[Medusa]

Thanks Dapper!

Yanno, I think that privilege is almost always contextual and that is a huge reason I am not a fan of the blanket "Men have privilege all the time = Tmen have privilege all the time = Men and Tmen have privilege over women all the time = Men/Tmen need to do x, y, z in order to correct/raise awareness of/ingest that privilege properly all the time" sort of statements.

I try to think of what it might look like if there were a group job interview and let's say 4 people were being interviewed:

A White woman
A Latina woman
A Native American man
A White Trans man (and only using Trans as an identifier for illustration purposes, not necessarily to differentiate)

Who has the privilege here?

What if one of them was fat?

What if one of them was in a wheelchair?

What if one of them was wearing clothing that might indicate a lower financial status?

What if one of them had a college degree from Harvard?


I know we've all talked dozens of times about how privilege can be situational and the above is only one way I see this happening. Even on this site, privilege is situational. I might have privilege over a Trans woman. AJ might have privilege over someone who isn't as articulate.

For me, privilege isn't necessarily defined by genetics or gender, because that puts the institutionalism on the person who exists, and not necessarily on the person who GIVES/Assigns the privilege based on their own institutionalization.
I'm not saying that Men/TMen/White People/Rich People don't exist in a privileged context, because I think they do...just that I don't believe the burden of privilege lies 100% in the existence of the person. I think that we are ALL culpable in that privilege.

And what Im about to say next might be wildly unpopular, but I believe that we as women are just as culpable in male privilege if we consistently buy into the idea that we are the "victims" of that privilege.

I'm not saying that it doesn't exist. I'm not saying that it doesn't need to be dismantled. I am saying that *everyone*, has privilege and that any person who believes that Men/TMen have 100%, absolute, unadulterated privilege all the time, every day, for their entire lives is not only full of shit but is guilty of supporting the very hierarchy they rail against.

I think I got off on a tangent, so let me try to redirect myself.

One of the things Im turning over in my head is that male privilege can often feel *worse* when exerted by a Transman. Maybe it's because I hope that Transmen, who have a female context ( in the way of being socialized as children as females) will be an ally to me as a woman who still lives in a female context in helping to dismantle that oppressive system of Men = up there, Women = down there. And maybe that hope isn't fair because I do think that people who are finally able to live in a body that fits who they are inside should get to explore that body and everything that comes with it. I think the exploration of that can be a positive factor or negative factor depending on who that person is inside, what their politics are, etc.
Because let's face it, not every Transman or Transwoman is going to have the same political context. And that is OK!

For me, it boils down to dismissing the idea that Transmen are buying into a system of oppression and that automatically makes them "the enemy" and rather, embracing the idea that someone who is my Queer family member will get to go on a public beach and be shirtless.

Some might call that "privilege".

I call that a fucking celebration.