Thread: Privilege
View Single Post
  #10  
Old 12-29-2011, 09:28 AM
Demimonde's Avatar
Demimonde Demimonde is offline
an angry unicorn or a non-murdering leprechaun
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Edge of Society
Gender: Female
Posts: VMMCDLXI
Blog Entries: 5
Default Re: Return to Gender 101

Yeah, seebs that is not how privilege is defined in this type of analysis. The system that is described is a binary between two groups. There is the Privileged group that is considered the default and the Other which is defined as not being part of the privileged group.

Privilege describes the power structures between groups and how they exert dominance over their Others. It really isn't analyzed in terms of "fairness" as you are attempting to do.

We covered some of this in this thread.

I agree that it is a commonly misunderstood term and discussed it there:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Demimonde View Post
I would say, yes she has cissexual privilege. "Privilege" can itself be a loaded word. IIRC it comes as a translation from French from the work of Derrida and is imprecise in our language. For that reason I prefer to use "Primacy" as that is a better term for what they are describing.

In any binary there will be a trait that has primacy/privilege and another that is defined by being not that trait. The one that is outside is Othered. For example, white in western culture has primacy, anything that is not white is the Other. In Feminist criticism, man has primacy and woman is that which is defined as not being a man. In your example, this woman is cissexual, and therefore has the primary trait and thus "enjoys privilege" (again annoyed at the loaded language.) I try to think of it in terms of symbolic logic, white vs. ~White, cissexual vs. ~cissexual.

So if she is white, she enjoys white privilege/primacy. A homosexual man also has the trait that makes him have male privilege/primacy. Does that make sense? I don't know the math language but it is like subsets in a way, maybe?
Every person has some kind of privilege and most have been Othered in some form. I have white privilege but lack male privilege. I have heterosexual privilege but lack Christian privilege.

Wiki- Privilege

ETA: For another example that may be easier for you, most likely you have felt Othered due to your autism. It is not considered the default condition and thus ~norm.
__________________
:boobkicker:

Last edited by Demimonde; 12-29-2011 at 10:02 AM.
Reply With Quote
Thanks, from:
Ari (12-29-2011), LadyShea (12-29-2011), seebs (12-29-2011)
 
Page generated in 0.46560 seconds with 11 queries