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The advantages and disadvantages of being you: privilege vs oppression

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Everyone has disadvantages and advantages in their lives based on aspects of who they are. Some disadvantages will override the advantages greatly and some advantages override the disadvantages greatly but just because a person may have advantages in their lives – doesn’t invalidate or negate the disadvantages in their lives. We should be able to discuss our disadvantages while remembering the advantages we still have so we don’t step over or render over peoples disadvantages invisible in an effort to make ours seem like the only one in existence. If you are a person who had disadvantages the affect your life greatly – I hope you have a great support system and friends and family who have your back.

Just because you are white – doesn’t mean you don’t have disadvantages. It just means you won’t be disadvantaged in a white dominated country simply because you are white. You will have advantages over people because you are white in a white dominated country. You may have disadvantages in other aspects of your life such as , sexuality, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or socio economic status and others not listed.

Just because you are gay doesn’t mean you won’t have advantages. It means you’ll have advantages in other aspects of your life. You may have disadvantages in certain regions because you are gay but you will have advantages if you are white or cisgendered or rich or country. You may have advantages based on skin color, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or socio economic status and others not listed.

If you are a man, you will have advantages if you are white or cisgendered or heterosexual and based on the fact you are a man in a male dominate culture. You will have disadvantages based on skin color, sexuality, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or socio economic status and others not listed.

Just because you are cisgendered, doesn’t mean you won’t have disadvantages. It just means you won’t be disadvantaged because of fact you are cisgendered. You do have the advantage of being a cisgendered person in a cisgendered dominated society. You may have disadvantages in other aspects of your life such as social economic status, sexuality or gender identity or country. You may advantages based on skin color, sexuality, ethnicity, religion or socio economic status and others not listed.

If you are a transgendered or non-cisgendered person, you will have disadvantages in a cisgendered dominate society based on not being cisgendered. You may have advantages based skin color, sexuality, ethnicity, country, religion or socio economic status and others not listed.

Just because you are a woman, doesn’t mean you won’t have advantages. It means you may be disadvantaged in some aspects of your life based on being a woman. You will however have more advantages if you are white in a white dominated county or if you are a cisgendered or heterosexual woman or if you are rich.

Just because you are heterosexual doesn’t mean that you won’t have disadvantages. It just means that you will have advantages over non-heterosexual people if you live in a society that is heterosexual dominate. You will have advantages over non-cisgendered people, if you are a cisgendered heterosexual person but if you are a non-white person – you will face disadvantages based on being non-white but not by being heterosexual. You may have disadvantages in other aspects of your life such as social economic status, gender identity or country.

If you are extremely rich – you may have very little disadvantages based on the amount of money you have but you may be disadvantaged in other aspects of your life such as skin color sexuality or gender identity or country.

If you are poor, you will have disadvantages based on the amount of money you have but you will have less disadvantages based on other aspect of yourself such as skin color, sexuality, religious affiliation or gender identity especially if you are white, heterosexual and cisgendered.

If you are religious, you may have disadvantages depending on your location – especially if your religion is not the same majority religion of the country of your residence. However if your religion matches the religious majority of your country of residence, you will not be disadvantaged or oppressed based on your religion. You may face disadvantages based on other aspects of your life such as skin color, sexuality or gender identity.

If you have an invisible illness, you may have more advantages over someone with a physical illness – until you disclose you invisible illness especially in a society that doesn’t accept that invisible illnesses actually exist. You will have advantages if you are a white or cisgendered or heterosexual person but not based on your invisible illness but because you are white or cisgendered or heterosexual in a culture that is white or cisgendered or heterosexual dominate.

Disadvantages and advantages may include: skin color, sexuality, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, country of residence and the legal protections of that country or socio economic status, the health-care of your country or the education system.

Remember: Some of us are more privileged and some of us are more oppressed than others but for those of use who have more privilege than oppression – don’t step over those who have more oppression than privilege.

If you like some of the things I say – feel free to add me to your RSS feed, comment or email me: rayne@insufferableintolerance.com. I now have a facebook page! Feel free to like my page by clicking here!

The post The advantages and disadvantages of being you: privilege vs oppression appeared first on Insufferable Intolerance.


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