Men's Group
In reply to the discussion: After being called an MRA here numerous times, I decided to try define that term [View all]lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)1) No one can prove a negative. One can't prove that X privilege doesn't exist, so it's incumbent on those who believe it does to prove its existence.
2) I'm down with the idea that wealth brings privilege and that there are significant privileges associated with being a member of the majority racial group. I also agree that as the various factors intertwine they provide infinitely varying degrees of it.
... but social policy is a blunt instrument. All of the laws and social policies which would be invalidated by the Equal Rights Amendment are there to benefit women, to mitigate the believed presence of institutional preference for men.
For instance, scholarships for women long ago fixed the problem they were meant to address. It will be impossible to correct the gender imbalance in college so long as young men have access to only 35-40% of the financial aid.
Social policy works in generalities, and sex is not a meaningful indicator of privilege.
I think your comments are vague and contradictory because the conventional wisdom on which it is based is subjective and defended based on feelings. "Men don't have to worry about being raped! Men don't have to worry about cleaning the kitchen! Men don't have to worry about picking up the kids from daycare!". I have no doubt that many women feel that they have to worry about the kitchen. In my experience, when the kitchen reaches my discomfort level, I clean it up. The fact that my standard of clean is different from my wife's is not a form of privilege.
She doesn't "have to" clean the kitchen, she chooses to. The same holds true for men who have to work overtime to pay the bills. If the bills were as important to her as they are to him, she'd feel obliged to work overtime too.
Edit history
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):