Ok, I admit I am a bit late to the "party" as I approach the end of my fourth decade on earth. But it's time for me to understand and accept what it is with me, my sexuality and how I relate to the world. As a bisexual crossdresser - and being on the androgynous or even feminine side of the gender spectrum - I am obviously aware that I may not be in the top of the "hierarchy". But still, I am also aware that I - as a male mostly perming as a male - still hold certain privileges compared to other groups. I am somewhat familiar with feminism, but I want to educate myself further about these privileges - not just in relation to women. I know it is not something you "just do", but I'd like to hear if you have any ideas on how to start educating myself on this topic? Any great sources for this? Books, movies, internet sites etc.?
I am really glad that you're aware of privilege and want to know about it. I would try first considering every single dominant group you belong to and every one that you don't. That tells you what kind of privilege you have and what you don't. The privilege you don't and the oppression that you suffer as a result can help you in small measure to relate, but it's an imperfect knowledge application. I have white privilege, male privilege, cis privilege, and class privilege. Basically the only privilege I don't have is straight privilege (and if you disagree, I'll completely take you to school). So then you go and do the research. Figure out what kinds of articles and literature there is on it. What kinds of ways do people exercise their privilege and how is that bad? Once you know what your privilege is, then you can start checking your privilege, which is to say, when you can, you refuse to act on your privilege; and when you can't, you acknowledge that, try to use your privilege in solidarity while being accountable to the people you are privileged over. As for specific people to look at, there's Tim Wise, a white anti-racist activist. There's the "unpacking the invisible knapsack" article (I forget the author), among many important resources.
The thing with priviliges is that it's really hard for a person to recognise them on their own. The main issue is to be able to put yourself in the others shoes. It's a difficult thing and seeing as how Pret has given you most of the important tips already I'll leave it at this and second his suggestions.
Excellent advice. You are right, that my own sense of oppression is not a very reliable guide to privileges and oppression in general. And I really like your idea of checking out my own privileges. It is funny (or sad) how much we take our privileges for granted, totally oblivious to the fact that so much of our lives are determined by things which are completely out of our own hands.
By striving to break them you're already doing more about them than most people I'd wager. But you do have to continue doing so of course!
I agree. I have for years (even decades) seen how I felt oppressed myself, but never been aware, that I held a privileged position in many areas of my life. I will try to follow the advice of Pret Allez.
Huh. I guess I have white privilege and English-as-a-first-language privilege. Nothing else that I can think of... I'm not sure about class privilege. We're bottom-middle class.
For me, one of the things that was most helpful in understanding my privilege was talking to people who don't have it. Having frank, honest discussions with women, with people of color, with people who've been sexually assaulted, with people in lower income brackets, and even with other people in under-privileged groups I'm in (e.g. other gay people, other genderqueer people, other autism-spectrum people, etc.) helped open my eyes to the incidental benefits I enjoy due to forces that are out of my control, benefits that I had taken for granted. Those discussions opened my eyes to all these little things that I thought were part of everyone's experiences, that it turns out were due to my privilege, as well as double-standards and different experiences that I didn't realize were problematic. For example, I can walk down the street in my less-than-safe city without feeling worried that something might happen to me at the hands of a member of the opposite sex (not a privilege shared by all women). I can walk into a random location and be reasonably assured that there will be people there who look like me (not a privilege shared by people of color). If someone commits a crime against me, I can rest reasonably assured that no one will ask me what I did to provoke them (not a privilege shared by sexual assault survivors). If something of mine breaks, I can buy a new one without stressing about it too much (not a privilege shared by people in lower income brackets). Reading about privilege is definitely a very good first step, and like Pret Allez, I highly recommend the "Unpacking the invisible napsack" series of articles. But reading will only get you so far, just as learning a language in a classroom can only get you so fluent; after a while, you need to immerse yourself in that culture to really understand it internally. You really need to talk with those who have experienced not having it to gain a better understanding of it intuitively. Talking about their experiences will make it real for you, it will give you something tangible to use to understand this idea. Now, flat-out asking someone what it's like to be in an underprivileged group might not elicit the best response, and unfortunately, I really don't have any advice on how to facilitate these conversations. All of the conversations I've had about these topics have been the result of serendipity, i.e. the topic of privilege coming up in the conversation, or the result of me saying something messed up that showed how privileged I was and one of my close friends calling me out on it. The first one relies on luck, and I don't recommend the second one for obvious reasons. I think the best way to go about it would be to educate yourself like Pret Allez suggested, then make it known to your friends in non-privileged groups that you are educating yourself about it, sending the message you want to learn more. They might take up the opportunity to tell you more about what it's like to not have privilege, they might not. As long as you're open to having those conversations, that's what matters.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This. Especially people you might initially find 'strange' or completely opposite of you.
Ah, this thread is awesome and I love you for it! I was JUST about to log on to rant about how two cisgender white gay men completely forgot to check their privilege and had the audacity to vote against forming an LGBT agency on campus because "there is no use for it", "its something that's acceptable now" and "the GSA on campus is enough". But that's my rant anyway A lot of awesome things have already been mentioned so I won't just say them again. I'm also fairly new at getting the hang of it, but once you do the world starts to make more sense. Good news though, there is actually a name for what you are looking for and that's intersectionality. There is a lot to it and I wouldn't be able to explain everything to you myself, but there are awesome people out there who have done some awesome things with it. The main idea is that we are all oppressed and we are all privileged in some way, and the combination of those things dictates how everyone experience life, and helps us to understand the big picture. As for talking to people in order to educate yourself, like Owen mentioned, is a really good idea. Something to keep in mind is that its your responsibility to get educated and no one should have the responsibility to educate you about themselves. There are people though that what they like to do is just that, so find and reach out to those people. They will be more than happy to help you understand things from their perspective. Leaders in organizations and different departments will be your best bet to find people who are willing to help you out.
Wow... awesome comments. I think intersectionality could be a way to describe the paradox that I feel oppressed in some ways, but that I am clearly privileged in many other areas of my life. I have always though that the word 'patriarchy' described something, but that it also missed something. Besides that my main takeaways from your comments are: Read "Unpacking the invisible knapsack" as a start Start contemplating in which areas of my life I am privileged (white, middleclass etc.) Start exploring my privileges in each of these areas by talking to "under-privileged" people Besides that, I just did a fairly humbling exercise. I keyed in my annual income on a couple of sites that rank you according to income (such as the Global Rich List) and found that I am apparently among the 1% richest people in the world. I usually don't feel rich (and by western standards I am middle class), but it goes to show just how biased I really am. There is something to learn....
^Nice link. It does a great job at putting things in perspective. Here is one of my fav blogs online. The guy is mostly spot-on about the things he writes, but of course no one is perfect. He has come up with very awesome ways to teach complex subjects in a very approachable way so his articles are an easy starting point if you are interested. He is also the creator of the genderbread person which is just awesomeness all around. 30+ Examples of Middle-to-Upper Class Privilege 30+ Examples of Christian Privilege 30+ Examples of Heterosexual Privilege in the US 30+ Examples of Cisgender Privilege
