly details of how loose man-sex has left his anus as equally distasteful as some bro yapping about how many women he used and dumped at the weekend, you're probably justified.</ref> | In short, those who ask homosexual couples to be less open and "in your face" about their gayness simply don't realise how open and "in your face" heterosexual couples are.<ref>''Yes'', there are "exceptions" to this. If you find a gay talking about the grisly details of how loose man-sex has left his anus as equally distasteful as some bro yapping about how many women he used and dumped at the weekend, you're probably justified.</ref> | ||
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Privilege is a social justice concept referring to the benefits and advantages held by a group in power, or in a majority, but are not formally codified as legal rights. Privilege, in this context, is used in arguments seeking to explain the ways in which minorities are disadvantaged or oppressed that are not instantly recognisable due to a related concept privilege blindness.
Because of privilege and related blindness to it, people who ostensibly support equal rights for a group of people can still inadvertently marginalize them by being distanced from their concerns. It derives from the basic definition of "privilege", but is expanded upon as a specific term of art amongst social justice activists - and as a result can lead to it being misunderstood and dismissed immediately.
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Worked examples
The concept of privilege can be applied to many different social justice areas, including class and wealth distribution, racism or sexism/misogyny. Privilege is essentially the immunity that some (usually majority, usually in-power) classes have against forms of discrimination. As well as these "hidden advantages", there is also the case of how society is set up to treat majority vs minority classes. It is best illustrated by a few examples of more clear and more subtle forms.
Walking home at night
The majority of rape cases are male-on-female, a statistical asymmetry that is well-quantified. The result is that a fear of rape, or a threat of rape, is a real thing for women far more than for men. Generally speaking, men have fewer reasons (both statistical and tangible) to fear a sexual assault. This is what is being referred to by "privilege" in this sense. Men have a particular privilege not to experience this fear, or in other words women have a particular under-privilege (or lack of privilege) to experience it.
Public displays of affection
For instance, heterosexual imagery is used in the vast majority of advertising despite the fact that as high as 10% of the population may be gay or bisexual -- which means that nine out of ten people (90% of the population) would not be attracted to the advertising and may even boycott the prodcut. In short, heterosexual behaviour is on constant display, it's rarely ever challenged and is "normalised". So, consider the cases where people say that they're for LGBT equality, but disapprove of it being displayed prominently and "rammed down their throats". This is a classic case of privilege and privilege-blindness because ostensibly overt displays of affection from homosexuals are actually no more or less overt than those from heterosexuals. Boy-girl hand-holding is unlikely to even register for most people, while boy-boy or girl-girl combinations in the street - because of their relative rarity - are likely to produce a much stronger single.
In short, those who ask homosexual couples to be less open and "in your face" about their gayness simply don't realise how open and "in your face" heterosexual couples are.[1]
Racial profiling
The Arizona bill "Arizona SB 1070"[2] attracted significant controversy because it encouraged racial profiling of suspected illegal immigrants. This appeared to attract broad support from Americans, with 60% backing the idea of racial profiling. However, the majority of people voting were (and still are, presumably) white and therefore would never have been the victims of any racial profiling. Being victimised for their skin colour was never a foreseeable consequence for those people, and so they lacked any personal salience towards the issue.
This lack of salience is exactly what the "privilege" argument addresses. People make the assumption that because something is not an issue for them, it should not be an issue for others. This is clearly not going to be the case.
Privilege blindness
What is so difficult about privilege, and is highlighted in the racial profiling case above, is that it is a concept that is very counter-intuitive to the privileged. Privilege is, by definition, the advantages people have that they don't think about because it is never raised. Understanding it requires an active effort to see things from the perspective of other people, namely the underprivileged. This can lead to problems both small-scale (a man's chronic inability to get women to talk to him) and large (imbalance in performance in math and science between the sexes and sexism in hiring in the hard sciences[3]).
Some suggest that those who have the luxury of rarely thinking about privilege likely posses some form of it.
Conflicting privileges
Except for the very tiny minority of people who happen to be simultaneously poor, transgendered, physically disabled, American Indian, atheist, lesbian, etc., it's very likely that you'll be privileged in some areas while being discriminated in others. This can, ironically, create some genuine problems within demographics that are normally seen as the victims of privilege. See: the virulent strain of transphobia that exists in dark corners of radical feminism or the undercurrent of black homophobia that contributed to Proposition 8 being passed.
The bottom line is that privilege isn't just a 'thing' only WASPy, American, abled, straight males need to be concerned with. Almost everyone is on a socially dominant or submissive side of some demographic. And forgetting this can make you just as much of a jerk as anyone else.
Privileged distress
Privileged distress is the knee-jerk hostile reaction often displayed by the privileged when their privilege is openly acknowledged or challenged.[4] This typically involves denying the existence of privilege ("I didn't get any special advantages -- I worked hard for what I have!") or rationalizing examples of privilege and lack thereof ("Well, you know how lazy those people are, no wonder nobody wants to hire them."). Those accustomed to privilege often regard steps toward equality as an assault on the privileged group: allowing homosexuals to marry is interpreted as an attack on "traditional marriage," Christians, or heterosexuals; the election of a black president brought fears of an "African anti-colonialist agenda" that would punish and disenfranchise white people.
Privileged distress can be particularly tricky to deal with, since most people with privilege aren't particularly bad people; they're just privilege-blind (q.v.) and afraid of losing a comfortable, familiar status quo.
Further examples
Basic examples of privileges talked about in this sense include:
- The ability of men to walk alone at night without the fear of sexual assault that is often experienced by women.
- The fact that for a man to be in public without a top is socially acceptable, while it seldom is for a woman.[5]
- The fact that sexual promiscuity is a socially desirable trait in men, but is often denigrated in women.
- The ability of whites to avoid racial profiling or to avoid greater prison sentences.
- The ability to use a gendered bathroom straightforwardly, when compared to the experiences of transgender or otherwise gender-nonconforming people.
- The ability to effectively manage the workload of day-to-day life, when compared to the experience of chronically ill people.
- The ability of the rich and powerful to not worry about the financial implications of an accident or unexpected illness, as opposed to the poor.
- The ability of certain light-skinned people of colour, "straight-acting" gay/bisexual people, and the like to pass as part of the privileged classes even though they're not members of it.
- The ability of some transgender persons to be readily identified by others as the gender that they identify as. This is also called "passing privilege."
- The availability and affordability of education, including parental financial support.
See also
External links
- Privilege Checking Resource
- White Privilege Checklist
- Male Privilege Checklist
- Straight Privilege Checklist
- Cis Privilege Checklist
- Able-bodied Privilege Checklist
- Christian Privilege Checklist
- Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is, John Scalzi
Footnotes
- ↑ Yes, there are "exceptions" to this. If you find a gay talking about the grisly details of how loose man-sex has left his anus as equally distasteful as some bro yapping about how many women he used and dumped at the weekend, you're probably justified.
- ↑
- ↑ http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/09/14/1211286109
- ↑ The Distress of the Privileged, The Daily Sift
- ↑ Or, if we're talking about theocracy in the Middle East, any skin whatsoever.