See, these claims are self evident to people who aren't assholes. Mist gets it, Louis CK gets it, liberals get it, academics get it, women get it, non-whites get it, even lots of white people get it! Basically everyone gets it except entitled white guys who are easily offended. The same can not be said for lizard people.
The claims aren't self evident; they are anecdotally asserted, and perhaps have statistically significant
correlativequalities (Well, there are some significant ones too). The main problem is when these "self evident" anecdotes are used as if they were gospel to shoot down arguments and evidence to the contrary. Now, not all feminist/anti-racism/bigotry groups do this--for example the AAUW is actually a decent feminist organization that chooses to do research rather than accept blank privilege as their counter argument. But the fact is,
many, many groups (And more poignantly academic guest speakers) tend to use privilege as a catch all. And the reason why it's incredibly annoying to me (Even though I agree, whites on average have an unequal availability of opportunity--but mostly through economic status)--is because of the
hypocrisyof using a stereotype to combat racist/bigoted groups that use stereotypes.
This is why
LABELof "privilege" really disturbs me; because we've come full circle and the very groups which were fighting for equality, are now using nearly the same tactics as the ignorant hate groups they once fought against. Those hate groups, don't forget, used to label all black men as X or all women as Y because it was "
self evident"before "GOD"that women were mentally deficient or black people were lesser than whites. And going back in history, I can name some big names that "agreed" with that statement; so I'm not sure why you think Louis CK making some stupid observation is "evidence"--plenty of very intelligent people were racist bigots, fuck even Ghandi was a racist. AND these people were able to bring up correlated statistics; like African American crime rates or female productivity being lower--to back up their arguments with "evidence" (Much like this modern movement can show how white populations go to X schools more--so obviously the defining factor is skin color...correlation is fun!). Even though there were TONS of other explanations for these statistical findings.
Painting with broad brushes and using anecdotal observations and weak correlative evidence to diminish a group of people based off of flimsy associations (like skin color)
IS racism. It's something we, as a people, should avoid. Yet now it's being trotted out by fringe academics as if it's something noble--and it's not, it's a terrible call back to the same kind of thinking that kept entire groups of people shackled with stereotypes for decades. (And yes, I know--you said it really doesn't mean anything, it's just an "acknowledgement"--but the fact is MANY groups do use it as a trump card and a baiting measure.)
But hey! More men in the US are raped than women! By whom, I wonder...
Ah. By other men (in over 2/3 of cases).
I said all the above, but really, this post puts it as eloquently as I ever could. You touch on it with a knife, Tan. If men are raping other men; and creating male victims, then wouldn't it logically stand to reason that it's really dumb to label all men "the same"--when, in fact, it's evident there are hierarchies among men; and even different classes of men, with some obviously being more prone to being victims themselves than sharing in the "privilege" that seems to be engendered to all men by some groups?
I'm not going to sit here and cry about how bad men have it--I understand on average men have it better.
Butwhat you should take away from those statistics is that labeling all men with the same privilege brush, just because you saw some lady being hit on and yet a man can dress in sweat pants and be ignored, is just sexism; it's the exact same species of sexism as men who used to claim all women would buckle in a work environment because anecdotally their 1960's housewives had break downs when they helped with the taxes The fact that you actually spent a post railing against stereotypes; and then use the privileged stereotype is going to make my head explode; but I thought I'd bring this up before I go get a bucket to clean my brains up from reading this thread.
(And another note; something else you should take away. You point to the fact that men might just commit more serious crimes. Why is it okay to assume that the imbalance in prison populations is due to sexual dimorphism leading men to commit more serious crimes--but it's sexist to believe the difference in wages is due to sexual dimorphism making men more productive? Don't get me wrong, I AGREE that wage discrimination
ISsexist; but this is a useful thought exercise to see if maybe you are ALSO a little biased here. I mean, after all, a lot of feminists that I've encountered are comfortable attributing incarceration rates to "masculinity"--but then they are completely uncomfortable attributing production rates to anything but sexism and poor work environments. )