CRJ #2

After finishing the readings for this week, I started thinking about many things concerning privilege in our society today. In the article “White Privilege and Male Privilege,” McIntosh points out some very interesting ideas. She says that it is easier to grant others having a disadvantage than it is to say that we are overprivileged. In the matter of female and male privileges, males are definintely more privileged than females. Society tries to fix that problem, but instead of lessening male privilege and saying they are way to over privileged, they only point out how under privileged females are. In this way, it doesn’t at all make a male feel bad for being who he is. It protects them from having to give up their rank in society or to face reality.
The same principle of white being over privileged goes for your race. In our society today, white’s still have more privileges than African Americans. Although, some are not very obvious, under the surface, African Americans are still judged and looked down upon by many people. I have not personally felt like I had more privileges than an African American, but I do understand that the problem is still out there. When McIntosh talks of the white privilege being an “invisible package” she means exactly that. Many white people do not think they have more privileges than others, but if you really look and examine our society, you will see that there are still stereotypes and prejudice against African Americans and other races that white people never have to experience.
In the readings, they explain the bootstrap myth. It is the myth that if you can not provide for your family and pull yourself up by your bootstraps then you are not smart and have certain deficiencies. To be honest, I wasn’t really completely sure what this myth really meant and how it had to do with feminism, but I think I may have an idea. If men usually have the income of the family (go to work) and women are the home makers, what the bootstrap myth is saying is that women are deficient and aren’t as smart and successful as men are. The effects of this myth are that feminism is stronger and there is just one more thing for antifeminists can point out as to why men are better than women.
The relationship between homophobia and sexism is not a very good one. It has a very negative effect on feminism because of the stereotype that feminists are all lesbians. Homophobia is the fear and hatred towards gays and lesbians. Therefore homophobics do not like feminists. Since this dislike is so strong, they make sure that feminists are put down and not made anything in society. In reality, feminists do not have to be lesbians. In fact, most “lesbians” are not lesbians at all. They are just perceived to be one because, according to Pharr, they do not have to be sexually or economically dependent on a male As soon as this society can stop judging people and having a “normal” then I think we will have made a step towards having everyone become equal in this world.