Blog Dis
The disadvantage of underdogs...
2026-09-24
This isn't going to be a safe place to land, where your discomfort has been removed, to replace it with floral-smelling concepts of sugar goodness. Why not read on, regardless, just for the hell of it all, right?
Some are of the mind that words carry connotations that offend others, even though they're perfectly fine words, meant to denote something specific. We're quixotic people, however, who are prone to projecting and attaching other feelings to words, when the word doesn't have feelings whatsoever. And so, if you're still with me, while I continue, there are some who are prone to being overly sensitive, and they'll assert their personality and position into a situation, where they feel that it's in their best interest to do so. I try to keep an open mind, to accept that we each are different in our approach to life, yet there are times, of course, when I have to disagree, and when I, too, am offended by some words, though not the ones that most would think.
Take the concept of privilege, which is precisely and ideally suited to illustrate my point, that the word privilege is a fine example—a word which doesn't carry ambiguity, but which throws off some, and when I say throws them off, I mean it gets their dander up.
Privilege shines a light on those who come from a place in life where they're accustomed to receiving special treatment, so to speak, whether they've assigned it to themselves or it was bestowed on them by someone else. These individuals are in a position to be the beneficiary of privilege, while others are not. If you've been on either side of this word, to be the privileged one vs the disadvantaged, the one who isn't regarded as special, you'll know instantly what side of the dividing line you fall. If you know me personally, than you'll also know from where I've come—from the other side of privilege. It took me years, maybe even decades, to let go of my resentment, in terms of how I was brought up, and it's important to understand the context about which I'm speaking, insofar that girls were excluded from the privileges automatically given to the boys.
Yes, there is such a thing as male privilege.
Allow me to expound on my example of privilege. I've a sister and two brothers. When we all lived in one house, growing up, my brothers received the support when it came time to receive educational training to secure their driver's license. Whereas, the girls were denied on the basis that we were girls. The thinking was at this time, why would girls need to know how to drive, when a guy would be the one to pick them up in a vehicle for dates?🤢It seems cockamamie now, and outrageous to me. I had revealed this privilege to some younger women, in their early twenties, and they had looked at me like I had two heads, saying, "I would have revolted if my parents did that to me." So, when I had left home at 18 years, I paid for private lessons out of my pocket, to learn how to drive. The lessons given in high school for my brothers didn't cost them a penny. This is privilege. This is what it means to give the advantage to some, to equip them with a new skill, while denying it to others. Seems arbitrary? Hell no. It was premeditated. It was rationalized. It was a perfectly acceptable practice at this time.
Privileges and disadvantages change; they come and go and this I know and now fully accept.
Then, and when it came to housework responsibilities, my sister and I were assigned the role of laundry for six people, while our brothers were given a free pass. Again, this is privilege, when one segment of a mixed population is able to skate-free, without having to handle an on-going responsibility that they were also contributing toward creating vs the other segment who had shouldered the workload. Preparing meals, too, became another rung on the ladder of responsibility, where my sister and I were expected to handle this chore, while my brothers didn't.
These arbitrary demarcation lines had indicated to me, very clearly, that privilege is discriminatory, and more often than not is also based on sex, or too often skin color and the most common having access to wealth. I still maintain to this day that the underdogs of society have remained pretty much the same: women, Blacks, the Indigenous, gays and Trans.
Male privilege, too, has been talked about at length, on various platforms and podcasts. Allow me to continue, if you've no mind about it.
Being free to come and go as you please, because you're a male in a household, a young idiot, as I had called them when we were teenagers, was also the privilege afforded to my brothers, and not to myself or my sister. Having access to my father's car was also another example of being given yet one more privilege that was denied the daughters. Flip the scenario, and extend all of these privileges to the daughters and deny them to the sons wasn't even considered.
The mere mention of these examples to the younger women of today is typically met with raised eyebrows, or some weird quizzical look, as if these young women are expressing to me with their scrunched face and eyes, "Well that's just fucked." Yeah. It is and it was and that's the way it was. Privilege is unfair.
The more evolved we become, as the years pass us by, our eyes open widely, to see the chasm that divides some sectors of people in society; those who happily receive and take full advantage of their privilege, while not necessarily able to empathize with those to whom privilege isn't extended. I should correct myself, to state that some see and act, and to these persons you're my hero. Know, however, that I'm not finished.
I could rail against the medical establishment, to point out how this community in North America had only begun in 1993 the medical study of the female body, to begin the slow and tedious process of examining treatments and procedures as they apply specifically to women. Up until this year, in 1993, all medical research was predicated on the physiology of the male body, and this applied to the pharmaceutical industry and their development of drugs to treat heart disease, as one example. These extensive studies were conducted on young, healthy men in their 20s, never mind about how these drugs would impact the female body. This example of privilege shouldn't go unmentioned. There are now organizations to promote the awareness of a condition that 1 in 10 women live with from the time of puberty—endometriosis, a painful condition that hits each month which derails women from being able to function, to get out of bed, to work, to live normally, while the medical community had claimed for decades that it was all in a woman's head. This is a gross example of privilege that many men take for granted, or rather don't even have it on their radar, not even a little bit.
Because I'm venturing into this subject of privilege, it also forces me to consider the times when I've enjoyed privileges. I'll typically allow a new blog post to gestate at least a week, because my mind works in the shadows, like yours, and will continue to flesh out its thematic content. Mostly, I don't want to embarrass myself by making unresearched or false claims. Here, I admit I'm having a hard time coming up with specific instances, when I was on the receiving end of female privilege or privilege in general. The one instance I can recall was back in the days when I worked on Parliament Hill, as a legislative assistant, to manage a Member of Parliament's office. When our new National Art Gallery had opened for the first time in downtown Ottawa (it's still a stunner) a group of MPs' assistants were treated to a special, private tour of the gallery, before it had officially opened to the public. Here was my incidence of having received privileged treatment that wasn't extended to other businesses, and we had happily lapped up the access. I am a culture-vulture, and whenever I visit a new country, making it a point of entering their national galleries is a point of pride for me. But I didn't even consider at this time that I was being granted privileged access. I had merely taken it for granted, and this illustrates also another point that our level of awareness is generally more focused on ourselves, then say perhaps how others might view it.
Those who achieve the highest ranks in the Military are also beneficiaries of privilege. The expression 'rank have their privileges' still applies today, and it means that after decades of devotion to the military, working hard, and striving to achieve excellence, while waiting patiently to receive promotions, once arrived the officers are entitled to drink in an officer's mess, without having to worry about their frank discussions being picked up by the ears of grunts, which is a common a military term used to describe a foot soldier. This example of privilege, to be able to speak aloud a wide range of derogatory words to describe people is an accepted practice in the military, though not necessarily known to the public.
A family member who had served nearly five years in the Navy remarked to me once, "Nobody gets special privileges on ship, when we're out to sea, except maybe the captain and officers. Everyone below this ranking is ridiculed and torn down, everyone, every day, every minute. It's the best way to blow off steam."
Privilege can sometimes clear the air or leave a foul smell. All of us have been reading the online controversy about CNN being barred from the White House, while other news stations are still able to hold scrums, and report on their press coverage. The latest wrinkle to this scenario is that the other news outlets had refused to show up, because one of their kind is being blacklisted. I'm proud of the other outlets for taking a stand, to demand that if one is denied the privilege of access, then all are choosing to do without. However, and just because there's now a court order in place to allow CNN official access, this doesn't mean that the privileged in power are willing to give privileged access.
I shall close off this delightful post by acknowledging how privileged I feel to be able to afford to live alone, in my private sanctuary, rather than to have to share with a house full of roommates, how I was forced to live when I was working while attending Uni at night, and taking correspondence courses as well. We had some wild parties in this shared arrangement but I was only able to endure it for four years before I realized that if I don't leave, and rent my own space, I'd end up in jail for losing control.
Privilege is a sticky wicket to be sure.
Some are of the mind that words carry connotations that offend others, even though they're perfectly fine words, meant to denote something specific. We're quixotic people, however, who are prone to projecting and attaching other feelings to words, when the word doesn't have feelings whatsoever. And so, if you're still with me, while I continue, there are some who are prone to being overly sensitive, and they'll assert their personality and position into a situation, where they feel that it's in their best interest to do so. I try to keep an open mind, to accept that we each are different in our approach to life, yet there are times, of course, when I have to disagree, and when I, too, am offended by some words, though not the ones that most would think.
Take the concept of privilege, which is precisely and ideally suited to illustrate my point, that the word privilege is a fine example—a word which doesn't carry ambiguity, but which throws off some, and when I say throws them off, I mean it gets their dander up.
Privilege shines a light on those who come from a place in life where they're accustomed to receiving special treatment, so to speak, whether they've assigned it to themselves or it was bestowed on them by someone else. These individuals are in a position to be the beneficiary of privilege, while others are not. If you've been on either side of this word, to be the privileged one vs the disadvantaged, the one who isn't regarded as special, you'll know instantly what side of the dividing line you fall. If you know me personally, than you'll also know from where I've come—from the other side of privilege. It took me years, maybe even decades, to let go of my resentment, in terms of how I was brought up, and it's important to understand the context about which I'm speaking, insofar that girls were excluded from the privileges automatically given to the boys.
Yes, there is such a thing as male privilege.
Allow me to expound on my example of privilege. I've a sister and two brothers. When we all lived in one house, growing up, my brothers received the support when it came time to receive educational training to secure their driver's license. Whereas, the girls were denied on the basis that we were girls. The thinking was at this time, why would girls need to know how to drive, when a guy would be the one to pick them up in a vehicle for dates?🤢It seems cockamamie now, and outrageous to me. I had revealed this privilege to some younger women, in their early twenties, and they had looked at me like I had two heads, saying, "I would have revolted if my parents did that to me." So, when I had left home at 18 years, I paid for private lessons out of my pocket, to learn how to drive. The lessons given in high school for my brothers didn't cost them a penny. This is privilege. This is what it means to give the advantage to some, to equip them with a new skill, while denying it to others. Seems arbitrary? Hell no. It was premeditated. It was rationalized. It was a perfectly acceptable practice at this time.
Privileges and disadvantages change; they come and go and this I know and now fully accept.
Then, and when it came to housework responsibilities, my sister and I were assigned the role of laundry for six people, while our brothers were given a free pass. Again, this is privilege, when one segment of a mixed population is able to skate-free, without having to handle an on-going responsibility that they were also contributing toward creating vs the other segment who had shouldered the workload. Preparing meals, too, became another rung on the ladder of responsibility, where my sister and I were expected to handle this chore, while my brothers didn't.
These arbitrary demarcation lines had indicated to me, very clearly, that privilege is discriminatory, and more often than not is also based on sex, or too often skin color and the most common having access to wealth. I still maintain to this day that the underdogs of society have remained pretty much the same: women, Blacks, the Indigenous, gays and Trans.
Male privilege, too, has been talked about at length, on various platforms and podcasts. Allow me to continue, if you've no mind about it.
Being free to come and go as you please, because you're a male in a household, a young idiot, as I had called them when we were teenagers, was also the privilege afforded to my brothers, and not to myself or my sister. Having access to my father's car was also another example of being given yet one more privilege that was denied the daughters. Flip the scenario, and extend all of these privileges to the daughters and deny them to the sons wasn't even considered.
The mere mention of these examples to the younger women of today is typically met with raised eyebrows, or some weird quizzical look, as if these young women are expressing to me with their scrunched face and eyes, "Well that's just fucked." Yeah. It is and it was and that's the way it was. Privilege is unfair.
The more evolved we become, as the years pass us by, our eyes open widely, to see the chasm that divides some sectors of people in society; those who happily receive and take full advantage of their privilege, while not necessarily able to empathize with those to whom privilege isn't extended. I should correct myself, to state that some see and act, and to these persons you're my hero. Know, however, that I'm not finished.
I could rail against the medical establishment, to point out how this community in North America had only begun in 1993 the medical study of the female body, to begin the slow and tedious process of examining treatments and procedures as they apply specifically to women. Up until this year, in 1993, all medical research was predicated on the physiology of the male body, and this applied to the pharmaceutical industry and their development of drugs to treat heart disease, as one example. These extensive studies were conducted on young, healthy men in their 20s, never mind about how these drugs would impact the female body. This example of privilege shouldn't go unmentioned. There are now organizations to promote the awareness of a condition that 1 in 10 women live with from the time of puberty—endometriosis, a painful condition that hits each month which derails women from being able to function, to get out of bed, to work, to live normally, while the medical community had claimed for decades that it was all in a woman's head. This is a gross example of privilege that many men take for granted, or rather don't even have it on their radar, not even a little bit.
Because I'm venturing into this subject of privilege, it also forces me to consider the times when I've enjoyed privileges. I'll typically allow a new blog post to gestate at least a week, because my mind works in the shadows, like yours, and will continue to flesh out its thematic content. Mostly, I don't want to embarrass myself by making unresearched or false claims. Here, I admit I'm having a hard time coming up with specific instances, when I was on the receiving end of female privilege or privilege in general. The one instance I can recall was back in the days when I worked on Parliament Hill, as a legislative assistant, to manage a Member of Parliament's office. When our new National Art Gallery had opened for the first time in downtown Ottawa (it's still a stunner) a group of MPs' assistants were treated to a special, private tour of the gallery, before it had officially opened to the public. Here was my incidence of having received privileged treatment that wasn't extended to other businesses, and we had happily lapped up the access. I am a culture-vulture, and whenever I visit a new country, making it a point of entering their national galleries is a point of pride for me. But I didn't even consider at this time that I was being granted privileged access. I had merely taken it for granted, and this illustrates also another point that our level of awareness is generally more focused on ourselves, then say perhaps how others might view it.
Those who achieve the highest ranks in the Military are also beneficiaries of privilege. The expression 'rank have their privileges' still applies today, and it means that after decades of devotion to the military, working hard, and striving to achieve excellence, while waiting patiently to receive promotions, once arrived the officers are entitled to drink in an officer's mess, without having to worry about their frank discussions being picked up by the ears of grunts, which is a common a military term used to describe a foot soldier. This example of privilege, to be able to speak aloud a wide range of derogatory words to describe people is an accepted practice in the military, though not necessarily known to the public.
A family member who had served nearly five years in the Navy remarked to me once, "Nobody gets special privileges on ship, when we're out to sea, except maybe the captain and officers. Everyone below this ranking is ridiculed and torn down, everyone, every day, every minute. It's the best way to blow off steam."
Privilege can sometimes clear the air or leave a foul smell. All of us have been reading the online controversy about CNN being barred from the White House, while other news stations are still able to hold scrums, and report on their press coverage. The latest wrinkle to this scenario is that the other news outlets had refused to show up, because one of their kind is being blacklisted. I'm proud of the other outlets for taking a stand, to demand that if one is denied the privilege of access, then all are choosing to do without. However, and just because there's now a court order in place to allow CNN official access, this doesn't mean that the privileged in power are willing to give privileged access.
I shall close off this delightful post by acknowledging how privileged I feel to be able to afford to live alone, in my private sanctuary, rather than to have to share with a house full of roommates, how I was forced to live when I was working while attending Uni at night, and taking correspondence courses as well. We had some wild parties in this shared arrangement but I was only able to endure it for four years before I realized that if I don't leave, and rent my own space, I'd end up in jail for losing control.
Privilege is a sticky wicket to be sure.
