There have been a lot of reactions in this topic (by transmen), who never denied that male privilege exists. There might be people who have doubts that it exists. However there are also quite a few reactions by men who are saying, yes it does exist, but we can only have an honest conversation about it if people are willing to look at the other side of the coin.
Second, most of the men answering here are transmen - they very well know and have experienced life as a female - including myself (27 years female). So any discrimination that ciswomen and transwomen experienced, they have experienced it too, and I have experienced it too. However when you transition, you also see the other side of the story.
Thinking about female privilege does
not amount to a denial of male privilege. Thinking that male/female privilege does not exist, in my opinion, is absurd. You will always have certain things that advantage you and disadvantage you. You can´t talk about male/female privilege without taking other factors into account too, like skin color, class, etc.
Brandon - to make the conversation easier, maybe you could list the points that you disagreed with in the video you were watching. That way people could see whether they agreed with those points or not - it would be a whole lot easier than having a discussion about very broad subject matter.
On a side note, I´d like to state that the chance of a male getting assaulted is not necessarily lower than the chances of a woman getting assaulted - transitioning has both made is safer for me to walk the streets and less safe - it´s just a different kind of threat you´re facing. The threat is mostly from men who wouldn´t mind a fight.
There are plenty of men who have to keep their wits about them when walking the streets alone or at night, depending on the neighborhood. As I stated, men can be victims of sexual abuse - often by other men - but are often also victims of violence within a relationship or at the hands of their mother as a child.
If you want to have an honest conversation about gender, you simply cannot state that this almost never happens or is a myth, or that women face far more violence than men. It all depends on the different kinds of environment and situations that men and women face. I have seen several in-depth studies of discrimination/violence for both genders.
Quote from: SadieBlake on November 22, 2017, 04:33:11 AM
Yes, women outnumber men in both the workplace and university now and the latter is surely a sign of increasing equality, however in the former case those women face a glass ceiling, they aren't in most places in the running for senior positions.
Personally, I am not sure how increasing inequality between men and women equates equality. If anything, I wonder why men are increasingly dropping out of university or enrolling in lesser numbers. I think that should be cause for concern.
Your argument about there not being enough women in engineering and science is valid, although I have seen an interview with a young female engineer (I´d have to look it up), where she said that most of her female friends simply weren´t interested in engineering, and would rather do something else, like the social studies.
I studied anthropology and out of a class of about 200, there maybe were about 10 men. Is that a good or a bad thing? Does it indicate than men are simply more interested in the "hard" sciences? If so, that isn´t necessarily bad. If they are staying away for other reasons, the issue should be looked into.
The same applies to classes and careers with mostly men in it. Are there mostly men in it, because they are more interested in the subject matter? Or are there mostly men in it, because women are staying out for other reasons? Same thing as above, the issue should be looked into.
With regard to the pay gap: there have been studies carried out to investigate the pay imbalance and it has frequently turned out that men worked longer shifts /more hours on average or were in positions where they would have a greater risk of injury. So I think you can see why some of us are doubtful as to whether this is true.
I wonder if quotas really do anything to help women. If anything, women should be encouraged to be interested in science from a young age, and if they are simply interested in other fields, that´s fine too. But in my opinion, the workforce would profit more from hiring those with the highest skills and passion, as opposed to quotas.
Edit: I´ve scrolled back a bit, read all comments, and I think we actually already do agree with each other on quite a few things. Also think it´s quite an informative topic
