In preliminary readings of my new study of Feminism, there is one word that has caught my attention. It is a word that seemingly is a dirty word to a Feminist. It is privilege.
In a first blog post, we authors were asked to introduce ourselves and our interest in Feminism prompted by a series of questions one of which asked us to explain our experiences with privilege and/or discrimination. I am not bothered by the question, but it pricked my consciousness, and , as I began to do research in Feminism, the word kept appearing.
I understand that in the early days of the Feminist fight, privilege was something to reckon with, but the more I read and see that term, the more offended I am. It’s as if Feminists have a chip on their shoulder concerning anyone who is not of color, of certain sexual orientation, of certain religion, or of a certain mindset. That might not be accurate, I’ll have to keep reading, but that’s what I sense so far and this might possibly be at the root of my issue with Feminism because even though I don’t think I’m privileged, a feminist might see me that way. What I’m saying is that it is okay to be a white, straight, Christian female. I won’t deny it and I am proud of it.
It’s not a bad thing to be privileged either. I know the connotation is somewhat negative, but, as I alluded to in my introductory blog post, it comes down to what one does with one’s privilege. Does one use his position, money, opportunity, power, advantage to help those in need?
In certain eras and societies, privilege especially attached itself to rich and powerful people. In America today, privilege is not the same. Virtually anyone that works at it can achieve what they want. Some may have an advantage, but there are too many examples of people who overcame obstacles to achieve great success.
In my readings, I have noticed a new usage of the word. Some writers have turned it into a verb. In “Gloria Anzaldua’s Rhetoric of Ambiguity and Antiracist Teaching” by Sarah Klotz and Carl Whithaus, they write, “Our pedagogy of open-ended questions led to a method we term the ‘rhetoric of ambiguity,’ a discourse practice that privileges overlapping, intersecting, and constantly reshaping identity categories as a productive way to address racism in America today.”
I have a pet peeve against making nouns of verbs, so I picked up on this and had to study on it. It is interesting to me that I have never encountered that usage until I began my Feminist readings and it is in considering these feminist ideas, which I have never embraced, that I have had to deal with questions of privilege. Don’t get me wrong – no one has accused me of being privileged, although this week, in my classroom, a kid turned around and told his friend, “She got money.” I don’t (well, more than a high school freshman does), but to him, I may seem privileged.
If feminists could get past the idea that people like me are privileged and stop walking around dressed as vaginas, I could get with them.
Gloria Anzaldua, whom I am currently researching, has written of her feelings that as a Chicana woman, she has no homeland, no one accepts her fully. Here’s the thing: we all feel that way. Deep down inside, most people have their own set of insecurities, we’re all looking for acceptance, someone to belong to, and equality. If I am or people like me are viewed as privileged, it is necessary to understand that I don’t feel privileged, I want equality, too. At least at the outset, it seems as if feminists don’t want equality. They want more. We should not then begin to privilege ourselves over one another.
I found this from bell hooks in Feminism is For Everybody: “Visionary feminism is a wise and loving politics. It is rooted in the love of male and female being, refusing to privilege one over the other.”
Discovering Feminism 
February 16, 2017 at 3:40 am
I understand the point you’re trying to make here about not feeling privileged, per say, but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t privileged. Although you may be unaware of how intensely privilege affects you, this does not meat that you are not privileged. “Not feeling privileged” in this situation is quite frankly irrelevant. This is not to say that you haven’t experienced oppression in other ways (being a woman, being of certain social classes); however, you, a heterosexual white person, cannot say that you are not more privileged than others in some areas. The system of white privilege (throw straight privilege in there as well) is both harmful and exclusionary to non-whites. You benefit from a system that oppresses both men and women of color. A system that has been in place for centuries. Having privilege does not mean that you’re inherently a bad person nor does it preclude you from having struggles, frustration, or pain. It means that you unintentionally benefit from the circumstances of your life (such as being white and straight). I encourage you to keep an open mind and to research further into the topic of privilege; it seems as though you have misconstrued its meaning, which is very dangerous to both personal and societal growth.
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February 17, 2017 at 2:09 am
Thank you for your comments. Maybe saying “I don’t feel privileged” was the wrong choice of words. I am not privileged. I have worked for everything I have. My husband put himself through school and earned any advantage he has. We have not benefitted from being white. I have never been accepted in any school nor received any job offer because I am white. Perhaps I should have said “If I am or people like me are viewed as privileged, it is necessary to understand that most of us are not, that privilege is merely a perception. The idea of white privilege has been pushed too far now, so far, in fact, that it is swinging the other way. For example, lately in the news, there is a college in which white people are being urged to wear a white puzzle piece to acknowledge the idea of white privilege.”
I most certainly do not benefit from a system that oppresses both men and women of color. I would like for you to give me some concrete examples of how you suppose that I do.
Let’s bring this back to feminism – in the last few decades, explain to me how I as a woman have been oppressed? Isn’t that what the movement is about? Sure, women have been oppressed in the early days of the movement and today in some other countries and, sure in some individual situations such as abusive relationships, human trafficking, but in the average woman’s life in the U.S., no. If you say, I as a woman am oppressed, how then can you say I am privileged? I posit that any woman of average or higher intelligence of any sexual orientation, color, religion is privileged in 2017 in the United States.
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February 17, 2017 at 11:05 pm
I thought this article explained privilege really well.
http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/09/what-is-privilege/
If you haven’t already read it then you might want to take a look. It’s similar to another article that someone mentioned in another post and it’s from the same website, but I thought this article went into a little more detail.
When someone says you are privileged, they are not saying that you should feel guilty about being a white, straight, Christian female or that you and you husband didn’t work hard for what you have. It is not meant to be an insult nor is it a way to undermine your individual experience. Now from what I understand, privilege is when you are a part of the majority and that because of this your way of life is considered “normal”. Because you are a part of the majority and your lifestyle (as far as I know) is relatively normal according to our society, you don’t experience the same problems as a person who is not white, straight, and Christian. As a white person you (and I) are a part of the majority. I know that until quite recently when I watched a TV show I never really noticed whether or not all the actors were white because unconsciously that is what I was used to and, therefore, expected. This, I think, is a form of privilege. As a straight couple, you and your husband were able to get married with relatively no problems as far as our society was concerned because its “normal” for men and women to get married. But the same cannot be said for same-sex couples who are still not accepted that easily in a large part of our society. Christianity is definitely a part of the majority in this country. Can you really say Muslims are accepted as easily into our society as Christians are?
Women are definitely still at a disadvantage.There is still a wage gap, and more men are placed in positions of authority than women. Another problem is that there is still this fixation in our society on a woman’s appearance. For example, there are still debates in schools across the country about the appropriate clothing for young women and that those that choose to dress scantily are a distraction to their male classmates. Male students don’t have to worry about wearing revealing clothes and distracting their female classmates. There’s also the belief that women who wear revealing clothing are more likely to get sexually harassed. This belief does not apply to men who wear revealing clothing. The other day I saw a youtube video of a woman (wearing jeans and a t-shirt) walking around New York City and recording all of the cat-calls (from various men) that she received. Here’s the video:
These are just a few random examples of how women are still oppressed in our country. I hope my explanation made sense. I tried to provide examples, but this topic is so complicated that I know I didn’t cover everything and probably rambled on a little.
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February 19, 2017 at 3:08 pm
This is such an excellent dialogue, and I think the points you are all making are quite important. At the same time, this conversation illustrates what I think is one common stumbling block with privilege, and ggdouglasblog raises this as a question: how can a person be both oppressed and have privilege? There is much more nuance to this debate than a simple comment will allow, so I will take this question as an exploration for this week. I’ll add some information to the course Resources folder that will elaborate on this topic. Keep up the great dialogue!
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February 20, 2017 at 6:50 am
My quick response (because I’m about to retire for the night) is that our society is made up of hierarchies, so unless one is in the top tier, he/she/they will always be “oppressed” in some way, by some other group of society that ranks higher than they do. Some are pretty far down on the social totem pole, which is how we can have citizens who are highly oppressed (I typically think of an economically disadvantaged black lesbian; she is likely oppressed because of economics, sexuality, gender, and race, and possibly education, if she has not been well educated, and religion, if she is other-than-Christian.) We have this ranking system in place, based on all of these social criteria. Those who aren’t white, straight, Christian, educated, middle-class male citizens will be oppressed in varying degrees, usually based on where they reside in the U.S. If one happens to exist somewhere along the top of the ranking system, he/she/they are privileged, but that does not mean there is not some form of oppression going on. Also, being blissfully unaware of being privileged does not negate the fact that there is privilege, and this lack of awareness actually reinforces the idea that the “ignorance” of being privileged is a sign of privilege. It doesn’t mean that person is a bad person, but it does somewhat imply a lack of social awareness and empathy toward the plight of all human beings. (I hope all of this makes sense…I am pretty tired…)
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