to ask you about different types of privilege women can have? e.g slim, educated

[pepperandapples]

Just that really - what are the different types of privilege that women can have that make them more or less privileged than other women?

e.g able bodied, wealth, education, slim. What else is there?

is height one? how about hair colour and accent etc?

I am trying to understand

"Not everybody can be slim"
Of course they can, you eat less calories.There's no magic wand. Self discipline and common sense.
Honestly this thread is so full of self pity and self flagellation.

personally I think you are talking nonsense. Any one can die their hair any colour. No one is more "privileged" in what colour they can have their hair, because anyone can be any colour

Nothing is stopping you

If you don't consider the availability of money or time or intelligence to get educated or being physically able to exercise or afford healthy food or not having physical conditions or medication that lead to weight gain then sure, nothing is stopping you.

That is just ignorant. Blond is a reproductive advantage in a temperate climate in a prehistoric society. That is what it is.

Children have blond hair to enable more vit D production and healthier growing bones. Woman do to enable bone strength for her and unborn child during pregnancy.

It is selected for because it has a reproductive advantage.

Your are trying to put all sorts of faddy political interpretations on something which is just straight forward biology

It’s interesting I work with men predominantly in one of my jobs and they would probably say I’m privileged by my sex. Apparently I get away with loads that they can’t as I float through life.

In my younger years I definitely had pretty privilege, I have a classic look and it helps with shop assistants etc. I don’t think it balances out classic white male middle class privilege though.

@Fizbosshoes not so much black and white view but drawing from my own experience. I am from a WC family and all of my siblings and I attended university in Scotland. There are grants and loans and we worked part time. It is also quite common to stay at home as well during uni as there are so many FE institutions in Scotland there is no need to move. If you don't get the entry requirements then that's a different matter that should have been picked up before leaving secondary school. Courses don't all require A grades, you can be accepted with B and C.

I am tall and slim. Being tall is a family trait. Being slim is because I exercise and choose what I eat carefully. I appreciate that I am in fortunate circumstance that make those choices easier but nevertheless I see it as a choice not luck or a privilege

I don't agree with the baseline concept of "privilege". It sounds as if its something that's been bestowed on people and can equally be taken away. It also ends up with this overly detailed waffle about hair colour or height.

The reality is people are born with a set of attributes that affects our life chances. None of us can help the hand we are dealt at birth and that shapes our outcomes. So I prefer to talk in terms of advantages and disadvantages groups have rather than "privileges" individuals have.

As a white, able bodied, well educated middle class woman I have loads and loads of advantages in life. Those advantages haven't prevented me from being discriminated against because I'm a woman, sexually assaulted or abused.

I'm not very comfortable with the idea that my hair colour is a "privilege" in that context. It is a bit tone deaf and distracting from the bigger issues (structural sexism, racism, ability and classism)

You very evidently have not done the research. Half of what you are saying is correct, but why on earth do you think so many women choose to dye their hair blonde? Precisely because it affords advantage and this all started with being able to attract a certain kind of mate and look after off spring.

*dye

Yes, every word of this.

Height - nah.

Slim - yes

I am well educated, but that is nothing whatsoever to do with ‘privilege’. Quite the opposite, in fact. I grew up on a shithole council estate & went to a bog-standard comprehensive school from which I earned a place at a good university despite the standards of teaching & facilities on offer. My classmates bullied me for being a ‘boffin’. My own family mocked me when I read the Guardian & listened to R4 as a teenager. I did bar & waiting work throughout my degrees to make ends meet.

Perhaps those who come from wealthy families & went to private schools are better placed to comment on ‘privilege’. They would know rather more about the subject than me.

Health/disability and race, surely? I don't understand this. How can someone's hair colour equate a person on UC because they're physically too ill to work.

When’s your essay due?

Absolutely correct. Height is a genetic characteristic. Obesity is a lifestyle choice, and I say that as someone who was clinically obese for many years and is now a healthy weight.

I second this @Poorlymumma. If you're too ill to work/ go to university, it really doesn't matter what colour your hair is.

I think a lot of these conversations about privilege exclude class because it would involve wealthy middle and upper middle class people acknowledging that they benefit hugely from generational wealth and opportunity that they would like to still take advantage of, so handwringing about 'white privilege ' means they don't have to think about poor White people, because they have the same kind of ' privilege'. The richest man in Britain until recently was an Asian man, as is the Prime Minister ( who incidentally is also tiny). But both are generationally wealthy and solidly middle class. Sajld Javid is a similar working class done good background from many successful Whute working class people, and benefitted from a stable, supportive family that valued education. It's the idea of ' luxury beliefs' where people can can signal how aware they are of their privilege without actually having to suffer themselves because of it. Because you can't do anything about your race, but you can stop buying flats in the catchment areas of outstanding schools in poor areas, object to unpaid internships in workplaces, not vote against measures that mean your parents will have to sell their home to fund their own care therefore reducing your own inheritances, stop moving their kids from private school to state sixth form to try and game the system for uni admissions etc etc Talking about white/blonde/slim privilege does nothing to help those who are disadvantaged far more by class.

But it isn't if you know the definition. Just some silly people trying to make something out of nothing.

This. Definitely shows OP privilege

Good family support.

This is definitely one. Knowing you have loving supportive parents you can fall back on. Having had a good start in life where you weren't pushed out the door at 16 and left to fend for yourself, were you were allowed to be young and makd mistakes and you didn't have too much responsibility. Having babysitters to hand, the possibility of borrowing or being gifted money and eventually and inheritance

Some people think that having supportive parents it's so normal and given that they don't realise how much of a privledge it is

*Bellend

Lost 4 stone c.2009 anus didn’t split like it did today.

2 decades of dealing with an anal fissure I’m meant to believe it comes back with a numb stomach.

alright, nhs,

'You don't agree that being slim affords you privilege relative to people who are overweight? Surely you can understand how this benefits you."

Being thin isn't a privilege, anyone can be either. I've been both over the years. That's a choice.

Privilege is related to things that can't be changed surely - height, being able-bodied, genetic stuff. And education/upbringing, which by the time you're adult, can't be redone easily.

Colour is a privilege in some environments but not in others. Inherited wealth isn't necessarily a privilege, there are plenty who die early due to having too much too soon.

I'd say the greatest privilege is growing up in a loving, supportive stable home environment.

Blonde privelege is not a thing.