Personal privilege is a topic that I have truly never thought about before this year. Privilege is taken for granted everyday, and people never think about how it affects their life. I grew up in New York City in a small, five floor walk up apartment. I am a white, heterosexual female and although I believed my life to be somewhat challenging, I learned that I have many privileges that have gone unrecognized. A primary reason my understanding of privilege has changed was due to the event that I attended. I listened to the presenter, Toshia Shaw a survivor of sex trafficking, tell her story and bring awareness to the topic of sex trafficking which genuinely allowed me to reflect on my privilege. The readings, guest speakers, and activities in class have allowed me to deepen my knowledge of personal privilege revolving around many topics; including sexism, heterosexism, ageism, racism, transgender oppression, and religious oppression. …show more content…
There are many branches of sexism, which support the key ideas of the topic. The book “Readings for Diversity and Social Justice” by Maurianne Adams, explains how gender roles, gender socialization, and gender identity are the three concepts which contribute to sexism in our society. Gender roles have been socially constructed and have allowed people to believe what it means to be “feminine” and “masculine”. Society has made it seem as if women and men must follow strict standards, including that men are tough and women are caretakers. I have experienced being forced into society’s expectations of gender roles many times in my life, including my father telling me not to burp because it is “not lady like”, or getting told to “sit like a girl” by my eight grade teacher. These gender roles are taught through the concept of gender
Sensory and DiAngelo (20012) showed the meaning of “privilege” in general and in academics. In general, people who have the privilege are treated as lucky, and they will benefit from this luck. Therefore, people think that privilege is a positive thing. However, the definition of the privilege is different when academics define it. The reason why it happens is because of how society works defined by academics. “They refer to the rights, advantages, and protections enjoyed by some at the expense of and beyond the rights, advantages, and protections available
It is important to understand how privilege affects others because it allows you to see how other people can be affected in different situations on a daily basis. It allows you to picture yourself in their perspectives and to better understand how a person’s ethnic background, sexual orientation, and social class can mean the difference in how others treat them.
To understand systems of privilege,I though it was important to first clarify and define privilege. According to the Cambridge dictionary, privilege is a “special advantage or authority possessed by a particular person or group”.Wildman and Davis go beyond this simplistic definition and examine how the characteristics of a privileged group definesocietal norms, benefiting those within the privileged group and disenfranchising those outside of it. They expand on these ideas and explain how the normalization of privilege inherently declaresthose whostand outside these normsas “abnormal” or “alternative”, and how this normalization makes these privileges seem almost invisible. Yet, these systems of privilege do exist and are palpable. For those who posses them it might be difficult to visualize and see them because to them they are “…merely there, [as] part of the world, a way of life, simply the way things are”(100). However, these systems of privilege can be made visible, and must be made visible to address issues of systematic oppression within our society.
At a young age people learned sexist ways and how to say things, but they were never told that it was sexist. But as you grow older that’s all you hear is, it’s not mail man is mail deliver or lunch lady it is actually the food server. There are also people that have been taught to not be sexist, those people tend not to be corrected that often. And one of the things that get people the most, is when people think of rolls in society that are given to those men and women. You can also see all forms of sexism being used at school, in sports, or at a job, and also toward both men and women of both past and present and how it is also a big deal in other countries.
In the beginning of the year I entered this class with a very sheltered and ignorant view of current and past events. Through time and sociological evolution I have begun to see things in a different light. The development of my ability, to look at something or some kind of situation, lets me use the sociological terms in such a manner to relate them to micro and macro problems in society. This started with the assigned readings of the class; the aim was to decipher the messages the authors were presenting. The goal was then to dig deeper and use my experiences to help myself understand the concepts throughout the course. "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited." Plutarch (46-120 CE--common era) I was no longer supposed to retain knowledge on a factual basis but to observe the problems and challenge my own thoughts, values, and beliefs. Challenging these aspects lights the fire that creates the ability to use working sociological terms in my analyses. Through my analyses of the authors in the course I developed questions about the particular readings that we were assigned. The questions I present from these authors are on the basis of learning and seeing the macro picture from micro events. The authors that we read from were: Allan G. Johnson, James W. Loewen, Jonathan Kozol, David Nibert, Arnold Arluke, Clinton R. Sanders, and Elie Wiesel. From each one of these authors we are able to relate a theme of sociology to what is happening in their books, which results in the discussion questions.
As a member of the dominant race in America, I know that I possess certain unearned privileges that allow me to be more successful overall. I was raised with the mindset that racism doesn't affect me because I am white. The U.S. education system taught me about my racial and ethnic history, but it is likely that my classmates of different races could not say the same. I learned about racism in school but not to view whites as privileged or degrading towards subordinate groups. My group was never seen at fault for oppression or took any responsibility for it. Myself, nor my peers, were ever seen or viewed as unfairly advantaged or privileged. I grew up under the impression that any person could achieve what they wanted if they simply worked hard
Even in the first civilizations sexsim was very prevalent, women were not included in democracy, they were not allowed to vote, and in some earlier civilizations women were not even allowed to have a job or go outside the home. Even as a 16 year old girl in America, the supposed land of dreams, I see sexism everyday. I see it when I watch the news, I see it when I’m walking down the halls at my school, I even see it when I read novels and articles or watch a movie online. Over 60% of serious journalism roles are given to males, while the women are left with the less important, or less popular sections. In school I see boys calling girls stupid, or girls getting a pass to go to their locker because they forgot something, even though a boy was just denied. I notice sexism the most in literature and movies, I see female characters being “airheads” or acting dumb and helpless, their main role in the piece is to wait for the male character to save them, or to be a comic relief. Not only are women’s jobs and dignity at stake but our sexuality, education and rights are too.
Sexism is the ideology that maintains that one sex is inherently inferior to the other. Sexism or discrimination based on gender has been a social issue for many years; it is the ideology that one sex is superior or inferior to the other. Sexism does not only affect females, but also males. Men are very often victimized by social stereotypes and norms based on gender expectations. Sexism has appears in almost all social institutions including family, the media, religion, sports, the military, politics, and the government. However, although both genders are affected, men have benefited from sexism the most (Thompson 300-301.)
Privilege is a certain advantage given to one group of people to benefit them at the expense of the disadvantaged group. Popular examples include privileges regarding race, gender, sexual preference, class, and ability. McIntosh explains the concept of privilege as being in possession of an “invisible backpack of unearned assets” that one can “count on cashing in each day,” while remaining ignorant of having the backpack in the first place. While one person may carry around a backpack full of these tools, another person is walking around with nothing in their backpack. The tools provided by privilege are utilized every day to guide the advantaged group in their journey, but the advantaged group is not even aware of the backpack’s strength. On the contrary, the disadvantaged group without backpacks observe their advantaged counterparts skate through life with all these resources to aid them while they trek through the obstacles of life empty-handed.
Crosley further explores unseen privilege and touches on the subcategory that McIntosh overlooks, class. Crosley points out how for the most part McIntosh’s list of unseen privilege is mostly correct, but unfortunately she only accounts for unseen privileges for white middle class female receives. Crosley says, “I demanded to know why this White Woman felt that my experiences were the same as hers when no, my family most certainly could not rent housing "in an area which we could afford and want to live." to highlight parts in McIntosh’s list of privileges that were inaccurate because lack of consideration for lower class families. An important idea that both authors allude to in their respective articles is that, “There are many different types of privilege, not just skin color privilege, that impact the way people can move through the world or are discriminated against.” The main message I received from both authors is that awareness is the most important factor in privilege because of how broad it is. Also that being aware allows people to understand privilege. To understand something gives people the power to change it and this is especially so in the case of
Before I read this chapter and read the questions given, I would have said that I don’t have privilege. The reason is because I am a woman of color and we are rarely afforded a sought after thing
Privilege, particularly white privilege, is hard to recognize and embrace for those of us who were born into such power. It is not a system of taking or not taking, but rather an advantage that society gives me when I am born. It is institutional, and unless I work to bring changes to fix an institution that allows me to prosper on other’s oppression, it is a privilege I will continue to receive whether I want it or not. The dictionary definition of privilege states that privilege is “a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people.” (Merriam-webster, 2016) For those of us who are white, one of the many privileges we possess is being able just see ourselves as individuals. It is
Author and feminist Alix Kates Shulman said once: “Sexism goes so deep that at first it’s hard to see, you think it’s just reality” (McEneany). That quote sums up perfectly the way our society runs. There is no class teaching children how to act according the their gender. Yet little boys and little girls learn at a very young age what is expected of them. They get ideas about their gender roles from their parents, their school teachers and subconsciously from the toys they play with and the television shows they watch.
1. (a) Privilege is defined as a favor or right granted to some people, but not to everyone.
Privilege, like a beautiful gift, comes in many shapes and sizes. The value of a privilege is infinite depending on who the recipient is. The privilege of luxury bestowed upon a wealthy person may not be as greatly cherished as the privilege of health insurance given to a person of a lower economic class. In our world today, privilege is dispersed in many forms and among many social classes. However, privilege seems to favor the wealthy as they seem to promote from within their own groups. Social and economical privileges are necessary among the elite to maintain their status among the Jones’; where as a privilege granted to the poor, simply allows a more stable existence. Two examples of privilege that are not material, but are equally as important, are justice and piece of mind. Unfortunately, these two privileges are likely to be less attainable to the lower class.