Male Privilege: Is It Real?

in #life8 years ago

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I've seen first hand how male privilege can work. A coworker of mine who was a woman was passed up for a promotion, despite the fact that she was trained by the previous manager to do the job, and an outsider -- a man with no experience in the industry -- was chosen over her. There were murmurs that she wasn't hired because she was a woman.

That sucks.

But the above graph is true.

So what are we looking at

Is this simply the result of traditional gender rolls?

If so, what is the right place for this? Obviously, there aren't a lot of woman who are oil refinery technicians, lumberjacks, crab fishermen, etc. These are relatively well established gender rolls that don't seem to be in dispute. After all, there aren't a lot of feminist groups protesting for combat death equality... are there?

I understand the point the image is trying to make, but here are some of my thoughts:

  • I don't have a problem with men in combat -- if we are going to have war, I'd rather men fight it.
  • With industrial deaths: men simply take more of the industrial jobs. This could be bias in hiring, and it could also be that a lot of women just don't wan these jobs.
  • Homicide victims: most homicides are committed by men against men. It's hard to see a problem here.

The issue I have in terms of equality are the remaining graphs:

  • Suicide victims: this should be a problem of concern for society. Why are men killing themselves sooooo much more than women? It needs looking into.
  • Child custody: This is a serious issue. In many states, including my own of WA, sex is the primary factor in deciding custody cases. It's called the Duluth Model, and it is extremely sexist against men and needs to be trashed aggressively.

What are your thoughts? Please share below.

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where those 7% women overweight? :P

I feel like statistics like these rarely paint an accurate picture because so much is left unsaid. For example, are men getting longer sentences than women for the same crimes? Or are more men committing more serious crimes than women?

Personally, I think we'll all benefit when we finally stop making decisions based on gender. Women have proven that they can serve their countries in combat and work industrial jobs and men have proven that they can parent their children. And yet, for whatever reason, we insist on viewing these things as exceptions to the rule instead of encouraging and accepting them as the new norm.

That's a fantastic comment!! Wow. 0.0

It was a very interesting post -- and definitely worth thinking about. Thanks for sharing it!

Indeed, not to mention "industrial deaths and accidents" when 90%+ of the workers in that field are in fact men.

I agree, this infographic is not a fine-tuned enough instrument for identity politics...for the reasons mentioned by the amazing @redhens who I am about to follow! And another:

Identity politics logically amounts to radical individualism, whereby every data point in existence modulates the intersectionality equation. This results in combinatorial explosion: too many variables to solve for at once, all emerged in feedback loops. See the film, "Synecdoche New York" http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0383028/

Also want to add my thanks for bringing up a controversial topic that affects our lives,

Identity politics is radically individualistic....?

That seems contradictory
:/

It is indeed self-contradictory, and needs a reductio ad absurdum to refute it. The movie I shared is that absurdity played out on screen.

Identity politics tries to put us into demographic boxes and label those boxes "identity". Then intersectionality comes along and starts refining the categories of people in the boxes. For example, a gay Latino man may have male privilege, but it is intersected by lack of privilege due to lgbt and ethnicity discrimination.....A person's identity is too many intersections to apply broadly across a culture. It's absurd. :)

Men also get 100% of all testicular and prostate cancer. I think those cancers are sexist.

sickle cell anemia is racist.

I guess it doesn't know that all lives matter.

Do you want Ovarian cancer? Why does cancer get to pick and choose? lol

Only some cancers get to pick and choose. There are some that are equal opportunity cancers, like lymphoma.

I'm no longer a supporter of equal opportunity. lol

cancer has privilege

Two days ago was my hormonal birthday, I have been in transition for 8 years. When I used to look like a woman I thought women would suffer more, I even thought the way men are treated can be considered privilege. But living the reality men face day to day has made me realize privilege is pretty much the opposite of what men get so no, from someone who has actually experience treatment for both genders, no such thing as male privilege unless we can also talk about female privilege.

Wow! What a unique perspective! I have so many questions....... but I can't formulate a specific one just yet.

Thanks for your reply!

I think the problem with White Privilege, Male Privilege, etc is it is incredibly subjective. It differs depending upon where you live. For example I know there are places that have White Privilege, yet it doesn't apply where I have ever lived. I've seen people not get jobs due to being white and a position needing to be given to a minority. As far as Male Privilege that also depends a great deal upon if you are affiliated with religion. All of the religions based on Judaism (Jewish, Christian, Islam, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, etc) are heavily patriarchal. Thus there is definitely heavy Male Privilege if that is your faith. The again it is still subjective as there are likely denominations of all of those faiths where that issue has been impacted.

In fact, religion has a lot to do with male/female privilege. There are some denominations of Wiccan for example that are very heavy on the female privilege side of things.

You are correct! In the modern West, patriarchy and male-privilege only exist in religious cultures. To the secular culture, privilege has been more or less neutralized -- or at least it approaches that. Fantastic post :D

The idea that women get treated worse is just nonsense. I am sure people can give me hundreds of examples of why it is true but when it really comes down to it, if you are supposed to be on top you will figure it out. Maybe that means starting your own company. Maybe it means changing careers to suit your individual needs. Maybe it means the company isn't a company worth working for. In any case there is always a way to increase your standing in life and saying you are entitled to a better position usually isn't one of them.

Nobody should be entitled to something because of who they are rather than what they do.

Wanna see male privilege exist? Please type #nsfw into your steemit search box. You'll see that there are plenty female adult models with nudes earning very well with only a few posts. Most of them devoid of any intelligence or genuine stories. How come there's no male model doing this on steemit? Where is the girl's section where I can browse to satisfy my estrogen surge? How come only males get to avoid castrating themselves to the world while females have to suffer? Why should males get to the keep their clothes on, get to post quality contents for views, and none of them has to show some ass cracks?
PC translation: Steemit is normalizing hostile sexism against women with excessive masculinity that is insidious and disgusting.
I love how you are automatically a SJW if you call something "disgusting".
You all are disgusting - Sumdumphok 2017

I see where you're going.