Why the concept of 'Male Privilege' is damaging men more than it's helping woman

Everyone has heard of the term 'Male Privilege', it has become increasingly common in the modern era and has grown into something unrepresentative of what it truly is. Privileges are real, we all have them, however we cannot be accurately represented by one element of our identity, and therefore the term is limited in its use. We are not our group, and identifying someone by their group is both impossible and immoral. It is impossible because everyone fits into multiple groups so who is going to decide which group takes priority and who crafts the hierarchy of importance? It is immoral because it deliberately omits multiple aspects of what makes them an individual in an attempt to create victims and oppressors.

So why is male privilege such a hot topic of the 21st century. A lot of it is due to recency bias, thanks to modern technology, science and political amelioration, women have more opportunities than ever. As a result we look at the past through the lens of the present and craft a narrative out of it "women have always been oppressed in society, and if things are the way they are now then why couldn't they have always be like this?". This is an inaccurate representation of the truth, the real story is that men and women both struggled greatly in life prior to the 21st century. Men fought in wars, worked in mines, and had an obligation to provide for their family whilst women worked laborious jobs and looked after the children, all whilst earning a fraction of what the average person makes today. Life was hard, for both genders.

Now in the modern era the dynamics have changed, for example it is predicted by the year 2030 women will outnumber men in universities 60-40%. In 2022 on average woman earn more money between the ages of 20-29 than men and also do significantly better in education. This is great for women in some ways but not so great in others. The pros are obvious but the cons are less clear. Women predominantly date men with similar or more social status than them, this is mostly due to the inequitable balance of responsibility women have to take on during child birth and rearing. So what does this mean? It means that women select men who have more resources and make more money, subsequently rejecting a higher number of men who do not have access to these resources. In other words, women look for 'privileged' men to have children with, and for good reason, you obviously want to maximise your offspring's chance of survival. But the flip side to this is that many men receive little to no attention from females, and society does not value them in any way shape or form. These men are lonely, depressed, resentful towards the world and sometimes even suicidal, it is not a pretty sight and definitely not something to aspire to. Where is the privilege in that?

Men are suffering more and more nowadays, this is partly due to the attack on masculinity and the vilification of men in the past couple of decades. However it is also due to the increasing pressure placed on men to compete with other men, and now women, in a financial and status market like we have never seen before. All this has resulted in many men dropping out of society well into their 30's, giving up on women, their careers and starting a family. The gender roles were evidently oppressive and outdated, but in some ways they made things easier to manage and you can be certain that many people had no problem with the set up at all.

Men do have certain privileges, but so do woman. Moreover, to assume that men and women want the exact same things is also somewhat inaccurate, we have slightly different biologies and therefore we have slightly different psychological configurations, resulting in different perceptual structures and motivations. Now saying all this it is clear that men at the top of the social hierarchy are definitely privileged. But it is more likely that it is their position in the social hierarchy that dictates their level of privilege more than their gender. So next time you hear or want to use the term 'male privilege' remember that things are not as black and white as they may appear and that nothing happens in a vacuum.

Until next time,

OxJ