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1. geofft+(OP)[view] [source] 2018-01-18 23:49:06
As someone who firmly believes in "that male privilege thing," people who tell you that you should feel bad about it are wrong. There's nothing wrong with privilege.

It's a lot like privilege in the operating systems sense. sudo isn't a bad program because it has root privileges. The kernel doesn't need to apologize for running in a privileged CPU mode. But sudo and the kernel both have abilities that regular userspace programs don't - and the ability to cause damage that regular userspace programs don't. They (or more specifically, their authors) need to be aware that they're privileged, be careful about doing things with the privilege by mistake, and realize that other programs can't do the same things they can. But that doesn't mean that they can do everything, or that it's their fault if there's something they're unable to do, and it certainly doesn't mean that it's meaningful or productive for them / their authors to feel bad about the privilege.

replies(2): >>reitan+62 >>itroni+qk
2. reitan+62[view] [source] 2018-01-19 00:10:07
>>geofft+(OP)
So, maybe male privilege exist, but so do female privilege:

In my childhood girls were never beaten. Boys were by each other.

During my studies girls got extra study points for higher education - just for being girls. IIRC this held true even for studies who were mostly girls anyway, like nurse and chemistry. (This has been fixed to some degree now I think so boys will now get extra study points if they apply for nurse studies.)

At work they count and celebrate how many women we have. In a way it feels obvious since we want equality. But lets not pretend it's 50/50 if two equal candidates come through the door and hiring one of them will make your stats look nicer.

replies(2): >>adamse+O3 >>hypati+Pv
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3. adamse+O3[view] [source] [discussion] 2018-01-19 00:25:45
>>reitan+62
> In my childhood girls were never beaten. Boys were by each other.

No, they were just sexually harassed. To be fair, plenty of boys get sexually harassed to.

It's all gonna come out in the wash, man. Relative to all the shit (sexual harassment, rape, being denied the vote until 1919, getting their pussies grabbed by the President, etc) women have to put up with, a bias towards hiring them in certain situations is not that big a deal. IMHO, making change for all of the above issues would make our society such a better place, for women and men, and matters more than this. So you're right, it's not 50/50, however I'm not sure that making a list of all the things that are not 50/50 is really a game that one wants to play.

4. itroni+qk[view] [source] 2018-01-19 03:51:04
>>geofft+(OP)
minor revision >> "other programs _aren't_allowed_to_ do the same things they _are_
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5. hypati+Pv[view] [source] [discussion] 2018-01-19 07:41:58
>>reitan+62
You may not be aware, but these days there is basically affirmative action for male college students, at least at elite colleges - they are even exempt from Title IX gender discrimination wrt to admissions. Basically so many women were applying - and qualifying over men - that universities have lowered the bar for men to get in, lest they become even more female than the 50+% women they sometimes are. Cite: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/07/30/...

One key quote: “Were Brown to accept women and men at the same rate, its undergraduate population would be almost 60 percent women instead of 52 percent—three women for every two men.”

replies(1): >>huevin+sD3
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6. huevin+sD3[view] [source] [discussion] 2018-01-21 03:26:14
>>hypati+Pv
Interesting stat. Does that same thing apply to STEM schools? Or is it just liberal arts colleges?
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