Quote:
Originally Posted by Martina
My point is not how the man feels about his privilege, but his effect on others. If he is not aware of privilege, he can do harm. A man frequently interrupting a woman can result in silencing her and other women. It is a sexist world, and men are more paid attention to. They hold more power. An individual man may not feel powerful, but by virtue of being recognized as a man, he can do more harm than he might attend. i expect all men to be aware of this whether they feel the benefits of privilege or not.
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Again, the issue of transmen/male ids is not so simple, partially because of the issues I raised above and I think it is important to acknowledge this. Additionally, not all transmen are even able to transition or successfully pass as male in greater society, so it seems these claims of privilege are ignoring them as men entirely.
Since we are on the subject of silencing individuals, it should be realised how harmful it can be toward transmen to constantly throw male privilege at them in such a manner that it eventually guilts them or frustrates them into silence. It seems that their male privilege (should all of them possess it or not) is raised as a weapon against them in order to silence them whenever they don't agree with the perspective of another, and far more frequently than the privileges the rest of the LGB community possesses over the trans community (not only within our own community, but in greater society).
But an argument over who has more privilege than the other is often useless and can either cause the silencing of one side or the other, or ongoing animosity between both sides. Both happen more frequently than people are willing to admit. I don't think either case is very productive when it comes to gaining rights within society at large, and, in fact, is rather counterproductive.