Out, proud and now quite a bit nervous

[Boood]

Was just walked through the “privilege wheel” in a team meeting. Was forced to ask why there was no category for biological sex and explain that gender identity is not a suitable replacement.
And now I’m throwing JKR and Maya Forstater references around like they’re going out of fashion and thinking, oh fuck.
Please hand hold, share stories and advise how I keep it grown-up and employed without caving.

The wheel has wealth, but includes 'middle class' as between poor and rich. The wheel doesn't have class. The wheel is wrong.

I looked at that 'Privilege Wheel' and thought: it's not using UK terms.

Yup, downloaded from a Canadian organisation. Seemingly without someone spending even five seconds to consider whether 'privilege' in a North American context will be the same as 'privilege' in a UK context.

Grrr.

Privilege wheel?! WTAF. I hope where l work don’t trot this out, l may roll my eyes so hard they start spinning round!

So the 'gender' segment moves privileged males from top dogs to being the most 'marginalised' just because they say they are women.

They couldn't put sex though could they as that would only need 2 parts not 3.

@Manderleyagain

The wheel has wealth, but includes 'middle class' as between poor and rich. The wheel doesn't have class. The wheel is wrong.

That struck me too.

Rich, middle class, poor. What are we actually being asked to compare here? An awful lot of people fit into two of those categories at the same time. (Including me. Oh woe, how do I possibly know where I belong on the privilege wheel? Does not knowing make me less privileged?)

@Manderleyagain

Recommend the book Invisible Women to everyone.

Kerching!

It also doesn’t include age (they never do include age), though age works for and against you depending on the situation (which is exactly the nuance that gets missed on these awful training sessions).

I got a bit tipsy on a Christmas party this weekend and it all came pouring out during a related conversation. Part of me is terrified that everyone hates me, the other part doesn’t really give a toss because that fear doesn’t change how I feel and what I know. They can think what they want.

Well done for your bravery btw, op.

The 'size' one is bad ...I think they mean slim v fat rather than size as such. Because in all sorts of ways including physical strength, and the world being designed for them, large people are decidedly privileged over small people.

Oddly enough the missing sex category to some extent covers and explains that because of bimodal size distribution in humans.

@ErrolTheDragon

The 'size' one is bad ...I think they mean slim v fat rather than size as such. Because in all sorts of ways including physical strength, and the world being designed for them, large people are decidedly privileged over small people.

Oddly enough the missing sex category to some extent covers and explains that because of bimodal size distribution in humans.

Absolutely. And there are different types of size too, which have different impacts.

So as a 5'11" woman, I am privileged in some ways as I am closer to the average male height than many women so things like cars 'fit' me better. But as a size 18 woman I am have less privilege because I'm fat in a society which judges that very negatively. So I am both privileged and not privileged because of the same factor on the wheel.

(Even further nuance - being both 5'11" and size 18 means I get a lot less hassle from random dickhead men in public, because I am not smaller than them, therefore I am not an easy target. Why pick on the woman who is taller and wider than you when you could pick on a skinny 5'2" woman? But then that same combination of factors is deemed unattractive by most men, who generally seek romantic/ sexual partners who are smaller than them, and so I am disadvantaged when it comes to finding a romantic partner. Gosh, it's almost as if the human experience is rather complicated and not easily expressed in a wheel of nonsense, isn't it?!)

It looks like that wheel did its job and everyone is thinking about their privileges?

@CatherinaJTV

It looks like that wheel did its job and everyone is thinking about their privileges?

I guess so, if its job was to highlight what a load of half-baked flawed logic lies behind the victim heirarchy.

I wonder how much the trainer was paid for this half-arsed training based on a Canadian graphic that probably doesn't even make much sense in Canada.

Being asexual makes you more vulnerable than being a gay man? Not in pubs in the town I grew up in it didn't.

And I am rich and working class. Not sure how that works...

@CatherinaJTV

It looks like that wheel did its job and everyone is thinking about their privileges?

I totally am. And I am delighted that gay men are so comparatively privileged. I will tell that to my mate who got smacked in the face in a pub last year by someone who called him a 'fucking poof'.

'Just imagine how bad it would have been if you had been there not really wanting to have sex with anyone,' I will say, 'Check your fucking privilege.'

Well I’m a genderfluid yo-yo dieter so my wheel is constantly spinning.

@RepentMotherfucker

Being asexual makes you more vulnerable than being a gay man? Not in pubs in the town I grew up in it didn't.

And I am rich and working class. Not sure how that works...

Yes that is the weirdest thing. And a bisexual man is less privileged than a gay man, apparently. Why?

Is your workplace going to hire homeless non-English speakers or is this just more meaningless virtue signalling bollocks?

If we ever needed a reminder of how neoliberal this ideology is... They are basically saying “you’re privileged to be in a job, you should shut up now”. Aren’t they?

And a bisexual man is less privileged than a gay man, apparently. Why?

Oooh oooh! I know!

Is it because if he ever says 'I am bisexual' some arsehole will pipe up with 'OMG how dare you imply there are only two genders? I'm so triggered.'

Race and racism is considerably more nuanced than skin colour . As a SirSamuelVimes points out height and physique are very different

Being asexual makes you more vulnerable than being a gay man?
Yeah, I was confused by that one too how would anyone even know you were asexual?

Yeah, I was confused by that one too how would anyone even know you were asexual?

I’ve thought that for a long time about “all the other sexualities” being brought in under some kind of “umbrella” and needing special legal protections on the supposed grounds that sexuality should be more widely protected. I mean why? The reason lesbian and gay people need protection is presumably because if you have a same sex partner, you shouldn’t have to hide that fact. But a partner is visible, where any other “sexuality” can be kept private, and indeed in my opinion, generally should be, at work and in public, at least.

It also makes me think of the episode of Gender a Wider Lens when they were talking to a detransitioner about how she and a lot of her peers began to identify as non binary as they felt they had too much privilege as white middle class students.

Yeah, it seems to be just another way to get attention or sympathy, whilst retaining all the benefits of their nice lifestyle.

@Manderleyagain

The wheel has wealth, but includes 'middle class' as between poor and rich. The wheel doesn't have class. The wheel is wrong.

Exactly what I was going to say (see LangCleg, I was listening over the years!!) - Class is a MAJOR FACTOR.

As has been pointed out, was downloaded from a Canadian website. It's embarrassing the providers of this can't even think about the actual society we are in and its unique, deeply ingrained privileges.