What is male privilege? Do trans woman still have it?
There is a discussion in a group on Facebook about it and it got me thinking (now there’s something dangerous) do we still have male privilege? I know that I had it and I used it to get me where I am today, but are there any remnants left.
My firsts thoughts were, privilege is not something we bestowal upon ourselves but rather society bestowals upon us. We can exert ourselves and demand to be heard but is that male privilege?
When we go to a theater and the men on both sides use “man spread” and take up our space, when we battle for our space are we using male privilege? I think not, male privilege is taking the space without think. I think male privilege is subconscious you do it without thinking you dominate the conversation, you feel the math and science is beyond the capabilities of a woman. It is explaining who to wire up a light switch to a woman because you assume a woman doesn’t know how to do it.
A trans man once to me that it was all of sudden like he got a brain, now he was an expert in everything. And a trans woman once told me about her frustration at work, here she is with a degree in engineering with a MBA and is a project manager and now when she attends meetings no one listens to her ideas. When a man says the same thing everyone agrees with him. She was once asked to get everyone coffee, they thought she was the secretary and not the project manager.
So do we have male privilege?
I think in order to answer the question we have to ask about our trans status because I feel that it varies where we are on the trans spectrum and how well we integrate into society because remember society is what awards male privilege.
If you can “pass” (I hate that word but there but I haven’t found a better word to replace it) in society as a man or woman you will either gain or lose male privilege and if you don’t then there is another mechanism at play… gender discrimination.
Also, if you only crossdress four or five times a month for many they still exhibit male privilege (and many do not), I don’t know how many time a have seen someone plop down in a dress with “man spread” (which is another topic) while someone who transitioned still hasn’t had their “male privilege” beaten out of them yet.
So there are many factors at play when we talk about male privilege and the trans person.
What are your thoughts?
There is a discussion in a group on Facebook about it and it got me thinking (now there’s something dangerous) do we still have male privilege? I know that I had it and I used it to get me where I am today, but are there any remnants left.
My firsts thoughts were, privilege is not something we bestowal upon ourselves but rather society bestowals upon us. We can exert ourselves and demand to be heard but is that male privilege?
A trans man once to me that it was all of sudden like he got a brain, now he was an expert in everything. And a trans woman once told me about her frustration at work, here she is with a degree in engineering with a MBA and is a project manager and now when she attends meetings no one listens to her ideas. When a man says the same thing everyone agrees with him. She was once asked to get everyone coffee, they thought she was the secretary and not the project manager.
So do we have male privilege?
I think in order to answer the question we have to ask about our trans status because I feel that it varies where we are on the trans spectrum and how well we integrate into society because remember society is what awards male privilege.
If you can “pass” (I hate that word but there but I haven’t found a better word to replace it) in society as a man or woman you will either gain or lose male privilege and if you don’t then there is another mechanism at play… gender discrimination.
Also, if you only crossdress four or five times a month for many they still exhibit male privilege (and many do not), I don’t know how many time a have seen someone plop down in a dress with “man spread” (which is another topic) while someone who transitioned still hasn’t had their “male privilege” beaten out of them yet.
So there are many factors at play when we talk about male privilege and the trans person.
What are your thoughts?
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