Thursday 1 December 2011

Alleged "Proof that male privilege exists in Western society"

goforthandagitate says:

Can anyone think of a situation in western society where a white, cis man could be in a bar or walking down the street, generally just going about his business alone and be scared to be a man?


Because I could lists dozens of real life examples women face, but I’m struggling to think of a situation that it would suck to be a cis man all alone.

What prejudices would he face?


The fact that no obvious examples spring to mind tell me feminism is still needed.

thefremen says:

Not because he’s a man per se, but often times because someone isn’t white would be a reason for them to be afraid. Also I know a guy who openly wears anti-swastika patches and he once got street harassed by neo-nazis who then got out of their car and chased him down, pummeled him. (I’m not saying that male privilege doesn’t exist as far as moving through public spaces and certainly there’s a lot of misogynists, dangerous ones at that, than there are racists or neo-nazis, but there are some cases where a cis-man can be in danger in public.)

But none of those are because he is male. Wearing anti-nazi iconography and being attacked by neo-nazis is not an example of neo-nazis deciding “OH hey its a man alone at night, lets attack him!” it’s “Oh hey that guy doesn’t respect our ideology! Let’s attack him!”


Men are frequently scared to be men when walking past pubs alone in the evening. A hell of a lot of men I know have been beaten up because they happen to be walking past a gang who want to show they’re “tough” or past a pub with some aggressive drunk people hanging out outside. Men are far more likely to be attacked, statistically, and it is dishonest to try and dismiss this by saying “Oh well it’s not specifically for being a man”. It’s also dishonest to pretend the only time men are ever targeted in a racist way is when ethnic minorities are spotted by “neo-nazis”. Just… no. There’s a lot of black v south asian/middle eastern violence in areas such as Birmingham and the Times recently reported some South Asian men telling a middle aged black woman to get out of a bus stop because “black people aren’t welcome anymore”. Black gang members often attack and rob lone white men. White football gangs often attack South Asian people and their businesses. This little pretence that the only people who commit racial attacks are bogeymen “neo-nazis” (who are so tiny in number they must be managing to get around a hell of a lot and manage to escape police pretty damn prolifically) is achingly politically correct and utterly blind to actual problems.

Back to the “it’s not because they’re a man” fallacy. What sort of attack is committed on women “just because they’re a woman”? Going by the “logic” of, “oh it wasn’t because he was a man it was because he was wearing anti-Nazi regalia and the thugs didn’t like his ideology,” one could argue sex attacks “aren’t because she’s a woman but because the man wanted sex,” and it also completely disregards the fact that men are victims of sex attacks too. One could argue women who are beaten and robbed aren’t beaten and robbed because of being a woman but because the people wanted to steal something, plus men are more frequently badly attacked when robbed and this reiterates the fact that men are more unsafe when walking the streets than women are. Hey look, this link from the national statistics site quite clearly states that men are more likely to be the victim of violent crime.

People need to get their heads out of the sand here and stop manipulating things to further their political dogma.

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