My privilege as a straight, white, cisgender, middle class thin male

[Dystopia]

These third-wave feminists on the internet throw around this big word "privilege", in such a way that it suggests these things they are calling "privileges" shouldn't exist. To me, most of the things they describe as privileges are not privileges at all, they are rights. I feel like to call it a privilege suggests they are something that should be taken away from the people who have them, rather than given to the people who don't.

If you have more rights than people because of how you were born, you have privilege.

Remember in the middle ages when Clergymen and Nobles had more rights because they were born like that? How was it called? That's right, they were the privileged social groups

Rights is not equal legal rights, I'm talking more about having the same social dignity. These social justice warriors don't want to take away rights from white straight men, rather give them equally to other groups

Let me give you an example, if you take the issue of catcalling in the street, which is harassment towards women. It's not a "privilege" to not be harassed, it's a right. Women should have that right too.

Yes, it's a male privilege to not be catcalled regardless of what you wear, because you are not [rarely] catcalled simply because you were born a man. It's a privilege, what other name can you give it?

Being someone who is pretty middle-of-the-road on the almighty "privilege check" (I'm privileged as a white able-bodied male, but disadvantaged as a relatively poor gay person) I can kinda see both sides of the coin here. If I'm going to talk about the whole gay thing, for me the fight for gay rights shouldn't be about dragging straight people down to the level of "oppression" I face. It shouldn't be about making them feel bad for having rights which, as human beings, they are entitled to. It should be about trying to enjoy the same rights they do. By the same token though I can recognise that I'm not oppressed by the double whammy of both homophobia and racism that a black gay man may face, so that is a point for me to be considerate on.

Yes, but you should fight to make society aware that you should have equal treatment socially and legally, therefore you're fighting [indirectly] for straight people to lose the privilege as being seen as the standard

Also if we're going to talk about every person who is in exactly the same level of "privilege" as me, that is to say a gay, white, poor, able-bodied male, we'd still have different experiences. A whole range of outside factors can influence how easy you have it in life. My parents may be a lot less accepting of my sexuality than the next gay person, but I may have some wealthy or influential contacts that the next poor person might not have.

It's true, some people may have it easier than others. But we can measure this by the average person in society. How many people still see gay men as effeminate and "different"? And how many people still think being gay is disgusting?

It's all very wishy-washy and unrealistic to me. Intersectionality works on paper for pointing out the general trends, but the real world is more complex than "straight white male = easy life, black lesbian = struggle struggle struggle".

That's the opposite of insersectionality. But yeah, white male usually means easier life compared to out of the closet lesbian black woman, just tell me how many white men enter college, finish degrees and work in a good job compared to black lesbian women

My point isn't to say that these people are wrong by any means, but I think we should change the use of the word "privilege". Think of these things as basic rights that everyone should have, not bonuses that should be taken away.

Arguing on etymology doesn't change the problem. But you can use the word that pleases you the most.

I use the word privilege because it has more impact, it pisses some people off, but that's exactly my intention - To create an impact and make people realize that contrary to some think just because the law says so it doesn't mean everyone is treated equally.