Nelson Otto
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
Over the last few years we’ve heard about one form of privilege over another, it basically started with Peggy McIntosh’s article on White Privilege and Male Privilege. It was quickly embraced by pseudo-intellectuals and spread like wildfire through academia.
It didn’t take long for rational-thinking intelligent people to poke enough holes in the theory that one could use it as a colander to strain spaghetti.
One thing that people never talk about is the so-called privileges of other identities besides white males. I was talking to a woman a few weeks ago and she thought it was absolutely inappropriate for women to expose their shoulders at work. The social justice warrior popped into my head and said “you know men could get by with it.” Then the rational mind kicked in and said, “Oh no they wouldn’t.” I suddenly came to realize how much males are discriminated against in the workplace.
Males would never be allowed to come into an office wearing a sleeveless shirt much less a tank top. Even a short-sleeve shirt usually has to cover the shoulder and half the bicep. On hot days a woman can wear a dress and sandal shoes to the office but a male would never be allowed to wear shorts and sandals. A woman could wear a low cut blouse but if a male left his shirt unbuttoned that far down people would keep telling him “hey your shirt’s unbuttoned.”
There are other things besides clothing standards, women can hit males with impunity no matter how small and weak the victim might be, just as long as the victim is male, but not the other way around. Males are also expected to do the heavy lifting and are expected to carry heavier loads.
Norah Vincent said, after going undercover for 18 months as a man; “Men are suffering. Men don’t have the same problems that women have, but they don’t have it better. They need our love and our sympathy and they need each other more than anything else, they need to stick together.” And when asked “Do you think women understand what it’s like to be a man?” Norah responded “Not at all, no clue.” Maybe it is time to quite be envious of males and that they don’t have it so privileged as some might think.