Women and Men are the victims of the "Male" Privilege Concept

[littlemissmartypants]

while others "make all the big decisions" and "define our roles" while the young women of today grow up in a society where they continue to be victims of domestic violence at an alarming rate, as the LGBT community gains more freedom and power and when the battles we thought were an win and a "shoe in" are being fought over and over and are at risk of being lost; we the people are being abused. This abuse should be a concept of concern for all of our society's members.

We should start calling those who claim control over our bodies whether male or female bodies, the lawmakers, politician, "fundies" et. al. abusers. Because that is what they are, abusers of life, of trust, of freedom and of anyone not conforming to the 'Privilege' concept.

The set of techniques used by a group to carry out war is known as warfare. Warfare is not always overt and obvious. But this one should be. It is Domestic Violence. It equals not only a war against our bodies or a war on women but the use of power and control against ALL PERSONS to subjugate and manipulate them.

The fight for Women's Rights has been and always will be, a fight for human rights and Domestic Violence should be called what it is: war.

If there is no War on Women then why are there protests against women going to war?

Power and control are our most valuable assets. It is time for us to begin seriously defining exactly how these assets manifest themselves, assigning them value and claiming them as rightfully ours.

Peace. lmsp

War is an organized and often prolonged conflict that is carried out by states or other types of parties wishing to form or control states or other types of territories. It is characterised by extreme aggression, economic disintegration and irrationality, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities, and therefore is defined as a form of political violence or intervention.

Who Are The Victims?

ANYONE CAN BE A VICTIM!
Victims can be of any age, sex, race, culture, religion, education, employment or marital status.

http://www.domesticviolence.org/who-are-the-victims/

Who are the Abusers?

Abuse is not an accident. It does not happen because someone was stressed-out, drinking, or using drugs. Abuse is an intentional act that one person uses in a relationship to control the other. Abusers have learned to abuse so that they can get what they want. The abuse may be physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological.

Abusers often have low self-esteem. They do not take responsibility for their actions. They may even blame the victim for causing the violence. In most cases, men abuse female victims. It is important to remember that women can also be abusers and men can be victims.

http://www.domesticviolence.org/who-are-the-abusers/

If you are a teen ...

You could be a victim of abuse, or at risk if you are dating someone who:
is very jealous and/or spies on you
will not let you break off the relationship
hurts you in any way, is violent, or brags about hurting other people
puts you down or makes you feel bad
forces you to have sex or makes you afraid to say no to sex
abuses drugs or alcohol; pressures you to use drugs or alcohol
has a history of bad relationships and blames it on others
It is hard for teens to leave their abuser if they go to the same school. They cannot hide. Gay and lesbian teens are very isolated. They can be scared they may have to reveal their sexual orientation.

If you think you are being abused, think about getting help. If your family or friends warn you about the person you are dating, think about getting help. Tell friends, family members or anybody you can trust. Call a resource listed in this book. There is help for you. You do not have to suffer in silence.

http://www.domesticviolence.org/who-are-the-victims/

Hat tip to Playinghardball.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022271015

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warfare

http://www.domesticviolence.org/

[littlemissmartypants]

1. .

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[hfojvt]

2. I don't think you mean that headline

at least not as I understand it

to say that people are victims of the CONCEPT of male privilege

is to say that it is a false idea that harms people

I might agree with that, but I only find the concept midly annoying and politically harmful, not so much materially harmful.


Instead you seem to be saying that the REALITY of "male privilege" is harmful, but not just harmful to women, but also harmful to men.


Which seems to be kind of a bizarre thesis. If it is a "privilege" then how can it be harmful?

[davidn3600]

3. Gender stereotypes exist for men as they do for women

And the stereotypes are harmful to both, especially for those that do not fit into them.

[hfojvt]

4. see, now that is fine

if you call it a "stereotype".

But if it is called a "privilege" for males. Then all males must have those privileges. and privilege is defined as 1. right, advantage, or immunity, 2. special benefit or honor.

A special benefit should not be harmful. An advantage should not be harmful. Otherwise why is it called a "benefit" or "advantage"?

Now, if it is harmful to SOME males, then it should not be called "male" privilege if the privilege is not attached to the quality of maleness at least for the vast majority. A benefit to 95% of males that harms 5% of males could still be called a male privilege, but if it gets down to only benefitting 70% and harming 30% then you have a significant portion of males who do NOT benefit from this thing called "male privilege" making it very much of a misnomer that should be called something else. Especially if that something else not only does NOT benefit many males but actually directly HARMS them.

Now, I can think of an example of executive privilege which might be useless to some. Where I work, the office "bigshots" have a weekly staff meeting. At that staff meeting, they are provided with free coffee, which I have the privilege of making for them most weeks. As such, the office bigshots get that benefit of some free coffee every week. A tiny benefit, to be sure. At fifty cents a cup it is worth about $25 a year, but at wholesale, it is costing my employer perhaps $60 for the coffee, $10 for the cups and $5 for the sugar/creamer packets. And perhaps 13 hours a year of labor costs which is another $195. Sort of, because I am not paid extra for making coffee, so my labor is kinda free. Anyway, my long point is that if I was an office bigshot, I would consider that benefit to be absolutely useless since I would not drink coffee. But it would still be a fact that this benefit was provided to me every week.

I suppose if free cigarettes were provided that smokers would perceive that to be a benefit, Even though such a benefit would harm their health and also harm the health of those forced to breathe the 2nd hand smoke at the meeting.

As a non-smoker, I would still object to calling that a "privilege". Why shouldn't the perspective of non-smokers who don't enjoy the "benefit" be just as valid as that of the smokers who enjoy the "benefit"? Especially if the non-smokers are a large majority?

[littlemissmartypants]

5. I mean it exactly as it appears.

The CONCEPT of male privilege is the term I am using for the assumptive notion that certain individuals are the controllers of all of the rest of us due to their mostly imagined superiority and their fear of losing control. I am borrowing the term from the Wheel of Domestic Violence in the post.

If you will take a look at the section of the pie "using male privilege" within which are these statements: treating her like a servant, making all the big decisions, acting like the master of the castle, being the one to define men's and women's roles.

Consider them as translations: enslaving us, ruling from the top down with deprecation, claiming autonomous leadership and setting all of the rules.

Now consider that you have now been placed into the category of "other" which means you have become the slave, anything you say is regarded with contempt, I as ruler aka the one believing in the "concept of male* privilege" don't listen to you period and if I as ruler decide you must (_____) so be it. This forms my perfect world as the abuser, which I am suggesting is the underlying conceptual dream of those with only their desires, interests, survival and needs in mind. An ideal which is less than benevolent and more the world of the sociopath than not.

Keeping this concept in mind, look at all of the bolden titles in each pie piece.

If you think I have extended the reach of the concept too far you may not have had a personal experience with this abuse nor see yourself at risk or are just playing Devil's Advocate for the sake of debate. I respect that. By educating one's self about the behaviors of the abuser one is less likely to be victimized.

It is a cautionary message and a message of the value of collective bargaining. When this place we live on stops being a Man's World I may modify my language. For now it stays: The Concept of Male Privilege and as long as someone believes in it as an entitlement, as a birthright and many refute it or refuse to acknowledge it, we are ALL at risk of being victims. Believe me when I tell you I wish this was not the reality. Thank you for pondering my ideas. Peace. lmsp

*rich, intellectually superior, Republican, the one percent...

[bemildred]

6. Yes. I quite agree.

But we need to have to something to replace the old stereotypes with - a work now in progress, I think - people still need rules and expectations for how to behave in society.

Part of the problem is convincing men that our "privileges' are much overrated, and the costs much understated. But a lot of that goes back to our competitive obsessions with sex, power, and money, i.e. to the fact that we are evolved apes.

Nevertheless, I have considered it a lousy deal since I first became aware 50 years ago or so. I remember all those old guys in the WWII generation, drinking like fish, smoking like chimneys, working like mad, and dying young. And their sex lives, Good Lord!

[ananda]

7. The problem with Roe v. Wade is that it's not enforced.

States are allowed to make laws and policies that effectively shut down abortion clinics and doctors.

[Zorra]

8. Great post, bookmarked, thanks. Lots of food for thought here. nt

[littlemissmartypants]

9. Thank you. n/t

[littlemissmartypants]

10. Dating violence can involve emotional, psychological, physical or sexual abuse.

Statistics related to dating violence and teenagers

Dating violence affects all ages, and affects both genders, although recipients are most often females. The numbers of adolescents who are victims of dating violence are on the rise, and this can set the stage for relationship difficulties later in life. Here are some statistics about dating violence from the Centers for Disease Control:

1 in 11 adolescents has reported that they have experienced physical dating violence.
25% of adolescents say that they are victims of some sort of dating violence (emotional, psychological, sexual or physical) each year.
20% of girls in high school report that they have been physically or sexually abused by someone they were dating.
The incidence of adolescent dating violence is higher among black students than it is among Hispanic and white students.
54% of students report that they have seen dating violence amongst their peers.
This information is especially telling when you realize that 72% of students in eighth and ninth grade “date”. The indications are that students are younger when they start dating - and that they may not be emotionally mature enough for dating. This can set the stage for dating violence as they grow older.

http://www.teenviolencestatistics.com/content/dating-violence.html