vegan-because-fuck-you:
Gender talk cancelled everyone stop messaging me now i get it privilege is all about how others perceive me based on oppressive ideals about gender identity and the erasure and the dysphoric bullshit that ensues doesn’t matter because fuck it I have a beard and a dick. Got it.
As much as I didn’t want to post something and aggravate the situation, I think this is really fucking important and I don’t want to let it slide by. First I just want to put a mention to an article by a british-iranian woman about acknowledging passing privilege while pointing out how speaking up about your identity often causes the privileged in question to try and refuse or revoke those benefits they once bestowed upon you.
I know the two issues have major defining differences, but I often compare it in my mind to being white passing. Does looking white or being “white passing” have privileges? I’d say: of course it does. It privileges you in a number of social and institutional ways in the Western world. Being white-passing may very well mean the difference between life and death for some people, more success in their career for others, more celebration of their appearance for others again.
I don’t think that anyone can really deny how looking like privileged often gives them many of the same privileges. Dress a millionaire in tattered clothes and dirt and place them in a city and nobody will give them the time of day. Dress a homeless man up like a millionaire and watch how many people react more favourably when he asks for some change for a coffee, even though he needs the help much less. What you look like undeniably affects how people react to you based on their own preconceived notions of people and society.
Being white-passing is not the same as being white and white people will never have to deal with the exact same experiences white-passing people do. Things like: being told you can’t take offense to racism against your own people because you aren’t “really” black or native or asian or latina (i.e. “oh but you have it easier!”), being laughed at or mocked when you bring up the history of your family. One of the biggest problems white-passing people of colour face is that they aren’t taken seriously about being white or about being non-white; they exist in a state where they are denied racial identity and at the same time constantly forced to conform to one or the other depending on the company they keep.
In terms of gender instead of race, does being male-passing, or commonly mistaken for male, come with many privileges that simply being male does? Yeah, definitely. Privilege isn’t about whether you ARE male or female -if your society entreats you to the privileges that are generally granted to men, saying you don’t have any male privilege is just ignoring how privilege actually functions: according to perception, not according to fact.
Just because you have male-passing privilege doesn’t mean you can’t also have non-binary erasure. Erasure is not a privilege, but this isn’t an equation: oppression doesn’t counteract privilege. Erasure doesn’t get rid of your male-passing privilege any sooner than being disabled erases someone’s white privilege, or having male privilege erases LGBT discrimination. Being male-passing will make society attempt to treat you better even if it causes you internal pain or struggle by being dismissed, judged, mocked, or overlooked. A lot of people may treat you more favourably because they perceive you as male - until you attempt to speak up about your identity.
People with passing privilege of any kind also face an interesting and conflicting form of discrimination. Having this privilege may not make their lives necessarily easier, but having privilege IN GENERAL doesn’t mean the world gives you free cookies and rainbows - it just means the odds are more in your favour. For passing people, we get better odds with negative repercussions, a lot of which cause doubt, stress, and isolation.
Like there are much higher odds that a man (esp. someone with strong sexist tendencies) will listen to what you have to say than he would listen to what any women would have to say, even if you are saying the same things. He better identifies with you at first glance. If you tell a gender essentialist that you don’t identify as male, they won’t suddenly start treating you as if you aren’t male. They’ll treat you like a man that they disagree with, and even though is highly dismissive of your actual identity, being treated as if you are someone who gains privilege will gain you privilege.
To me, passing is an external privilege that will affect your entire life, but erasure feels like an internal struggle that will deeply affect your emotions, self-confidence and sense of worth/identity. Both sides of the issue need to be equally recognized and understood.