Again I have recently encountered a claim that we males have privileges. As usual, that claim is made in the context of an excuse for granting counter-privileges for women, to allow them some kind of "catching up".

But again I find myself trying to understand exactly what those male privileges are. Those who claim that we have them, never define them. They just seem to be some kind of vague, ethereal things that we are all supposed to believe in, but which somehow don't have any substance that you can pin down. Can anybody help?

All I am asking for is something quite simple: a list, however long or short, of specific, defined privileges that I and every other man enjoys. Honestly, I really need to know.

But just a few ground rules first.

• To begin with, understand what a "privilege" is. It is not just something good; it is an exclusive right, i.e one that is available only to men and not to women.
• Historic privileges that are dead and gone don't count. It is no use to me to know that in 1836 I could have legally sold my troublesome wife. I couldn't sell her now, and now is when I am alive, when I am supposed to have all these privileges, and when my life is being diminished as a counter-balance for having them. If I am told that I enjoy privileges, I want to see them here and now, in my hand and available for my immediate use. My grandfather's privilege is no use to me today, and what my grandmother was denied but her granddaughters now have is not a male privilege either. Not any more, it isn't.
• Biological differences don't count either. I don't want to be told that I am privileged to be able to have an erection, or to be free of the horrors of ever getting pregnant. Those are not privileges in any sense I recognise; they are simply how Nature ordained us, and each sex is designed to cope with its own biology.
• Simply being good at something is not a privilege either. So don't tell me that my privilege lies in the fact that most MPs and CEOs are men. I put that down squarely to men just being good at those things. They are available to women if they are good enough too. And I am neither an MP nor a CEO, so that can hardly be a privilege to me, can it?
• Final ground rule: be specific. Don't just tell me that I get the best of things generally, or that life is better for men. Tell me exactly what good things I get that women don't, and what precisely it is in my life that is better for me than it is for a woman in the same position - or that she simply doesn't get at all.

I trust these ground rules are fair? Okay. Now tell me all about my privileges.

Paul, perhaps you're asking the wrong people? Maybe you should try this at the feminist boards, you'd get 10 replies by now, hehe.

It's all a scam, Paul, you can point that out a million times, they don't care. To argue with feminists is to assume that they act in good faith.

As I've said before, none of this is exact science. You can always keep an argument going. How often has the myth been debunked that women get paid less for the same work. They just keep insisting on it. The reason is simple: a lot of people believe it and that is lucrative.

This plundering expedition is going to continue for quite a while, no matter what we say. Until everybody gets fed up with, I guess. But by that time, we won't have much left.

Our strategy should be: to limit the damage as much as possible and oppose them with any means available. Nevermind polite discourse. As Fidelbogen said: the time for argument has past.

Boycott them. Mock them. Expose them. Blast them! :-)

"Privelege" seems to be one of those loaded terms like "patriarchy", devoid of provable meaning but emotionally evocative. Bola summed it nicely: feminists don't argue in good faith, they simply shout down everyone else.

Nailed it IMO. Same as any other oppressive regime, might seems to make right with them.

Thanks for the comments, guys, whether constructive or otherwise. Rebadow, I appreciate the advice but I already know what feminists have to say on the subject; that's why I put all those provisos in place. I came here instead in the hope I might get a sensible reply for a change.

So let me lay it on the line here. I am a simple, naive kind of chap who does not know everything that is going on, so I am always grateful for enlightenment from those who know more than I do. And I have it on impeccable authority that every man is a sworn adherent of a gigantic conspiracy called the patriarchy; whose overwhelming objective is to ensure men lord it over women and keep the poor wretches in their (subordinate) place. Apparently this conspiracy has worked a treat throughout history, and despite the best efforts of some truly heroic females, and the men who love them, the monstrous patriarchy still reigns supreme.

Now this gives me two little problems. Firstly, whatever else the patriarchy might be doing on the side, it seems to me that its first and last great purpose must be to carve out exclusive privileges for men at women's expense. I will take that as read, in which case the blindingly obvious question is exactly what privileges it has managed to create for us after all that effort down through the centuries. It would be beyond all credibility, all sanity, all rhyme or reason, if millions of men had put their best efforts into building privileges for themselves, and achieved precisely nothing! Would that make us mega losers, or what? And yet, and yet... I still cannot find anyone who can put a finger on exactly what those privileges consist of. It's driving me mad. Somebody must know; in fact a hell of a lot of somebodies must know. Is there not one reading this who can rescue me from my ignorance?

Which leads to my second little problem with this patriarchy thingy. I am a fully paid up member of the male sex, and yet in all my life I have never been invited to join the conspiracy. I don't know where the conspirators meet, what secret passwords or symbols they use, how they recognise each other, or what diabolical plots they are dreaming up next to keep men high on their thrones. It all seems to have passed me by, like a fart in the wind; momentarily sensed, then gone and quickly forgotten, never to be grasped. Yet there are millions of men who are in on the plot, passing the torch from one generation to the next, continually replenishing the membership.

So I have a heartfelt plea here: let me in, you bastards! Why have I been cold-shouldered? I want to play the game, I want to claim my unfair share of all those privileges you have created for yourselves. Do you hear me? I WANT TO JOIN THE PATRIARCHY! If I am to be condemned for being a member I at least want to enjoy the rights of membership. But somehow I have been forgotten, overlooked, cast aside, while the rest of you chauvinist pigs wallow in your privileged existences. I am one of you, dammit. I deserve my place. I have impeccable misogynistic credentials. I believe in the supremacy of the male: oh, how I believe. I will go through any initiation ceremony you can dream up for me. Tie me to Ixion's wheel, flog my testicles with rusty barbed wire, force me to listen to the Vagina Monologues for three months on end, just as long as I can join the club, and be guaranteed to float blissfully on a cloud of privileges for the rest of my life, just like the rest of you. Is that too much to ask?

The male privilege is simply that we are better at some things than women.

The female privilege is that they are better at other things than men.

The male response to their privilege is to help women when they need help.

The female response to their privilege is to ensure that men do this..

Men foolishly allowed the state to take over this role..

And even more foolishly allowed women to take over the state..

So, ultimate, male privilege is about the right of a man to make a fool of himself..

Men are better at..

1. Logic.

2. Planning.

3. Taking responsibility for others.

Females are better at..

1. Emotional trickery.

2. Short term thinking.

3. Thinking of themselves.


The state is best at..

1. Convincing the plebs that it has a mandate to rob them.

2. Preventing people from making their own decisions.

3. Violence of all forms.

Excellent post Paul!

And BTW you write very well. I suspect you're a professional????

I suppose the simple answer is that patriarchy is a gigantic fraud, a cleverly contrived con-trick in which men, not women, are the victims.

If I may quote from a wiser brother: ".... much of patriarchy is a theatrical illusion. Presenting men as more important and powerful than they really are should be seen as a way of controlling them rather than as a system for dominating women."

Without the interference of the state, women have little choice than to follow men - if they want to actually achieve anything worthwhile.

The post of brother Drex overtook me. In case you don't already know, he's our resident anarchist - but he's never far from the bullseye.

[quote=Yan Yan;48040]If I may quote from a wiser brother: ".... much of patriarchy is a theatrical illusion. Presenting men as more important and powerful than they really are should be seen as a way of controlling them rather than as a system for dominating women."[/qupte]

Indeed. Its often said that women have practically all the real power in the basic social institution.. The family.. male headship was never much more than a token measure, a "figurehead".. reality is, men consider all they have dominion over and realise that the best interests of their families is served by keeping she who must be obeyed happy, and she-who-must-be-obeyed has many ways of making a man feel empowered as she gets her own way.. Its called "feminine wiles" I believe..

http://www.answers.com/topic/wile


Thanks for the compliment! I never know myself how close to the bone I am!

Anarchy is at best a temporary state of affairs, all societies need order and all societies will eventually get it..

What we have in the west now is state-endorsed and controlled disorder and a threatened descent into anarchy if we dont comply..

Who has all the best weapons though?

This is the real question that needs to be answered..

Men are not allowed to use theirs.. So, thats the male privelege out of the window striaght away..

Plus, they look silly trying the womens favourite weapons..

Short skirts and see through blouses dont get the same results for us geezers, though I did almost pull wearing a girl guide uniform many years ago..