Very basic, obvious examples of male privilege please?

[tigersox]

Examples every man will experience. Undeniable and obvious

I'm trying to make male privilege simple to a friend who feels us feminists have gone too far.

Thanks

Cats not a trivial example at all (we had a whole thread on this once, it was very interesting).

cats not trivial. I felt so liberated when I realised that I could have the best jacket potato and not have to automatically give it to my husband.

Re more homeless/rough sleeping men, it’s because women are at risk of exploitation and sexual violence. Some get exploited (eg “sex as rent”) because those options are available to them and they are desperate, and some thankfully get housed because of the risk.

Male privilege - getting a woman to go on a woman's forum, to get a load of opinions from other women and present them to him, instead of bothering to self-question / educate himself.

@sar302 that would be, but my friend didn't. I posted initially without telling him then told him to read and join up, I posted his viewpoint as he wasn't keen to join mumsnet but he's reading.

I don't think though that he holds an opinion that many men (particularly younger men) don't also share and need their eyes opened on. It's obvious to us as we experience it.

I do think he's lovely - just needs educating on why we haven't gone too far and why we still need feminism. If I didn't think there was hope, I wouldn't try

Something they need to buy every month for health reasons is not taxed as a luxury item.

Yes, that luxury of not bleeding into my clothes,

Tigersox - fair enough, but that in itself is also another example of male privilege you can give him. As the woman you have to (or feel you have to) do the work to help him understand** his own privilege. No man is having to help women understand his position in the world.

I don't think male privilege is inherently a bad thing about someone, I think it just... is... if you see what I mean? I have white privilege. It doesn't make me inherently a bad person (unless I leave it I examined), it just makes me white.

If your friend is striving to educate himself, then fair play to him! You're correct in that even the nicest men are not immune. I continue to have conversations with my (actually stunningly amazing in all other areas) husband, about the mental load involved in house work.

We get there slowly!

Don't know why asterisks have appeared! Stupid keyboard!

Totally agree with 'working mother', a peer (male) described someone in his team to me as a working mother and I asked if he described himself as a working father. Turns out he meant she worked part time apparently. He is a lovely guy very equal parent, wife travels a lot with work yet this stuff is so ingrained!

Oh yes DH and I both worked part time at one stage. DH got questions: how will they manage at work? Will this impact your career? I got: how will you manage being away from the children so much? Will they be ok at nursery? Shouldn't you wait until they're in school?

At the time I was earning approx 7 x DH's salary. Lots of tongue biting on that done.

Something a pp on here said about moving out the way for men just reminded me of something that pissed me right off the other day crossing a busy road .

At a pedestrian crossing 2 men on the same side of the crossing as me stood next to each other at one side of the path ( next to the button you press ) me right at the other side ( next to the other button) so a big space between us .
2 men opposite decide to chance it during a small gap in traffic and go before the traffic lights go red and have to do fast walk/jog thing . I see them heading towards me so I stood my ground but then moved at the last minute as clearly they were aiming right at me rather than the massive gap they could have gone through .

Then the Lights go red , traffic all stopped and the two men next to me proceed to cross the road diagonally at a slightly faster pace than me so that by the time we reach the other side they cut directly Infront of me and I have to move . They are oblivious chatting away .

Why??? I was really mad . Small thing really but just so rude and so typical

@Cats your example is valid indeed. The males in my house always got more.

I went to a carvery with my father in law. His wife fillled a tiny plate and he a large one. He then proceeded to gasp and comment at any female in the queue who dared to pile their food up like his. He even pointed. My mother in law was clearly starving yet has been trained to have small portions then go on about how full she is. I don't get it.

Needless to say I piled my plate up high.

Maybe it's just me, but men always seem to get served first in bars too.

Sorry my post is maybe unclear re crossing road there were 2 sets of 2 men .

2 stood on my side and 2 at opposite side of crossing

If you are a male single parent, you are automatically a saint.

Was going to post much the same thing.

Businesses not returning my phone calls. DH leaves a message and they phone back in minutes. Even he has started to recognise how often this happens after I pointed it out a couple of times.

I was driving my car in the Lake District and glanced the front left wheel off a bit of drystone wall and it started squealing alarmingly, so I booked it into the garage. Despite me booking the car in, driving it, owning it, and paying for the work, the mechanic kept talking to my then-boyfriend instead of me. Said boyfriend did not at any time correct the mechanic, but talked to him as if it was his car! (We're not together any more, fancy that.) Being on holiday and at the mercy of the only mechanic in town, I could hardly chide the mechanic, what if he refused to do the work? Male privilege is mechanics not treating you like you're invisible when your partner is with you.

The same boyfriend, on the same holiday, decided, whilst I was driving along a winding 50mph road, to run his hand up my inner thigh. To him, acting on his sexual urges was more important than not hitting a drystone wall at 50mph. Yes, I blew my stack at him, I couldn't believe he was so stupid. He's not the first man to sexually assault, because none of them ever asked and no reasonable person would assume the driver consents to being distracted like that when driving distract me at the wheel. Dare I say "male sexual entitlement" and "male pattern risk-taking"?

Recognition of pain and it not being pooh poohed!

Some doctors will ignore pain and just say it's something you've got to put up with in women (eg serious period pain) yet pain in a man will be investigated and treated properly and with respect.

tigersox

What are his examples of feminism having gone too far?

YY to being ignored by mechanics. See also plumbers, builders, decorators, electricians, carpet fitters, bathroom fitters etc. Can you tell we have been having work done? Despite me working from home full time, and therefore on site to answer questions, most got directed to DH. And if I answered any, they asked me to check that DH was in agreement.

One feels the need to start a female privilege thread.

But I shan't.

One does, does one? But one isn't going to.

How very, very diverting. I am positively agog with curiosity as to how such a thread would go.

(Actually, I'm not. I predict... tumbleweed.)

My DD was diagnosed with autism at 15.

My DS was diagnosed at 4.

DD's difficulties were way more obvious than DS's and she's always needed a lot more support than DS. But because she is female her issues were not taken seriously.

Fermats,

Just for you, here is a sub-thread. I shall start slowly.

1. I demand that women and men should receive equal pay but ignore the fact that over 95% of all work place deaths are male.

1. It privilege that a woman can expect to live for almost 5 years longer than a man (UK)

Shall I go on?

I would love to know in what respects I get actual privilege over men, as opposed to restrictions dressed up as privilege e.g. the recently-withdrawn ban on women in frontline combat, which is often portrayed by MRAs as female privilege instead of the career-limiting condescending tripe that it is.

Tradesmen assume that invoices for their work need to go to my h. Or they assume that I need my h to approve a quote. (I'm single)

In Game, when people come over to ask if I need help they assume that I am buying a gift for a male. ( I work in games development)

Many people assume that really simple things like setting up a PS4 or changing the router password is too technical for me as I'm a mum.

1. So the person sat opposite me, doing the same work as me (in our safe no risk office) should be paid more because statistically he’s more likely to die at work, even though, in practice he isn’t.