The Male Privilege Checklist
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Wolran Kim
December 2012
Barry Deutsch is a cartoonist, living in Portland, Oregon. He is best known for his graphic novel Hereville, published by Abrams in November of 2010. Barry is a highly sought-after speaker and is a recognized expert in hiring and retaining top talent. He has presented workshops, keynotes, and seminars to over 30,000 hiring executives and managers over the last two decades. Barry is the nationally recognized IMPACT Speaker of the Year by Vistage International and has been named as the #1 Recruiter by HR Examiner in their 2011 publication of the Top 25 Online Influencers in Recruiting.
Peggy McIntosh is an American feminist and anti-racist activist, the associate director of the Wellesley Centers for Women, a speaker, and the founder and co-director of the National S.E.E.D. Project on Inclusive Curriculum (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity). McIntosh is most famous for authoring the 1988 essay "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies.”
Peggy McIntosh’s short essay states that, “White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks.” McIntosh emphasizes that these privileges are not distributed equally or shared by individuals of every race. As McIntosh points out, men also tend to be unaware of their own privileges as men. In the spirit of McIntosh’s essay, Deutsch thought he would compile a list similar to McIntosh’s, focusing on the invisible privileges benefiting men. Due to his own limitations, this list is unavoidably U.S. centric. He hopes that writers from other cultures will create new lists, or modify this one, to reflect their own experiences.
In Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1954, Congress barred discrimination “...against any individual with respect to... terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of [an individual’s] sex.” The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission (1995) established by President Bush and Senator Dole found that women remained economically disadvantaged. Per the study, 97% of senior managers in Fortune 1000 corporations were males in 1992. Women held only 3 to 5% of senior level management positions. In 2005, women held 46.5% of U.S. jobs, and earned 72% of the salary of their male co-workers. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (1995) similarly found that, within educational categories, the economic status of women fell short. The average woman with a master’s degree earned the same amount as the average man with an associate’s degree.
"Male privilege” is a sociological term developed by feminists that refers quite generally to any special rights or status granted to men in a society, on the basis of their sex or gender, but usually denied to women. In legal cases alleging discrimination, "sex" is usually preferred as the determining factor rather than "gender," because it refers to biology rather than socially constructed norms which are more open to interpretation and dispute. Greenberg explains that although gender and sex are separate concepts, they are interlinked in that gender discrimination often results from stereotypes based on what is expected of members of each sex.
Thus, biologically "male" privilege is only one of many power structures that may exist within a given society, and levels/manifestations of male privilege differ both between disparate societies as well as in different contexts within the same society. The term "male privilege" does not apply to a solitary occurrence of the use of power, but rather describes one of many systemic power structures that are interdependent and interlinked throughout societies and cultures.
Barry Deutsch has created an informative and simple Male Privilege Checklist inspired by Peggy McIntosh's previous work dealing with white privilege. This checklist is, as Deutsch’s hope, a step towards helping men to give up the “first big privilege.” Several critics have also argued that the list somehow victimizes women. He disagrees; pointing out problems is not the same as perpetuating them. It is not a “victimizing” position to acknowledge that injustice exists; on the contrary, without that acknowledgment it is not possible to fight injustice.
Pointing out that men are privileged in no way denies that bad things happen to men. Being privileged does not mean men are given everything in life for free; being privileged does not mean that men do not work hard, or do not suffer. In many cases – from a boy being bullied in school, to a soldier dying in war – the sexist society that maintains male privilege also does great harm to boys and men.
Peggy McIntosh thought there is a shadow of White Privilege in American society. McIntosh is suggesting that men have a lot of unwritten advantages over women even though they do still have hardships. Barry Deutsch compiled a similar list focusing on the invisible privileges benefiting men. I think that we have to recognize the differences between men and women. Equality should accept differences rather than be absolute, and this is the same as the reason why men and women do not compete with each other in sports games.
Men and women are distinctly different. Someone said that he does not know what kind of weapons would be used in World War III, but he can tell that humans will use stones as weapons in World War IV. My point is that men will be on top of women even if we go back to the primitive age because men are stronger and bigger than women. Men’s responsibilities are hunting food and women’s obligations are having babies and raising them originally and physically.
Are women and men equal? Or who is better? These kinds of questions start from a male viewpoint, and men are always the criterion when comparing women and men. Pythagoras said man is the measure of all things, and this is no more than a half proposition. The basis of modern humans, universal men, refers to the male as well as the basis of the criteria for successful people.
Furthermore, referring to the spirit of rational and universal modern spirits is the spirit of men. In most cases, men dominate feminine areas such as fashion, cooking, and cosmetics. Why are men given the number one for the same education and the same environment? I do not think education, power, preference, or brain could be the answers because women have the role of the mother in the home environment against those successful lives in society. All male privileges are possible from the existence of females. I just want to say to all the men who have ever had a male privilege every moment, who gave birth to you?
=============================
Wolran Kim
December 2012
Barry Deutsch is a cartoonist, living in Portland, Oregon. He is best known for his graphic novel Hereville, published by Abrams in November of 2010. Barry is a highly sought-after speaker and is a recognized expert in hiring and retaining top talent. He has presented workshops, keynotes, and seminars to over 30,000 hiring executives and managers over the last two decades. Barry is the nationally recognized IMPACT Speaker of the Year by Vistage International and has been named as the #1 Recruiter by HR Examiner in their 2011 publication of the Top 25 Online Influencers in Recruiting.
Peggy McIntosh is an American feminist and anti-racist activist, the associate director of the Wellesley Centers for Women, a speaker, and the founder and co-director of the National S.E.E.D. Project on Inclusive Curriculum (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity). McIntosh is most famous for authoring the 1988 essay "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies.”
Peggy McIntosh’s short essay states that, “White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks.” McIntosh emphasizes that these privileges are not distributed equally or shared by individuals of every race. As McIntosh points out, men also tend to be unaware of their own privileges as men. In the spirit of McIntosh’s essay, Deutsch thought he would compile a list similar to McIntosh’s, focusing on the invisible privileges benefiting men. Due to his own limitations, this list is unavoidably U.S. centric. He hopes that writers from other cultures will create new lists, or modify this one, to reflect their own experiences.
In Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1954, Congress barred discrimination “...against any individual with respect to... terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of [an individual’s] sex.” The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission (1995) established by President Bush and Senator Dole found that women remained economically disadvantaged. Per the study, 97% of senior managers in Fortune 1000 corporations were males in 1992. Women held only 3 to 5% of senior level management positions. In 2005, women held 46.5% of U.S. jobs, and earned 72% of the salary of their male co-workers. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (1995) similarly found that, within educational categories, the economic status of women fell short. The average woman with a master’s degree earned the same amount as the average man with an associate’s degree.
"Male privilege” is a sociological term developed by feminists that refers quite generally to any special rights or status granted to men in a society, on the basis of their sex or gender, but usually denied to women. In legal cases alleging discrimination, "sex" is usually preferred as the determining factor rather than "gender," because it refers to biology rather than socially constructed norms which are more open to interpretation and dispute. Greenberg explains that although gender and sex are separate concepts, they are interlinked in that gender discrimination often results from stereotypes based on what is expected of members of each sex.
Thus, biologically "male" privilege is only one of many power structures that may exist within a given society, and levels/manifestations of male privilege differ both between disparate societies as well as in different contexts within the same society. The term "male privilege" does not apply to a solitary occurrence of the use of power, but rather describes one of many systemic power structures that are interdependent and interlinked throughout societies and cultures.
Barry Deutsch has created an informative and simple Male Privilege Checklist inspired by Peggy McIntosh's previous work dealing with white privilege. This checklist is, as Deutsch’s hope, a step towards helping men to give up the “first big privilege.” Several critics have also argued that the list somehow victimizes women. He disagrees; pointing out problems is not the same as perpetuating them. It is not a “victimizing” position to acknowledge that injustice exists; on the contrary, without that acknowledgment it is not possible to fight injustice.
Pointing out that men are privileged in no way denies that bad things happen to men. Being privileged does not mean men are given everything in life for free; being privileged does not mean that men do not work hard, or do not suffer. In many cases – from a boy being bullied in school, to a soldier dying in war – the sexist society that maintains male privilege also does great harm to boys and men.
Peggy McIntosh thought there is a shadow of White Privilege in American society. McIntosh is suggesting that men have a lot of unwritten advantages over women even though they do still have hardships. Barry Deutsch compiled a similar list focusing on the invisible privileges benefiting men. I think that we have to recognize the differences between men and women. Equality should accept differences rather than be absolute, and this is the same as the reason why men and women do not compete with each other in sports games.
Men and women are distinctly different. Someone said that he does not know what kind of weapons would be used in World War III, but he can tell that humans will use stones as weapons in World War IV. My point is that men will be on top of women even if we go back to the primitive age because men are stronger and bigger than women. Men’s responsibilities are hunting food and women’s obligations are having babies and raising them originally and physically.
Are women and men equal? Or who is better? These kinds of questions start from a male viewpoint, and men are always the criterion when comparing women and men. Pythagoras said man is the measure of all things, and this is no more than a half proposition. The basis of modern humans, universal men, refers to the male as well as the basis of the criteria for successful people.
Furthermore, referring to the spirit of rational and universal modern spirits is the spirit of men. In most cases, men dominate feminine areas such as fashion, cooking, and cosmetics. Why are men given the number one for the same education and the same environment? I do not think education, power, preference, or brain could be the answers because women have the role of the mother in the home environment against those successful lives in society. All male privileges are possible from the existence of females. I just want to say to all the men who have ever had a male privilege every moment, who gave birth to you?