A List Of Privilege Lists

Posted on September 26, 2006 by Ampersand

I’ve completely swiped these links from the sidebar at Official Shrub.com, and from Lake Desire’s list at New Game Plus.

  • White Privilege: Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack
    This is Peggy McIntosh’s original article, which inspired the other lists. There’s a number of interesting discussions of this list on the women’s studies listserv archive.
  • Able-Bodied Privilege
  • Average Sized Person Privilege
  • Being Poor Is…
    This one isn’t actually in the “privilege checklist” format, but I think it fits in.
  • The Black Male Privileges Checklist
  • Christian Privilege
  • The Costs of American Privilege
    Okay, this one isn’t even a list. But as Lake Desire says, let’s shoehorn it in here so that American privilege will at least get a mention.
  • Daily Effects of Straight Priviliege
  • Heterosexual Privilege. (And see also. And see also, also.)
  • The Invisibility of Class Privilege (pdf link)
  • The Male Privilege Checklist
    My own contribution to the trend; probably the most-read piece I’ve ever written (or, in this case, compiled).
  • Non-Poor Privilege Checklist
  • Non-Trans Privilege Checklist
  • Privilege to Game
    Lake Desire’s list of how privilege, gaming and boycotts intersect
  • Social Class Privilege – Beyond Ethnicity, Gender, and Religion (.pdf link) EDITED TO ADD: This is actually two lists — one of upper class privilege, one of lower class privilege. As Laura pointed out in comments, the lower class privilege list is pretty damn asinine, as well as an example of the balance fallacy. I’m leaving this in out of a sense of completeness, but I don’t endorse it. And if you click over, bring many grains of salt with you.
  • Monogamous Privilege Checklist
  • We Can’t Be Equal While…
    Not really a “privilege” list, but similar enough in spirit that I wanted to include it. One thing I like about this list is that it includes ways that sexism harms both sexes.

I’m hoping that the comments to this post can be used to interactively keep this post up-to-date. So if you know of a link that you think is relevant to this post, or if you notice that one of these links has died, please leave a comment.

UPDATE: Maia has a critique.

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76 Responses to A List Of Privilege Lists

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  6. 6
    spacer Maia says:
    September 26, 2006 at 5:11 am

    I react to these lists very differently. I think this device is more useful in analysing some types of oppression than others.

    For example a lot of the class-priviledge checklist said that one of the privileges of being upper-class is that you could only interact with people of your own class. That’s just as true for the poor as it is for the rich, in fact it’s true for everyone.

    I actually have quite a few problems with political analysis around priviledge, because it tends to be individualistic. I also really feel a need to distinguish between areas where you are actually privileged, and areas where other people’s rights are being trampled on. I would say not having to do your share of house work is a male privilege. But not having to be afraid of rape? I’m not comfortable seeing that as privilege – that’s a right.

    Hmmm I feel a post coming on.

  7. 7
    spacer curiousgyrl says:
    September 26, 2006 at 6:43 am

    Maia: you said it better than I could, so I’ll just say : “yep.”

  8. 8
    spacer curiousgyrl says:
    September 26, 2006 at 6:43 am

    “Maia said it better than I could, so I’ll just say “thanks.”

  9. 9
    spacer Daran says:
    September 26, 2006 at 11:11 am

    Maia:

    I also really feel a need to distinguish between areas where you are actually privileged, and areas where other people’s rights are being trampled on. I would say not having to do your share of house work is a male privilege. But not having to be afraid of rape? I’m not comfortable seeing that as privilege – that’s a right.

    Defenders of the concept of privilege argue that it is a relative concept.

    If one person (or group) is “disprivileged” wrt another group then, by default, that other group is privileged wrt to the first person (or group).

    This notion can be critiqued on several several grounds. Firstly it obfuscates the important distinction between suffering an unfair disadvantage, and enjoying an unfair advantage. As Maia says, freedom from the fear of rape is a right. The problem is not that men generally enjoy this right; it’s that women very often do not.

    Secondly, because many people understand “privilege” to mean an unfair advantage, as Maia does, the relative definition makes it harder to discuss these issues. It’s like trying to discuss “violence” with Objectivist Libertarians who define the term differently from everyone else

    Thirdly, the “relative” definition is not an honest one. It’s sole purpose is to be trotted out in response to criticisms like mine and Maia’s. As soon as the debate moves on from what the word means, changes back to “unfair advantage”, as evidenced by the “You don’t want to give up your privilege” trope, and the claim that men “benefit”, which only makes sense if privilege is understood so by the person making this comment. (Maia, being female, has the “privilege” of never having to face that one herself, at least with respect to gender.)

    And it is that ad hom which exposes the real purpose behind the trope: it’s to frustrate debate, by silencing those members of the allegedly privileged group.

    My previous posts on this subject: “Privilege” and “Disadvantage” as sexist framing devices and Do white men really benefit from privilege?

    Hmmm I feel a post coming on.

    I look forward to it.

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  11. 10
    spacer ilestre says:
    September 29, 2006 at 3:18 am

    The list on class manages to avoid stating the obvious : upper-class people HAVE MORE MONEY.
    And that makes a hell of a difference.
    Also upper-class people see their interests reflected in government (else, how would they remain upper-class ? Mmm ?)

    And the list of supposed “lower-class privileges” is complete delirium. “I don’t have to worry about having a career” ? Ha !
    “I don’t have to worry about being attacked when I am walking.” Hello ? Most victims of attack are working-class.
    “Inspirational stories of individual success are always about people like me.” Hello ? Hello ? HELLO ?

    When you see “privilege” everywhere, you end up seeing it nowhere, and you also lose sight of the basic structures of oppression and exploitation in our societies. Losing this means losing sight of how to fight them.

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  14. 11
    spacer Daran says:
    October 19, 2006 at 5:23 pm

    Here’s one you missed: The Pirate Privilege Checklist (via aeneas-rising).

  15. 12
    spacer Using it to help teachers check their privilege says:
    September 2, 2007 at 9:01 pm

    In case anyone is interested (probably not since this string is now so old), McIntosh just published a reflection on the whole Invisible Knapsack thing on July 24, 2007, in the online version of the magazine “Business Report”: www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=2515&fArticleId=3948242

    Interesting to see her take on it so many years and so many lists later.

  16. 13
    spacer Sweating Through Fog says:
    October 2, 2007 at 8:12 pm

    I just did a counterpoint to the “Male Privilege List” – the Female Privilege List. A sample:

    1. I’m allowed to avoid stress and competition, so I can enjoy an additional 5 years of life
    2. I can choose professions that are less lucrative, and not be called a loser.
    3. If I don’t rise to the top of my profession, it’s OK – people won’t judge me the less for it.
    4. I’m entitled to the benefits of a safe, orderly society, but no one expects me to risk my personal safety to maintain it.
    . . .

    It is at sweatingthroughfog.blogspot.com/2007/10/mens-privilages-vs-womans-privilage.html

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  18. 14
    spacer Kat says:
    December 18, 2007 at 6:22 pm

    Interesting reads. As members of many of these groups, I’ve understood the deficits that place them, but rarely examined the advantages afforded to me.

    However, ‘non-trans’ can more completely be summed up as ‘non-cisgendered’. ‘Transexual’ tends to imply that the term works inside the gender binary, while it does technically include non-gendered or androgyne individuals. ‘Non-cisgendered’ is clearer, meaning ‘physical sex not matching identified gender’.

  19. 15
    spacer Lea says:
    December 20, 2007 at 10:42 am

    I’m glad this link came up in the sidebar. I haven’t gone through everything yet, but it presents an interesting challenge so far, especially in terms of able-bodied and cisgendered privilege. There are probably a few items that could be added to the Christian privilege list, though.

  20. 16
    spacer Doug S. says:
    December 20, 2007 at 9:53 pm

    We need an “adult privilege” list.

    www.youthrights.org/forums/archive/index.php?t-2698.html

    **My ideas and conversational inputs will not be dismissed based on my age.
    **I have some say in the laws that govern me.
    **Unless I commit a crime and/or am mentally ill, no one has the legal right to touch my body against my will (e.g., spanking), nor do they have society’s leave to do so.
    **If someone DOES touch my body against my will, they cannot–in any seriousness–claim to be doing so out of love, and I can legitimately claim a violation of my basic human rights.
    **I am allowed to hear or to seek out opposing viewpoints (i.e., other than that which I have been taught), whether others (such as my “parents”) like it or not.
    **No one gets to demand my respect or love.
    **In a fight between parent and child, I am not the one who will be taken by the police, and it will be assumed that the other party (the child) is guilty.
    **I can generally expect that my personal information (e.g., medical, academic, etc.) will remain private.
    **I have the final say regarding my relations (romantic, friendly, etc.) with other people.
    **I cannot legitimately be treated as de facto human property.
    **I have the privilege of moving freely and engaging in more-or-less uninhibited self-actualization.
    **No one has the right to attempt to mold me into a carbon copy of themselves (or of their own unrealized dreams).
    **I can pretty choose how to look or dress and alter my body however I see fit.
    **My desire to be independent and free from coercion is not considered pathological.
    **I can choose my own religion or political ideology without others assuming they have the right to change me (or keep me FROM changing).
    **People cannot prevent me from doing something, or force me to do something, and claim it’s “for my own good.”
    **I can criticize adults without it being treated as a moral offense.
    **I am not subject to controlling images that seek to deny me, based on my age, legitimate subjective agency. (Images such as the school shooter, the suicide risk, the punk, the nerd, the weirdo, etc.)
    **Any education which I undertake probably doesn’t seek to make me into a particular kind of person; in fact, it allows–if not encourages–independent thought.
    **Usually, I am not vulnerable to hospitalization, punishment, or other awful fates for being myself.

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  25. 17
    spacer Leah says:
    May 6, 2008 at 9:02 pm

    The “Christian” list is in itself an example of privilege – by Christian it assumes Protestant. At least half of the items on that list, by my estimation, are NOT true for Catholics in my experience, although I live in the Midwest and that might be different in different parts of the country (for example the Northeast has a higher Catholic population so Catholics in the Northeast might not experience the same amount of othering I do in the Midwest).

  26. 18
    spacer KS says:
    May 6, 2008 at 10:11 pm

    On reading these lists, I couldn’t help wonder if the author of this post would consider the benefits and advantages enjoyed by people with ‘aesthetically pleasing’ appearances to be privileges also. I know you touch on Average Sized Person privilege but what about, say, taller individuals getting salaries greater than shorter ones, a well documented fact and so on. Would this constitute privilege too?

    Thanks!