Male Privilege

[LadyHawkAZ]

343. I don't think it's quite that simple

because a lot depends on if we are recognizing the actual disease or just the symptoms. 99Forever actually made a very good point, although it was couched in a denial that male privilege exists- it does exist, but like all the -isms it is artificially created for the reason he gave- to keep the non-ruling classes divided and fighting each other. Just recognizing the existence of those divides doesn't eliminate them, because too often we're focusing on some of the individual symptoms or behaviors rather than recognizing that the actual problem is not between us, and that we all have a common enemy causing it.

Here's an example near and dear to DU- porn. Sexual imagery has been part of humanity since the cave days. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. Sex is normal. But the human sex drive, when properly manipulated, is also a fantastic divider, a source of friction and therefore a profit potential- so enter Megachurch, stage right, chiming in on the sinfulness of pornography and the degeneracy it causes outside Megachurch. Bans get enacted, leading to legal strife with more secular organizations, reinforcing Megachurch's message about degeneracy and strengthening its member base- which produces higher donations. Organizations are set up to help "cure" the problem of "porn addiction" and lead members back to God- which produces yet higher donations from people now convinced that their natural urges are a sickness. And now everyone's fighting amongst themselves, with other groups, and even with their own bodies- with, in fact, everyone except Megachurch. While meanwhile, off on one of their business arms, someone's quietly raking in the profits from porn on the side- and turning that money over to Megachurch as well.

Think I'm off on a tangent? Google the LDS, Utah's porn ban and the Marriott chain. This actually happened. With porn becoming more socially accepted, there's been a more recent push to mix it with extreme violent imagery and create a new unacceptable, divisive standard (remember the old 70s porn? Much more real), but the message at the bottom- "Porn is Bad"- is a construct. It's one of those symptoms, deliberately placed to corrupt a natural order and create division. Religion has gender division and sexism, not to mention hatred of normal sexuality, built right straight into its doctrine: it's the biggest dividing force society has and reaps the greatest profit from it. This is why people like Ann Romney, while privileged, are not equally privileged with their husbands- even within the church structure, divisions need to be kept. But people prefer to look at the pictures of evil that the church projects, and fight with each other about it, rather than go after the actual source.

That's a DU example, but you can find the same fingerprints anywhere, on any dividing cause. Choose life! Immigrants are coming to take our jobs! Black men deal drugs to your children! Stay at home moms are welfare queens with Cadillacs! Wage gaps! Death panels! At the bottom of it is someone who is making a lot of money off that divisiveness and wants to keep it as it is- but what we actually wind up discussing is how to fix those artificial symptoms. American society will quarrel over regulations for abortion, border fences vs. amnesty, drug wars and prisons, welfare reform, wage equality laws, health care reform- but not who's got a vested interest in creating and maintaining those problems. You find that in little corners like DU sometimes, out of the mainstream, but not in the general population.

So just saying "there is a problem with X-ism" doesn't really do much by itself, because the focus isn't on the real problem, just the carefully created symptoms. Fix those and a new set of symptoms will be created and put in place. What WILL help is saying "there is a problem with X-ism, because we have been taught that X-group is our enemy. The actual source of the problem is X-ForProfitGroup. Let's take them down". And I don't think we're ready for that quite yet.

I hope all of that's coherent, it's late and I'm sleepy and sick.