Ten male privileges

Generally, men are unaware of the systematic privileges they enjoy. It's one of the major obstacles to a fair discussion about sexism, because they can't seem to tell the difference between a commercial that depicts some man as a savage brute or a woman that gets harrassed on the street. While they will correctly conclude that both are inappropriate, they completely ignore that the disadvantages that women have to cope with are institutional, programmatic and systematic.

We've talked about privilege here before, and there's also a nugget devoted to it in the 'Progress 101' presentation that I made.

Someone recently pointed me towards this list. It attempts to list the typical instances of privilege that (white, heterosexual) men enjoy and while I didn't think it was bad per se, it did contain a few questionable points, and was generally pretty US-centric. So, I've tried to condense the list a little and put my own spin on it.

Here we go. As a heterosexual, white man:

1. I have the privilege of being thought of as the default audience by most modern media, in terms of representation (see the Bechdel test, for example) as well as how a lot of things are advertised alongside beautiful women (male gaze).
    
2. I have the privilege of not facing scrutiny for being ambitious, assertive or career-driven.
    
3. I have the privilege that all major world religions are led by people of my own gender and that most of their scriptures, traditions and rituals accord me a position of power and respect, most notably over women.
    
4. I have the privilege that my chances of being groped, catcalled, sexually harrassed or sexually assaulted in a public space are negligibly small.
    
5. I have the privilege that discussions that relate to my achievements, opinions or personality is unlikely to be taken as emblematic for all men - I am usually seen as an individual.
    
6. I have the privilege that people are unlikely to dismiss my opinions merely because I am a man.
    
7. I have the privilege that most economic, political and academic systems disproportionally advantage people like me, or are entrenched in a culture that is more benign to people like me.
    
8. I have the privilege that large parts of society do not value me solely on basis of how I look.
    
9. I have the privilege that I can indulge in casual sex without being judged for it.
    
10. I have the privilege to be unaware of my privilege and to be blind for the difficulties that others face on a systematic and day-to-day basis.

Connecting the dots

The gruesome gang rape, the resulting death of the victim, and the outrage it sparked in India as well as internationally, has probably baffled many people. As with brutal war crimes (that often involve graphic rape in no small part), acts like that seem almost incomprehensible from a common sense point of view. Why would people ever brutalise another human being like that? How is it possible that an entire group of adult people can participate in something so despicable and senselessly destructive that most people would not hesitate to put the perpetrators of these acts to death?

A lot of explanations have been offered for crimes like that. A sort of group think that becomes increasingly locked up in a bubble of its own and then produces terrible excesses is one explanation that is often offered. But I find that it also acquits people who were not directly involved with such crimes all too easily.

Gang rapists aren't born as hardened misogynists who don't see women (or in some cases, certain types of men) as human beings. The same is true for genocidal war criminals. Some among them might have been sociopaths all along, but the majority probably isn't. They're not born into their bubble of hate and frustration, but they do start off with basic assumptions about women or minorities that society openly condones or at least tolerates.

Women in India are second-class citizens at best. A staggering number of girl infants is murdered every year because having sons supposedly brings more honour to the family, and a dowry for a girl can break the back of a family already under financial stress. It's one of the most brutal points of intersection between sexism and capitalism, by the way. A lot of poor men grow up with the realization that they'll never be able to find a wife, yet they watch television and consume media that portray women in varying degrees as objects with no other purpose than to please men, and see women struggling for independence outpacing them in terms of power, success and money.

That poisonous cocktail really isn't that specific for India. It's the same story for misogynists in the rural United States, poor youths of North African origin in the streets of Brussels or Paris, or whatever group of men that is constantly told their genitals make them superior and entitled, yet are never able to cash in on that entitlement. There has even been a convincing case for the fact that it's that sort of rage that played a part in the mass shootings of the past decade, nearly always committed by white men in their '20s.

Until we recognise and see that as a society, we are still providing too much fertile ground for the most terrible excesses to start growing, and that these people do not start out as extremists or can be dismissed as completely alien, these things will continue to happen.