Ampersands "Male priviledge checklist".

[daksdaddy]

The Male Privilege Checklist

1. My odds of being hired for a job, when competing against female applicants, are probably skewed in my favor. The more prestigious the job, the larger the odds are skewed.

2. I can be confident that my co-workers won't think I got my job because of my sex - even though that might be true.

3. If I am never promoted, it's not because of my sex.

4. If I fail in my job or career, I can feel sure this won't be seen as a black mark against my entire sex's capabilities.

5. The odds of my encountering sexual harassment on the job are so low as to be negligible.

6. If I do the same task as a woman, and if the measurement is at all subjective, chances are people will think I did a better job.

7. If I'm a teen or adult, and if I can stay out of prison, my odds of being raped are so low as to be negligible.

8. I am not taught to fear walking alone after dark in average public spaces.

9. If I choose not to have children, my masculinity will not be called into question.

10. If I have children but do not provide primary care for them, my masculinity will not be called into question.

11. If I have children and provide primary care for them, I'll be praised for extraordinary parenting if I'm even marginally competent.

12. If I have children and pursue a career, no one will think I'm selfish for not staying at home.

13. If I seek political office, my relationship with my children, or who I hire to take care of them, will probably not be scrutinized by the press.

14. Chances are my elected representatives are mostly people of my own sex. The more prestigious and powerful the elected position, the more likely this is to be true.

15. I can be somewhat sure that if I ask to see "the person in charge," I will face a person of my own sex. The higher-up in the organization the person is, the surer I can be.

16. As a child, chances are I was encouraged to be more active and outgoing than my sisters.

17. As a child, I could choose from an almost infinite variety of children's media featuring positive, active, non-stereotyped heroes of my own sex. I never had to look for it; male heroes were the default.

18. As a child, chances are I got more teacher attention than girls who raised their hands just as often.

19. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether or not it has sexist overtones.

20. I can turn on the television or glance at the front page of the newspaper and see people of my own sex widely represented, every day, without exception.

21. If I'm careless with my financial affairs it won't be attributed to my sex.

22. If I'm careless with my driving it won't be attributed to my sex.

23. I can speak in public to a large group without putting my sex on trial.

24. If I have sex with a lot of people, it won't make me an object of contempt or derision.

25. There are value-neutral clothing choices available to me; it is possible for me to choose clothing that doesn't send any particular message to the world.

26. My wardrobe and grooming are relatively cheap and consume little time.

27. If I buy a new car, chances are I'll be offered a better price than a woman buying the same car.

28. If I'm not conventionally attractive, the disadvantages are relatively small and easy to ignore.

29. I can be loud with no fear of being called a shrew. I can be aggressive with no fear of being called a bitch.

30. I can ask for legal protection from violence that happens mostly to men without being seen as a selfish special interest, since that kind of violence is called "crime" and is a general social concern. (Violence that happens mostly to women is usually called "domestic violence" or "acquaintance rape," and is seen as a special interest issue.)

31. I can be confident that the ordinary language of day-to-day existence will always include my sex. "All men are created equal," mailman, chairman, freshman, he.

32. My ability to make important decisions and my capability in general will never be questioned depending on what time of the month it is.

33. I will never be expected to change my name upon marriage or questioned if i don't change my name.

34. The decision to hire me will never be based on assumptions about whether or not I might choose to have a family sometime soon.

35. Every major religion in the world is led primarily by people of my own sex. Even God, in most major religions, is usually pictured as being male.

36. Most major religions argue that I should be the head of my household, while my wife and children should be subservient to me.

37. If I have a wife or live-in girlfriend, chances are we'll divide up household chores so that she does most of the labor, and in particular the most repetitive and unrewarding tasks.

38. If I have children with a wife or girlfriend, chances are she'll do most of the childrearing, and in particular the most dirty, repetitive and unrewarding parts of childrearing.

39. If I have children with a wife or girlfriend, and it turns out that one of us needs to make career sacrifices to raise the kids, chances are we'll both assume the career sacrificed should be hers.

40. Magazines, billboards, television, movies, pornography, and virtually all of media is filled with images of scantily-clad women intended to appeal to me sexually. Such images of men exist, but are much rarer.

41. I am not expected to spend my entire life 20-40 pounds underweight.

42. If I am heterosexual, it's incredibly unlikely that I'll ever be beaten up by a spouse or lover.

43. I have the privilege of being unaware of my male privilege.

Me BAd!

You? If your heterosexual and male. You BAd too.

[bluegrass]

That's the same list that's been kicking around since about 1972.  We've had it up here before at least once or twice.

[angryharry]

Good grief.

That list is almost unbelievably pathetic.

Ampersand seems like a nice chap but there is not one single item in his list that cannot be very simply countered with very similar postulates - and which would, in fact, demonstrate that women's privileges are far greater in number, in degree and in value than any such privileges accorded to men.

There is absolutely nothing in that list for which there is not a counterpart demonstrating far greater female privilege.

[Galt]

Agreed, angryharry.

I don't even feel an urge to pick them apart one-by-one.

I have seen that women "don't feel safe on the street" - as if men do in Detroit, Michigan, on 6-Mile Road, at 2:00 a.m.

But mostly - I saw a woman once slap a big biker and throw beer on him because he said something she didn't like.

Good, women can do that.  A man wouldn't even dare think about it, because he'd get the shit beat out of him, and no one would care.  You brought it on yourself, dude.

But women know that they can slap men and behave in that way, and it has to be accepted because every man in the bar would get on top of a man crude enough to attack a woman.

Yeah, and women know that.  And they behave accordingly.

Frankly, that's a privilege in society.  But I give it to women, because they are smaller and weaker for the most part.  Unfortunately, it is turned around against men.

[damnbiker]

Normally I let stuff like this slide but there's a few things in here that really get me on a personal level.

The Male Privilege Checklist

1. My odds of being hired for a job, when competing against female applicants, are probably skewed in my favor. The more prestigious the job, the larger the odds are skewed.

Oh, right!  Obviously you aren't working as an engineer right now.  About half of the new hires at my company are female, which wouldn't be a problem if it was even close to the number of females graduating engineering programs now.

16. As a child, chances are I was encouraged to be more active and outgoing than my sisters.

Not in today's schools.  Looks lilke someone needs some more Ritalin, Johnny

17. As a child, I could choose from an almost infinite variety of children's media featuring positive, active, non-stereotyped heroes of my own sex. I never had to look for it; male heroes were the default.

As were the bumbling bafoons and villans.  Can you name 5 popular television sit coms that portray men, especially fathers, in a positive light today?

19. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether or not it has sexist overtones.

Probably because I'm not a male nurse, child care provider, or florist.  That may sound sexist but it's definitely true.

20. I can turn on the television or glance at the front page of the newspaper and see people of my own sex widely represented, every day, without exception.

Yup, being shot, sent to prison, or blamed for all of society's problems

26. My wardrobe and grooming are relatively cheap and consume little time.

That's a matter of choice made by myself but not made by all men.  Ever hear of a metrosexual?

28. If I'm not conventionally attractive, the disadvantages are relatively small and easy to ignore.

Not at all true for either sex.

30. I can ask for legal protection from violence that happens mostly to men without being seen as a selfish special interest, since that kind of violence is called "crime" and is a general social concern. (Violence that happens mostly to women is usually called "domestic violence" or "acquaintance rape," and is seen as a special interest issue.)

no, but I'll be called a pussy or something similar.  Men are expected to tough it out and suck it up.

37. If I have a wife or live-in girlfriend, chances are we'll divide up household chores so that she does most of the labor, and in particular the most repetitive and unrewarding tasks.

Yeah, nothing is more rewarding than taking out the smelly trash or shovelling the driveway.  Also, I have yet to date a woman who can cook as well as I.

39. If I have children with a wife or girlfriend, and it turns out that one of us needs to make career sacrifices to raise the kids, chances are we'll both assume the career sacrificed should be hers.

If you still believe this kind of crap I'd be amazed.  Now it all comes down to the mighty dollar.

40. Magazines, billboards, television, movies, pornography, and virtually all of media is filled with images of scantily-clad women intended to appeal to me sexually. Such images of men exist, but are much rarer.

Women make most of the spending decisions in households.  The magazines with the sickly skinny women are usually the fashion mags - bought by women.

42. If I am heterosexual, it's incredibly unlikely that I'll ever be beaten up by a spouse or lover.

more unlikely that I'll report it.

43. I have the privilege of being unaware of my male privilege.

Woo-freakin'-hoo for me.

I grew up in the Feminist era.  I have never oppressed a gender but when things are harder for me than for a woman in the name of progress I'll often hear "well women have been oppressed for...blah blah blah...so turn about's fair play.  How does punishing someone for something they've never done turn into fairness?

[dr e]

Was Ampersand the original author of that dreadful list?  

Here's a link to a post by Typhonblue about that list:

http://standyourground.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=49086&highlight=#49086

[daksdaddy]

Sorry Doc, I should have included this link with the original post.

http://www.theennead.com/amptoons/blog/archives/2004/09/15/the-male-privilege-checklist/

(Compiled by Barry Deutsch, aka "Ampersand." Permission is granted to reproduce this list in any way, for any purpose, so long as the acknowledgment of Peggy McIntosh's work is not removed. If possible, however, I'd appreciate it if folks who use it could tell me about how they used it; my email is barry-at-amptoons-dot-com.)

[kal147]

Sorry Guys,

It seems my query on another thread has caused this dreck to once again rear it's pathetic ugly head causing mass nausea, disgust, and rankling.

This list is almost unbelievably pathetic.

Ampersand seems like a nice chap but there is not one single item in his list that cannot be very simply countered with very similar postulates - and which would, in fact, demonstrate that women's privileges are far greater in number, in degree and in value than any such privileges accorded to men.

Furthermore, the disadvantages to being male far surpass and overshadow the disadvantages to being female.

I've had waaaay too many women fess up and tell me the real scoop about women in general (in their view), and a lot have told me that they were glad that they weren't men.

Of course, women do have their problems and many are fine individuals. But, for Hugo and Ampersand to substantially gloss over and essentially ignore mens unique problems is really troubling to me.

[Tony Ananda]

Female/feminist privilege checklist:

1. Do you experience other people paying for your dates, or occasionally even picking up the tab in non-romantic settings? Or paying for vacations when the relationship moves along?

2. Do you occasionally experience subservient gestures by the opposite sex (opening doors, giving up a seat in the bus, standing up when you come in the room)?

3. Are you able to simply pursue what you are interested in at university without much societal pressure on "breadwinning" - although you could also take that route if it interests you?

4. Have you had to register for selective service? Would you be ripped out of your life and forced to defend your country in time of attack or national emergency? Can you demand strength and full participation in society, but then get out of this obligation by pretending to be weak with no influence over society (only when it suits you)?

4.b. Can you come up with any and every excuse to get out of this without being laughed at ("No one should be drafted" - when you would be the first to cower in the corner and demand that someone do something if China & Russia combined and attacked full force - and "If men start wars ..." when women are the majority of voters and the expression is more likely "Men are SENT in wars ..." - exactly what you're trying to get out of - and sometimes sent by M. Thatcher, G. Meir, I. Gandhi, B. Bhutto and others).

5. Will you statistically get a much lighter sentence for exactly the same offense if you commit a crime?

6. Are you able to take on a job or choose a career route that is only capable of supporting yourself, with no thought to preparing yourself to also support a spouse/children, although you are also free to choose a more difficult career that will bring you more money? Do you not have much pressure on you with regard to this?

7. If you are in a committed relationship, do you have much greater flexibility to choose whether you want to work or simply stay at home (even without kids)?

8. Will you be called an unemployed loser if you decide to be a homemaker?

9. If you have a flat tire on the road, if someone is harassing you in a public place, if an animal attacks you, or if you are lost, will someone be much, much more likely to help you?

10. Are people generally much nicer to you in public? Are you sometimes given privileged treatment?

11. Are you much more capable of "marrying up" - enjoying the money and status that comes with this?

12. Are you statistically much more likely to be given money in a divorce - sometimes huge amounts - even if your behavior caused the divorce (e.g. affair) and even if you didn't work for the money?

13. If you slap a person - or even knock someone's tooth out throwing your Aunt Selma's Christmas mug at that person - is it much more likely to just be viewed as cute, understandable or not a problem?

14. Do you statistically live much longer - possibly due to less stress on you with regard to breadwinning, providing protection, being responsible, not having society viewing you as "expendable" or viewing your problems as not being important?

15. Do you have much more money spent on your health concerns in reality (e.g. 5 times as much on breast cancer as on prostate cancer - although they have roughly the same death rates) while you simultaneously claim that more has to be done for you?

16. Are you much less likely to be homeless? Is more offered to you by society when you are in this position?

17. Is there far less scorn and pressure on you by society when you are an irresponsible doofball? Are your default rates for payment of child support roughly twice those of the other gender, while you simultaneously complain about the other gender not paying?

18. Has whining about and hating the other gender actually been made into a course of studies in college (women's studies) - as opposed to the true, neutral, unbiased study of this topic - which is simply anthropology?

19. Do you have full opportunity to do anything you want in life - become a doctor, a lawyer, start a business - while simultaneously using the fact that many of your gender don't CHOOSE themselves to do these things as an argument to try to gain even more advantages? Do you get affirmative action because many of your gender don't choose to do these things, and thus the numbers don't "come out right"?

20. Can you manipulate the other gender with sex in some cases to get what you want? Can you pretend like you don't even know what anyone is talking about on this topic?

21. Can you manipulate using old notions of men protecting and deferring to women when it comes in handy?

22. Can you effectively manipulate by playing the victim? Do tears work sometimes?

23. Can you get sympathy if you don't work and don't have children by listing all the household work (hmm ... Oprah really does get high ratings, though) while simultaneously being able to bear the cognitive dissonance of calling your sister's husband who stays home a worthless bum that she ought to leave?

24. Can you "mix and match" traditional and progressive roles - finding just the right mix to get what you want? Can you be a "traditional wife" - enjoying the positive features of that (like not having to work) - while simultaneously being a progressive feminist when THAT gets you advantages? Or having a career while simultaneously using traditional chivalry and male deference to your advantage?

25. Can you constantly say "that's just typical" and "it doesn't surprise me a bit" and make a lemon face if you are a parent-in-law? Is near-universal contempt by both genders for your behavior hidden to a much greater extent?

26. Can almost any remark by your partner be construed as verbal abuse if you want sympathy, but the meanest, nastiest, most humiliating things that you can say simply involve "speaking your mind" and "some people just don't want to hear the truth"?

27. Can you use the fact that gender roles were differentiated long ago - with different advantages/disadvantages for both genders - to try to induce guilt today in people who had absolutely no connection with any of that? Can you say that you have been discriminated against for thousands of years - when you're only 20 years old - with a straight face? Can you even make things up about history and no one will really check or dare call you on it?

28. Can you propagate myths and outright lies ("Superbowl/domestic violence hoax", "rule of thumb", 1/4 rape statistic, intentional misconstrual of pay figures, and many more) and be given a "pass" - without more rigor being demanded?

29. Can you rationalize your own failures using the concept of the "patriarchy", and blame the other gender for nearly everything that goes wrong in your life - even with quite contorted explanations that no one would otherwise buy - while failures of the other gender are just ... failures?

30. Do you want to be treated like a child when it suits you but as an adult when you get an advantage from that? Do you "look the other way" when someone doesn't require responsibility from you that they certainly would from the other gender?

31. Can you focus heavily on perceived earnings in the workforce - the statistics of which are influenced by people's choices in reality - while utterly ignoring the inter-family transfer of wealth? Can you completely ignore the fact that one gender picks tougher jobs (garbage collector), works more hours and takes on more responsibility because of more pressure to earn - but the other gender has the same lifestyle and statistically more assets (and not just because of inheritance/earlier age of male at death....). Can you deliberately claim that earnings figures are based on equal pay for equal work? (when you probably full well know that they simply involve all people working more than 35 hours - and don't take type of job, hours worked over 35/week, danger, responsibility, years in the work force etc. into consideration at all).

32. Is what used to simply be an irritation for grown-ups many years ago - the self-centered rantings and foot stompings of spoiled high-school and college brats - now not only embraced by your movement but almost the modern cornerstone of it?

33. And if you irritated about generalizations and stereotypes ---- and utterly fail to see the hypocrisy in stereotyping and generalizing about one gender while simultaneously making a career (literally in some cases) whining about your own gender being stereotyped ...

... you may have female/feminist privilege! But don't let on - because you can gain much more with a continual victim status.

[The Gonzman]

Fucking awesome, Tony.  Absofuckinglutely awesome.  So goddamn awesome I had to blog it.

YOU DA MAN! :daman:  

http://mensnewsdaily.com/blog/gonz/2005/01/tony-ananda-awesome.htm

[kal147]

That's a nice list Tony! I remember Dan 'pretty boy' Lynch posted it a couple years ago on MIO I believe. Does anybody know who authored it?

[Tony Ananda]

I should have pointed out that I had it stored on my hard drive and I am not the author.  Sorry for the misunderstanding.

The file was saved on May 07, 2003.  I believe I got it from one of the feminist boards, possibly Ms.

But I don't remember after a year and a half.

[ChickenZliZe]

Is it safe to post it around the net?
Would like to post on a forum,but I dont know about the copyrights from US.
Is it safe to distribute texts as this?

[Tony Ananda]

Go ahead and be a rebel for once in your life.  If it's copyrighted - fuck it!  Let this closet genius present himself with a cease and desist order.  Then we'll know who he is.  Maybe he's written other things that can be scattered across the hard drives of America and THE WORLD.  See that Angry Harry gets a copy, would you?

In the meantime you better erase all those episodes of Cheers.  Copyrighted, you know.  Unplug that Tivo before you get into trouble.  Music files?  Don't you dare!

Freely you have recieved, freely give.  That's what Jesus Christ said.  Here at SYG we stick close to the scriptures.

[napnip]

Let this closet genius present himself with a cease and desist order.  Then we'll know who he is.

Somehow I suspect the author of said piece won't object at all to his work being distributed.  I'm betting that he would heartily support it being shouted from the rooftops!

Freely you have recieved, freely give. That's what Jesus Christ said. Here at SYG we stick close to the scriptures.

LOL!  Well said!