19th August 2014, 7:36 AM
Those things are bad, yes, and biased. Those are problems, but if you want to know about privilege, we should be more specific.
Legally, women have essentially all the rights men do now. This is a step in the right direction, but culturally, and in actual practice, women are not equals. This is where the concept of "privilege" comes in. Privilege isn't a bad thing, in fact ideally all races and genders would be uplifted to the same level of it. However, it does result in some blinders.
Namely, ask some of the women you know about their day to day life. From what you've said, I'm fairly certain you'll be rather surprised. A lot of men walk around with some assumptions that cause women problems. Maybe you see a woman appear to overreact to someone "coming on" to them. What you didn't see were the dozens of comeons she already had to deal with that week, the constant barrage that happens practically from the moment she steps out the door to the moment she finally gets home. The reality that, say, she may not even make it home safely. Maybe she was running late, she might have to walk back late at night, and it's dangerous. Maybe she is thinking about asking someone she knows to escort her back home, but maybe not, because how well does she know the person she's asking?
There's a statistical fact that women get paid less than men for the same work. There are exceptions, but statistics don't lie. There's a significant number out there to prove there is a problem.
Beyond that, let's look at how the press reacts to women in power. A woman in power is an exception, they themselves have gained the privilege of power, but there's still an odd way the press will treat them. Any sign of emotional weakness is preyed upon.
Even in the sciences, statistics are showing a huge bias amongst a profession that should know better, with all sorts of harassment at that level.
I understand, your position may be that as women now have legal equality, it follows that all it takes is to drop the pretense and simply hold women as equal, and everything else goes away, and by that reasoning considering men "privileged" just adds to the problem. The unfortunate reality is that vast parts of our culture (and many others) are very far from such an enlightened outlook. It's been going on for decades since legal equality came about, and thus equality still hasn't been reached. As such, acting like everyone is equals only serves to hide the problems women go through every single day.
Legally, women have essentially all the rights men do now. This is a step in the right direction, but culturally, and in actual practice, women are not equals. This is where the concept of "privilege" comes in. Privilege isn't a bad thing, in fact ideally all races and genders would be uplifted to the same level of it. However, it does result in some blinders.
Namely, ask some of the women you know about their day to day life. From what you've said, I'm fairly certain you'll be rather surprised. A lot of men walk around with some assumptions that cause women problems. Maybe you see a woman appear to overreact to someone "coming on" to them. What you didn't see were the dozens of comeons she already had to deal with that week, the constant barrage that happens practically from the moment she steps out the door to the moment she finally gets home. The reality that, say, she may not even make it home safely. Maybe she was running late, she might have to walk back late at night, and it's dangerous. Maybe she is thinking about asking someone she knows to escort her back home, but maybe not, because how well does she know the person she's asking?
There's a statistical fact that women get paid less than men for the same work. There are exceptions, but statistics don't lie. There's a significant number out there to prove there is a problem.
Beyond that, let's look at how the press reacts to women in power. A woman in power is an exception, they themselves have gained the privilege of power, but there's still an odd way the press will treat them. Any sign of emotional weakness is preyed upon.
Even in the sciences, statistics are showing a huge bias amongst a profession that should know better, with all sorts of harassment at that level.
I understand, your position may be that as women now have legal equality, it follows that all it takes is to drop the pretense and simply hold women as equal, and everything else goes away, and by that reasoning considering men "privileged" just adds to the problem. The unfortunate reality is that vast parts of our culture (and many others) are very far from such an enlightened outlook. It's been going on for decades since legal equality came about, and thus equality still hasn't been reached. As such, acting like everyone is equals only serves to hide the problems women go through every single day.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)