So this may be an unnecessarily hair-splitting case of semantics, but I’ve been thinking recently about the way the word “privilege” is used in various activist circles– white privilege, male privilege, et cetera. And– particularly when it’s described in terms such as “privilege you haven’t earned” and “holding onto your privilege”– I find it an odd choice of word. I’ve read various “privilege lists”, like this list of male privileges, and I don’t happen to think that most of those things are “unearned privileges”, things that we shouldn’t have; they are rights that everyone should have. It isn’t a “privilege” to not have it thought that you only got your job because of your sex, to not have your personal failings attributed to your sex as a whole, to not be expected by society to follow an elaborate grooming regimen or else be shunned, to not have to fear walking alone in the dark. It is surely, rather, that women are underprivileged by the fact that society does not allow them these things by default.

Maybe it’s just me, but the use of the word “privilege” seems to say, “you shouldn’t have these things”, when the problem is not that some people have them, it’s that some people don’t. I do agree with the term where it’s used to denote things that one social group has at the expense of another social group; for example, it is unfair privilege that male characters are the heroes of most children’s stories, as men are often actively being chosen at the expense of women, and to make things fairer would require that proportionally fewer stories feature men. That is certainly a case of one group being favoured. But isn’t it more often the case that the oppressed group is disfavoured, seen as somehow deserving of fewer rights, fewer protections, than we would give to what this society considers the “benchmark of the average human being”: the white, heterosexual male?

I just see a lot of people instinctively railing at the “privilege” label, and since the same concept can be conveyed, in my opinion more accurately and without any loss of information, by saying “women are underprivileged” and listing what society’s unfair standards with regards to women are (e.g. “I do have to fear walking alone at night”), I wonder if it might not defuse potential derailings of topics, and give a clearer perspective of what’s really going on, to say that instead. “Privilege” to me feels like an obfuscating word, a word that doesn’t really get at what the problem is but just comes off as taking the opportunity to yell at the people who have the things you don’t. And while I can understand anger, it’s not the most productive thing ever, especially if it’s detracting from the real issue: women lack the security and fair treatment they should have in this society.

Only tangentially related, but is it only me who actually cringes and turns away at provocative exploitation of what’s been termed “male gaze”, such as the gratuitous underwear shot in the second image on that page? Do others find that sort of thing (whether using male or female body parts) actively attractive? I hold no criticism of those who do– I’m merely curious– but it personally makes me feel like I’m being made by the direction of the images into someone whose gaze is predatory and exploitative, and that makes me deeply uncomfortable. I don’t want to look at people that way, whether male or female, and when I’m forced to– because the provocative parts of someone’s body are all that’s in the shot– I become squeamish. (I also have a huge problem with shots that show the character’s chest and torso but not their face; objectification much? Final Fantasy X was unfortunately quite bad with this.)