Check Your Privilege!

[Superlative]

Firstly, rape, suicide, depression, bullying and being over or under weight have nothing to do with privilege. They can happen to anyone, anywhere at any time. Bill Gates could be raped tomorrow. Oxford and Cambridge are infamous for their hazing and "pranks".

Privilege is far more complicated than "could it hypothetically happen to you?" If you're a straight male, you're at a far lesser risk of being raped than a female or a queer male. Have you ever felt that casual male friends would be willing to sexually violate you? What about random males on the street? Odds are you haven't, or at least you haven't felt that sense of threat in the same way or at the same rate as a female. That is privilege, being able to go through your day without justifiable fear of sexual assault is privilege.

What about regular assault? Because men are more likely to be assaulted than women on the streets, yet men don't fear it as much as women, what does that fall under?

I think your missing what privilege is.

Your privileges are the ways in which you fit into whatever slot has the most power and prestige in a particular culture, the group that is considered the default in a society. The one size fits all in wherever. For us westerners the default is a straight, middle class, male wasp. those who for whatever reason don't fit this are considered an abnormally and their concerns are considered special.

@M_K_D brought up sexual assault because straight men (outside of jail) generally don;t have to worry about sexual assault nearly as much as a woman does. Physical violence is something everyone has to worry about in one way or another so its not a privilege thing.

 

[vallorn]

I'm comfortable and reasonably stable financially I have parents who have helped me through everything and I'm a white guy with a loving boyfriend... aaaand maybe ADHD and AS bu really... a lot of this stuff seems to be trying to make yourself feel sorry for yourself because of things it's really rather odd. I'd say that I'm really privileged but my life has been one hell of a boat ride so it gave me:

48/100

Yeeeaaahhh No this thing is bollocks.

EDIT: Boyfriend got 38/100

 

[Dango]

Do people actually act like they can only be discriminated against if they're a racial minority or a woman? I'm curious.

No, the idea that anyone has ever expressed that idea is a knee-jerk reaction that cishet, white, bourgeois men have when they're asked to check their privilege (for the most part at least).

So... if I'm a white male am I automatically privileged or is there some flexibility there?

Edit: At least I'm not privileged according to that test, suck it whities!

 

[DevilWithaHalo]

@M_K_D brought up sexual assault because straight men (outside of jail) generally don;t have to worry about sexual assault nearly as much as a woman does. Physical violence is something everyone has to worry about in one way or another so its not a privilege thing.

You can't argue statistical probability and then ignore it in the span of two sentences. Especially when your notions of privilege rely on statistical probability. Do you really think men don't have to worry about sexual assault? Your hypocrisy is utterly mind boggling... but not surprising.

 

[K12]

That's an interesting question, but I'm not quite sure that it matters. A cishet man being randomly assaulted on the street for reasons unrelated to his gender has nothing to do with privilege so far as I can tell.

If it was unrelated to gender, then there would as many assaults on women as on men, no? There must be something more satisfying to assault a man than a women for these people.

The reason that men get attacked more often is not necessarily to do with being more often targeted but may be a case of being in dangerous situations. In my experience women are often far more wary of being out at night on their own and may be in harms way less often than a fairly big young male who can handle himself getting mugged by a gang of 5 guys with knives.

It's also worth saying that perpetrators of all violent crime are predominantly men. There is a difference between member of a group attacking a member of the same group compared to a member of a social group attacking members of a different social group.

(btw I hope this won't be interpreted as me saying "the men deserve it for taking risks", I am simply saying that higher assaults and muggings on men might not be because they are more often targeted)

 

[michael87cn]

Why is the whole thing about discrimination? There are other kinds of hardships in life. Or, maybe I gave up after ticking off like 15 boxes... but I didn't read them all, but they seemed to follow the same pattern.

I wouldn't care what people thought of me if I was the most 'unpopular' type of human being in the world. I have my hardships, you have yours. Attaching some kind of score to my life? Seems kind of, foolish.

 

[The Material Sheep]

So... if I'm a white male am I automatically privileged or is there some flexibility there?

We all have privilege of different types and different degrees. If you're a white male you have white and male privilege, simple as that.

You can't argue statistical probability and then ignore it in the span of two sentences. Especially when your notions of privilege rely on statistical probability. Do you really think men don't have to worry about sexual assault?

Hypothetically, everyone and anyone can be sexually assaulted. Privilege isn't being incapable of being sexually assaulted, being able to go to a party without the fear that you might be drugged and raped, being able to wait for the bus without a guy taking creepshots of you. The matter of the fact is, straight men are far less likely to be victims of sexual assault than women or queer men. This does not at all mean that straight men being raped isn't an issue, it's just not an issue of privilege as we're discussing it.

I'll concede that straight men are less likely to be victims of sexual assault, sure that's fine. They're far more likely to be victims of physical assault. Is that really a demonstrable privilege, or more along the lines of advantages and disadvantages.

The constant debates over who is and isn't the most privilege, just come off as dick measuring contests to me. A contest to see who has it the worst, really isn't a fruitful area of discussion, or a healthy way to view society.

 

[The Material Sheep]

The constant debates over who is and isn't the most privilege, just come off as dick measuring contests to me. A contest to see who has it the worst, really isn't a fruitful area of discussion, or a healthy way to view society.

Of course, that's because the concept of privilege is meant as a tool, a magnifying glass or a comb for examining how a person's social standing relates to their interpretations and actions. Why should people check their own privilege or the privilege of others? Because it helps us understand the narratives and filters through which we perceive things.

Unfortunately this modern view of privilege oh too often relies far too much on feeling and perspective versus fact and reason. It leads to racists like Suey Park getting soap boxes and using it as a political club to legislate things that have no business being legislated. To me, this check your privilege crap is just getting to be another way for some people to flaunt their social superiority, and split people into more and more groups.

This trying to reconcile various peoples who've arbitrarily divided themselves into groups, by further dividing said groups, instead of focusing on the common traits we as humans all share, is only leaning to more hatred and resentment between the social groups. We've all got our issues, talents and anxieties. We've all got our problems, faults and failings. We're all going to die some day. Instead of trying to figure out who's got it the worst, why don't we just trying to understand and bond over what we all have in common.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I expected to be pretty damn high since I'm a straight white guy.

Ended up with a 36/100 and answered totally honestly.

Probably mostly to do with the fact that even though I'm white I've been below middle class and not around white people my whole life. Also I'm scrawny and have spent a lot of time on the internet so I can't check off any of the ones like "I've never been called a ******" either.

 

[MercurySteam]

65/100. Not bad at all. I could see some people I know getting much lower scores so I guess I should be thankful.

 

[Dense_Electric]

This is inherently bullshit because it assumes that you're more or less privileged because of your race or sex (read: if you're white and male, you're automatically more privileged according to this quiz). While this can certainly be the case, it's A, not universally true, and B, women and people of other races sometimes have certain privileges white males do not, so these factors therefor can't be used to determine one's level of privilege.

I also agree with Nurb, the idea of trying to make this into a "victimhood olympics" (brilliant term there, BTW) does not help anyone. What could theoretically be a useful tool for identifying who in our society is most in need of help (if it were accurate enough) is inevitably abused by the internet as a cop-out for acting like an asshole, where someone need only claim a "lack of privilege" (because they must have it so bad if they have a reliable internet connection) to automatically absolve themselves of all guilt or blame. It's like the left wing's answer to the right wing's abuse of the term "political correctness." Something that is thrown around as an automatic verbal smackdown against anyone you disagree with without actually having to argue logically or based on any sort of evidence.

Also, speaking as a white, heterosexual, cisgendered male: this whole "guilt by association" mindset that a small subset of feminists (who shall henceforth be referred to as "Tumblr Feminists" or "Feminazis") have, where all people of my "privileged" class are automatically guilty of some crime we didn't commit? Yeah, well I take that as a personal insult in the same way that you would justifiably take a post telling you to get in the kitchen and make a sandwich as a personal insult. It's not appreciated, and no one is ever going to listen to a word you say if you continue to patronize them for a crime they didn't commit. So knock it off or continue to be thought a fool.

 

[draigan]

I got 39 out of 100

Kinda expected that to be higher but the questions where hardly all encompassing

 

[CrystalShadow]

... 27 - Um, I know my life has lots of weird awkward things in it, but this still surprises me.

OK, so 10 or 20 of the questions are borderline, where in my situation I could've easily gone either way with how I answered, or don't actually even make sense in context of the countries I've lived in, but still...

Wow.

 

[Sethzard]

The religion section is where I run into the most problems. I'm an athiest so it doesn't really apply, work has been accommodating because I have no beliefs to interfere, there is nothing to mock etc.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Why is the whole thing about discrimination? There are other kinds of hardships in life. Or, maybe I gave up after ticking off like 15 boxes... but I didn't read them all, but they seemed to follow the same pattern.

I wouldn't care what people thought of me if I was the most 'unpopular' type of human being in the world. I have my hardships, you have yours. Attaching some kind of score to my life? Seems kind of, foolish.

Because that's largely what the concept of 'privilege' is about. While it is in principle just used to describe where a certain group of people have an advantage over another group, what it is usually about when someone brings up the subject, is that someone with a certain privilege may not even be aware of just what advantages this actually gives them over someone without that same advantage. This may lead them to dismiss the consequences of that advantage, and assume they are on a level playing field when they are in fact not.
However, a more direct reason for why discrimination is a big factor is that frequently it is discrimination itself that maintains and reinforces privilege. (The reason being black, or say, a muslim is a disadvantage for instance is not anything innate to being that way, but mostly because of other groups of people who have more power and influence than you do, holding your identity against you. Thus, in these kinds of situations, the discrimination involved is precisely why one group has privilege and the other does not. Frequently, to have privilege, means to be the one doing the discrimination or abuse, while to not have it, means being at risk of such abuse or discrimination. For another example, the negative consequences of being poorly educated, while having some other elements to them, also largely revolve around how others treat you as a result. Discrimination is technically still going on even if there is a perfectly valid, rational reason for, say, not wanting someone who doesn't have a driver's license to be driving a car. - There's a very obvious, very rational reason for that, but technically, it is still discrimination...)

Is that really a demonstrable privilege, or more along the lines of advantages and disadvantages.

You do realise what you've said just describes the same thing with different words, right?
Privilege = advantage, by and large.

So really, you're restating the same thing, but making it sound like it's something different.