I think it is ironic that in a discussion of the *Male* privilege checklist written *by a man* that a man was accused of derailing discussion of *women's concerns*.
The thing about the checklist: what is it's purpose?
If it was for Mr. Deutsch to examine his own privilege, well bully for him. But, it seems to me the purpose of making it public is to point out the privileges that men, collectively have.
The reaction of men is going to fall into three main categories:
1. Sexist pig. He's going to dismiss it as not reflecting reality or he's going to say, "So what? This is just life."
2. The sensitive feminist man. He's already going to be aware of most of these privileges. He's going to feel terrible about them. He's going to be doing everything in his power to address the areas that he can. Other issues are institutional, and not something the individual man can *do* anything about.
3. The average guy. He's already got some feminist awareness and generally agrees with the idea of equality. Maybe he feels that women were given a raw deal in the past, but he thinks we've come a long way and things are a lot closer to equal than they've ever been. He's going to see this huge list as an attack against him. He's going to look at every item that doesn't apply to him (say, if he's gay) or every item that's overstated or overgeneralized, and he's going to want to pick the list apart.
In none of those cases have you started a meaningful dialogue with men that is going to create change, either internally or societally.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-20 01:19 pm (UTC)The thing about the checklist: what is it's purpose?
If it was for Mr. Deutsch to examine his own privilege, well bully for him. But, it seems to me the purpose of making it public is to point out the privileges that men, collectively have.
The reaction of men is going to fall into three main categories:
1. Sexist pig. He's going to dismiss it as not reflecting reality or he's going to say, "So what? This is just life."
2. The sensitive feminist man. He's already going to be aware of most of these privileges. He's going to feel terrible about them. He's going to be doing everything in his power to address the areas that he can. Other issues are institutional, and not something the individual man can *do* anything about.
3. The average guy. He's already got some feminist awareness and generally agrees with the idea of equality. Maybe he feels that women were given a raw deal in the past, but he thinks we've come a long way and things are a lot closer to equal than they've ever been. He's going to see this huge list as an attack against him. He's going to look at every item that doesn't apply to him (say, if he's gay) or every item that's overstated or overgeneralized, and he's going to want to pick the list apart.
In none of those cases have you started a meaningful dialogue with men that is going to create change, either internally or societally.