RE: My privilege as a straight, white, cisgender, middle class thin male
December 27, 2014 at 8:32 pm
(This post was last modified: December 27, 2014 at 8:35 pm by Dystopia.)
(December 27, 2014 at 6:13 pm)TaraJo Wrote:I completely agree that discrimination and unfortunate situations are not in anyway restricted to less privileged groups, and I never intended to say that - Yes, maybe a white living in a black neighborhood will have a hard time, maybe being tall has disadvantages, and all of that, however situations like that do not change the fact that white people objectively possess higher social and political power, as well as economical, as it can be demonstrated by how many occupy politic, CEO's, media companies and other great enterprises offices - The fact that being white can have disadvantages doesn't mean discriminating against other people is acceptable. Whites can de discriminated, they can't be oppressed because other groups who might do that do not possess significant control over society, the economy or means of production...(December 27, 2014 at 5:11 pm)Blackout Wrote: It means one group possesses higher social power over the other
Then do you also recognize that who has privilege will change depending on situation? For example, white people have greater privilege most the time, but if you're white and living in a ghetto neighborhood, you can literally get killed for that. Being tall is generally advantageous, but it makes it a nightmare for me to find clothes that fit. Males are generally considered to have privilege, even though male suicide rates and workplace fatalitie rates are far higher for them than for women.
Can you recognize these differences in situation or do you view privilege as some monolythic, adamant concept?
As far as thin privilege goes, I have a friend who's one of those people who can't put on weight no matter how much she eats. She regularly gets told to eat a damn cheesburger or accused of being anorexic. I guess that's all part of thin privilege too, isn't it?
By the way, thin privilege is associated with an average weight, not underweight. The difference is that being anorexic is perceived by others trough pity, like poor person, she really needs to eat, she's really skinny while being fat regardless of the cause is considered by many to be just laziness.
To make a more easier and simple definition or privilege - It's when you get benefits or advantages without having to do anything about it due to factors you have no control over.
I'm saying this as a white, straight male and I know it would be completely idiotic to say my life is hard compared to black people, or some females, or gays - I would not choose to be any other person because I'll freely admit I enjoy having it the easy way.
I'll also say racism per se will always exist - Racism is not the problem, the problem is when people who possess power are racist - If people from all races possessed political power and were racist at the same time, we could have a system of checks and balances, but we don't
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you