"Riley on Marketing"--Young Girl Raises Interesting Questions about Gender

Unearned Power and Privilege (And How to Combat It)

Hey all, it's been a while. I'm back in school again, so my torment can continue (the whole obsessing over world/women's problems that don't have immediate answers kind of torment). This paper refers to Peggy McIntosh's White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women's Studies.

Unearned Power and Privilege (And How to Combat It)

             When I initially thought about the questions being raised for this journal, I thought of Peggy McIntosh's article about privilege. I am a white, middle-class, American woman. That being said, I find it difficult to answer these questions mainly because I imagine that I have much of the same unearned advantages and disadvantages as many women from similar backgrounds. Had I been asked these questions several years ago, when I was much more naïve and radical, my answers would have been simple. Unfortunately, I find it difficult to think in such black-and-white terms.

            I am sure I have mentioned this before, but I am a double-major in History and Women's Studies. All of the knowledge I have earned from these subjects make it difficult for me to distinguish any unearned disadvantages that directly impact me. Both historically and up to the present, people have been much worse off (in every sense) than I. Much like McIntosh, my connection to Women's Studies has influenced my ideas of privilege, gender, sexuality, and race, along with many other socially constructed systems. Years ago, I was deeply involved in politics, radical feminism, and pro-choice campaigning. At that time, I would not have hesitated to answer this question about unearned disadvantages. I would have stated that being a 'woman' is an obvious disadvantage. I still hold this to be somewhat true, however, I am fully aware that 'women' have much more opportunities available to them now than they did twenty years ago.

             My idea of an unearned disadvantage has changed drastically since high school. During my senior year of high school, I was accepted into every college that I applied to. I was accepted to Mount Holyoke, Beloit, Bard, and Oberlin. I can distinctly recall how upset I was when I learned Beloit College was the only school that give me any kind of financial aid package. I thought it was so unfair. I wanted to escape the midwest and attend Bard College. I was heartbroken. When I look back this moment, I feel ashamed. I was an ungrateful and bitter person. I now understand that it is a huge privilege to have a college education.

             A rather manifest but true statement can be made about my generation as a whole. From a fiscal perspective, I think it is a huge unearned disadvantage to be my age or younger. Had I stayed at Beloit College (the first college I attended), I would have graduated in 2010. It makes little difference that I have not yet graduated. All of my friends from my graduating class at Beloit (that earned a BA) have yet to find jobs within their said fields. Most of them serve tables in a meager attempt to pay off their student loans. College is more expensive now than it has ever been. Yet, I feel as though it has become a societal expectation that one earn a college degree. I am going to earn my BA, but I do not expect to find a job (especially one that relates to my degree) immediately after graduating.

            My parents divorced when I was five. While this is no longer a unique unearned disadvantage, it really upset me at the time. As a child, I could not understand why our family dynamic had failed. My younger sister was too young to remember anything that occurred during the divorce. I, however, remember everything. I remember getting dragged to family therapy, and being used as a pawn for revenge by both my mother and father. Since this period of my life, my attitude toward this experience has changed greatly. I no longer recognize it as a disadvantage. I have come to believe that it has made me who I am. Had my parents stayed married, I would be a completely different person today.

            As a “privileged” white woman from a middle-class family in Minneapolis, I have relatively little to complain about. I have read Peggy McIntosh for several Women's Studies courses. Much like her, I grew up relatively unaware of my privilege until I discovered feminism on my own. McIntosh discusses her unearned advantage as a white woman in frank manner; she claims, “Being white, I am given considerable power to escape many kinds of danger or penalty as well as to choose which risks I have to take” (100). That being said, I did not ask to be born into privilege. I was born with an unearned advantage. I am fully aware (and have been for quite some time) of how my societal positioning as an individual allows me more freedom than most. It is what I do with that freedom that is important. With this knowledge, I can change how I act, feel, live, and learn in a way that supports societal change.