(no subject)

[novapsyche]

I want to encourage all of my friends to take my latest poll. It's been interesting to read all of the different discussions in various posts this week in my journal. Thanks to all of you for making this journal an active (I even want to say vivacious) place.

So, after you've taken the poll, please read further:

I did a bit of Google digging and found out that "B. Deutsch" is indeed a man, or at least that's what I assume from the person's name. B stands for Barry. The list was published online here at Expository Magazine in 2004 (although some versions of it were known online before then, because I saw a discussion of it dated to 2003).

Here is Mr. Deutsch's biography.

For those who thought that the author of the article was a woman, does your reading of the article change now that you know otherwise?

Comments

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

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.

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

When did feminism change to being about women's concerns, anyway? That's not what I signed up for when I started calling myself a feminist -- I believe in equal treatment and equal socialization. To me, women's priviledges are exactly the same problem as men's privileges. Patriarchy is supposed to be bad for everyone.

I think a big part of the problem these days is that the remaining problems are mainly at a family level, with women expected (by both sides) to be the ones sacrificing career for family, and it's difficult to fight that without seeming to attack stay-at-home-moms.