On Tuesday night, Hack Live posed the question to a number of panelists, “Is male privilege bullshit?”
Even before it aired on ABC2, the question itself had a lot of viewers very angry.
Jacinta Di Mase tweeted, “Our 15-yr-old daughter says asking if male privilege exists is same as asking if gravity is real,” and Lee Constable wrote, “‘Is male privilege bullshit?’, ‘Is climate change real?’ and other questions similarly not up for debate due to evidence.”
When it came to the subject of 'Honey Badgers', which refers to women who align with Men's Rights Activists, Zisin said, "I don’t think anyone’s a ‘gender traitor’ because I believe in gender fluidity, and I don’t think anyone has to be exclusively in their own gender category.
"I think it’s just derailing, and I think conversations like this are derailing. I think the fact that we’re debating whether male privilege exists is derailing, and stupid, and I think that there are way bigger issues to be talking about."
"This is the thing," Zisin continued. "When we say ‘feminists,’ we just group all feminists in together. Do you know how many arguments feminism as a movement has within itself? Do you know how complex ideologies are?”
In a conversation that so often becomes arbitrarily and simplistically divisive, Zisin's voice offered some much needed nuance.
Zisin criticised the program at one point, and rightfully so, for being too heteronormative and cis-centric.
Often, debates around male privilege and even feminism, focus on the white, straight, female - with all the 'biological' female parts - experience. But there are so many people who benefit from feminist politics, who do not fit so neatly into the gender continuum.
Women who like women. Men who have a vagina. Women who have a penis.
Zisin reminded us last night that gender has nothing to do with what's between your legs. Gender is a socialised and constructed marker of identity, where a certain set of behaviours are rewarded in men, and the opposite are rewarded in women.
But in short - the overwhelming conclusion appeared to be, yes, there is no doubt that male privilege exists.
From the micro to the macro, being a man in 2017 comes with an unequivocal advantage.
And once we've accepted that, we're one step closer to actually addressing it.
You can watch Hack Live on male privilege on ABC iView, here.
Top Comments
Any chance Nevo could be completely full of shiat?
Nevo's experiences and *perceptions* are as a transperson. I'm very happy to listen to them and I do respect them, but I'm not sure he can draw conclusions about the biological male experience, which is something very distinct from his own. Sorry, I respect you sir, but you don't speak for me or my experience.
But I don't think he is talking about the biological male experience per se. He is talking about how he is treated differently when perceived as a male as opposed to a female ergo he can make a genuine comparison based on personal experience. Of course he can't speak for everyone, but as a legitimate lived experienced insight, it is valuable and telling.
biological maleness is sex though, that is different to gender, and i think male privilidge is really more about gender, its not like people check for a penis...and of course they dont speak for your experience, no one can do that but you, and i dont think they were trying to say otherwise.