It's A Patriarchal World Analysis

Peggy McIntosh concludes white privilege is, “an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was meant to remain oblivious.” The writer came to this conclusion when observing male privilege initially in America. McIntosh discusses the lack of acknowledgement of men when it came to addressing their own advantages over women even if they could admit the position of disadvantage of women. This shed light on how white privilege is curtailed; In the United States, foundations of our society are interlaced with institutionalized privilege creates unethical levels of dominance; dominance of males over females, whites over people of color,

An alumni group, Check Your Privilege organized by Dr. Ja’Nina Walker, works to raise student and faculty awareness about privilege on a San Francisco campus and increase social equality. The group defines privilege as “unearned access to social power based on membership in a dominant social group.” The group desires to increase consciousness about privilege, especially in the among social justice influences. They work to bring privilege into regular public discussion and urge those with privilege to use it for public benefit.

At its core, white privilege is described to be an “invisible package of unearned assets” (McIntosh, 2002, p. 33) for white people. There are many layers explaining the manifestation of white privilege and even more explanations pertaining to its dominant presence in today’s world.

White privilege embraces the behaviours, values, beliefs and practices of the dominant white culture (Puzan, 2003). There are often unnoticed advantages

In ¨Sisterhood is Complicated¨, Ruth Padawer explains the uncomfortable dynamic that is occurring at Wellesley Women´s College. She tells of the struggles that trans-men have to deal with at this institution and uses 3 specific stories of Jesse Austin, Alex Poon, and Kaden Mohamed to embody them. Each started as a girl and their personal journeys are illustrated, mentioning the struggles that were encountered personally and through the community. Minority issues and diversity are challenging ideas in this article, but hold an underlying tone without. Padawer does a semi-effective job at displaying the obstacles faced and their effects at Wellesley.

The concept of white privilege helps to highlight the hypocritical nature of the American ideologies of democracy and meritocracy. Ask yourself: Do we live truly in a democratic system if the voices of our nation’s disenfranchised people are not heard? Or are we truly a nation that functions on a meritocratic system if every person-- regardless of socioeconomic background or race-- is not given the same opportunities for development? The concepts of white privilege and male privilege, as used by McIntosh, are meant to unveil the hidden schemes of American ideology.

Many people ignore the blinding facts that support white privilege but are aware that it exists in society. White privilege impacts every decision made within the educational system. When applying to colleges, a white student is 78% more likely to get accepted than a student of color with identical successes. A study done in 2011 by the US Department of Education suggests that whites are not only more likely to get accepted, but are more likely to receive their bachelor’s degree once they enter (2011 US Department of Education). This recent study demonstrates that white privilege is still relevant in society and must be altered. Even if the education system is not consciously making an effort to support white privilege it is evident that it

The deep but subtly entrenched nature of white privilege into the American social structure is problematic because it creates complications to overcoming this type of racism. The difficulty in detecting white privilege facilitates the denial of the role white privilege plays in affecting an individual’s living experience in America. The reality is that white privilege does make a difference in the opportunities available to certain individuals. However, this difference is not as subtle. The biggest problem white privilege poses, aside from the discrimination and bias it employs, is that it is difficult to identify. Due to its intrinsic nature, eradicating its effects requires a reconstruction of the white supremacist American social system.

Through the use of his rhetoric, syntax, diction, and other tools, Deutsch successfully compiles a numbered list of privileges that evokes strong emotions and introduces new ideas of sexism. By mimicking Peggy McIntosh in style, the checklist is straightforward and easy to understand; therefore, he is able to reach a larger audience without overcomplicating the subject. His introduction is clear-cut and adequately describes his reasoning behind writing “The Male Privilege Checklist.” He attends to comments made by his readers, specifically addressing men that have claimed their hardships being equivalent to women’s. His tone is sarcastic yet thoughtful, and he maintains the good-natured yet serious voice throughout the piece.

Collins, L., & Barnes, S. L. (2014). Observing privilege: Examining race, class, and gender in

The class inequality has been an issue for quite some time; the levels of this are the elite, middle, and lower class tiers. But even within these three major tiers, there are sub tiers, but mostly within the United States, society tends to rate women within the Middle to Lower class. This is true within the professional world of women, seeing as how they are considered on the weaker, lower class tier, Collins refers to an “outsider-within status” (1986), which “ exists with one is located on the boundary between two groups statuses—one with potential power and the other with little power” (2001). African American women have been affected by this “outsider-within status”, more than their Caucasian counterparts because even though “technically they have membership in a high status group, as black women, they are a part of a group

In Privilege, Shamus Khan examines how the once exclusively prestigious boarding school, St. Paul’s, is now open to a more diverse influx of elite students. This includes lower income individuals, nonwhites, and women. Even with this newfound openness, there is still a persisting inequity present. One prominent type of inequality at the institution is the gender differences displayed. These gender inequities are evident through the double standards of academic achievement and the portrayal of sexuality of the girls at St. Paul’s.

What is learned in school, be it public or private, determines, for the most part, what position an individual will find themselves in - in the future. In “White Privilege and Male Privilege,” Peggy McIntosh, an author known for doing something that is rarely done in the white community--speaking of her race--makes references to education, to her privileged education, to support her argument on white and male privilege. Sometimes I wonder what society would look like without education; would there be any norms, or rules? Education is so deeply instituted into most Americans' lives that those questions will probably never be answered. One thing is certain; some people are able to get

In the 21st century, many people believe that we have overcome the obstacle of gender inequality and evolved into a society of fairness and righteousness. As many know, females can be just as proficient and qualified as males at any task. Though some efforts to off-set this gender imbalance is in place, it is still commonly acknowledged that many careers are stated to be a male job such as lawyers, and female jobs such as secretaries. Gender inequality is a visible fact in our society and in this essay, I hypothesize that gender inequality still exists as a result of factors such as post-secondary education differences of the two genders, role of females in families, female objectification, career choice differences of the two genders, and

The purpose of this paper is to explore patriarchal values that reinforce violence towards women in intimate partner relationships. This paper argues that patriarchy and the social construction of masculinity reproduce male violence against women. The following sub-issues that that will be discussed are patriarchy, capitalism, the religion of Islam, and the construction of masculinity and femininity. All the sub-issues encompass patriarchy values which allows inmate partner violence.