Free Essay On Decided By Yourself

It is impossible to find two identical individuals in the world. Differences are inevitable. People will acquire a reputation and be judged by the color of their skin, their social background, the education that they have acquired or even by the mother tongue they speak. In many instances, people do not realize that they judge people under these criteria. In the western dominant society, unearned privileges are characterized as “white privileges”. As stated in the article white privileges: The invisible Knapsack, the authors Peggy McIntosh shows this social phenomenon with the valid metaphor of an “invisible Knapsack”. People may fail to realize and accept the existence of oppression, but it is evident the western society has the “white privileges”. As a supplement to the ideas of invisible privileges, in “From Believing is seeing: Biology as Ideology” Judith Lorber reviews this phenomenon from the privileges that are evident between the two different genders. This refers to the biological and physical differences between which result to the differences in behavior and status. Judith states that, it is unconscious to many people that the mentioned privileges are male privileges in many cases. Lober further points out that besides the invisible privileges between different genders, there are also invisible differences between among members of the same gender. Thus, both Lober and McIntosh agree with the idea that invisible privilege do exist as a social phenomenon and will lead to the oppression of others from the perspectives of gender privilege and race privilege, respectively.
The two authors do agree that there are many invisible privileges in the society which cause many people to be oppressed. The differences are further compared to the members of the same group of people. This is significant in outlining the privileges that exist only to a given group. This clearly indicates that there are differences between the different genders from the perspective of the privileges that they have.
Both authors do acknowledge that they think people are not aware that these privileges are oppressing them based on different perspectives. To supplement to McIntosh’s idea, Lorber analyzes moral ethic principles of gender equality. There are also examples that are made to try and bring out the oppression that is taking place. Despite the constant need for equality that individuals around the world advocate, it is unclear whether there truly exists equality in the world. In Olympic Games, if the athlete is undergoing the case of a chromosomal ambiguity, the female athletes have to go through the process of gynecological and physical exams to test if she is physiologically female enough to participate in women’s competitions. If this were a male athlete, there would be different circumstances. There would exist no test to try and evaluate if they are too feminine to participate in the men’s games. The reason behind the different treatment is attributed to the mentality that people have where it is believed that male athletes are physically stronger compared to female ones. The differences are evident where men may be stopped from participating in female athletics. These privileges clearly indicate that there are differences that do exist in various areas that regulate the participation of people in different areas. Lorber states that, despite these privileges, it is possible that some women may have the capacity to equally participate in some sport with women and have a fair competition. However, there exists very few individuals who may admit to this fact. The prejudgment that males have more advantage in sports is a norm that is settled in people’s minds. This is what the author’s state to contribute to the differences that are evident across different genders and individuals all over.
According to McIntosh, white people believe that they are more privileged and live and ideal life. As a long tradition of Eurocentric, the idea that the white are the center of the organizational power or the western style of life is more advanced is similar to the belief that males are more competent when it comes to sports compared to females. It is correct to state that these prejudged norms contribute to the belief that the white people have whereby they believe they are more privileged compared to others. This lets them fail to realize that female competitors may be as competitive as they are in many sports. These are some of the factors that the authors attribute to the privileges that different people have in the society, which promote inequality and the differences that exist among people.
McIntosh argument is complicated by Lorber’s argument which is based from a feminist perspective rather than a racism approach that McIntosh makes. This is from the approach that they both take in trying to explain the difference that exists between different people around the world. McIntosh points out that society oppression leads people to have invisible privileges, Lorber agrees with McIntosh’s idea and to more complication, she thinks though these privilege existences of invisible, it’s very easy to be found as a spectator. McIntosh states that “my skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make”, and “I could freely disparage, fear, neglect, or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms” (McIntosh 355). For McIntosh, the skin color of white represents the dominance over other races in our society. Even though whites themselves may not even realize their privileges, they are still considered as dominator and leaders of the world. Other people with different skin color have to obey the rules made by whites and work for transforming their lives as whites’. This obvious oppression is an obvious privilege, and it is not an exception for gender privilege as well.
Lorber argues that many technology-relegated works are constructed based on gender. "Men create, program, and market computers, make war and produce science and art with them; women microwire them in computer factories and enter data in computerized offices.” “Women were hired as computer programmers only because the work seemed to resemble simple electrical tasks” (Lorber 730). Men are believed to have a privilege over women on the study of scientific related areas. With such a social stereotype, men are advocated of playing computer games and conducting experiments since they are little boys. The interests in science and computers will be gradually cultivated by the encouragements made by others. And those young boys will find that they are more and more interested in tech-related areas and the way their way of analyzing will more and adapt to rational thinking consequently as they grow up. However, girls are scarcely advocated with the image that they should take computer clubs as after class activities because there is no expectation that girls will have advantages or privilege in rational thinking over boys. Growing up under oppression of such a male privilege, girls may gradually find that they do not like tech stuffs, and the rational way of thinking is boring. Thus, they will be taken away from those creative scientific and technical works. People seem to have accepted this kind of social oppression like an invisible backpack, which may not be seen by other people that are carrying on them, but it is visible and obvious to the surrounding. The ideas by Lorber complicate McIntosh arguments due to the perspective at which they both view the differences that do exist. The way they view the differences from the way they view the world and the reasoning behind the existence of these issues.
The causes for invisible privilege are complicated and interlocked by various actors. Lorber compares more within the same group and shows that even in the same group, people are completely different. McIntosh argues that “Since racism, sexism, and heterosexism are not the same, the advantages associated with them should not be seen as the same. In addition, it is hard to disentangle aspects of unearned advantage that rest more on social class, race, religion, sex, and ethnic identity than on other factors” (McIntosh 356). The causes for invisible privilege are complicated. People will never know what caused the unearned privilege to white people. Sometimes, people may just show respect to white people because of their high social status behavior or appearance. And in order to explore the reasons for invisible privilege, Lorber extends the comparison of the groups from between genders to within genders. As she explains, “people of the same racial, ethnic group and social class are roughly the same size and shape--but there are many varieties of bodies. People have different genitalia, different orgasmic experiences, different patterns of illness and aging” (Lorber 731). Even people within the same gender group with more similar backgrounds are still in different status and have different behaviors. Everything can cause privileges to exist. Thus, neither skin color nor gender can explain the invisible privilege because it is a complex of various social actors. Comparing within the group and adding more biological knowledge, Lorber makes her argument become clearer and persuasive to her readers.
In a white supremacist culture, every white person will have privilege, whether or not they are overtly racist themselves. McIntosh states clearly in her article that the white privilege is same as the invisible knapsack, which may not be seen by people wearing them, but the privilege does exist and is obvious to the surroundings. In this case, one can conclude that privilege in gender is same as privilege in races. In the article “From Believing Is Seeing: Biology as Ideology”, Lorber supports the idea of invisible privilege from the analyzing aspect of gender. Both of the two authors argue that people may be not aware of their privileges because of those privileges are already rooted on prejudged social norms or moral principles and people are not conscious with their privileges at all; but they cannot deny the facts that those privileges can be oppressive for others. The reasons for privileges are complicated, and which cannot just be explained by just gender or race factor.