yumadwhiteboy:

collectivecrack:

White American males constitute only 33% of the population. Yet, they occupy approximately:

• 80% of tenured positions in higher education
• 80% of the House of Representatives
• 80-85% of the U.S. Senate
• 92%of Forbes 400 executive CEO-level positions
• 90% of athletic team owners
• 97.7% of U.S. presidents

And then they flip out when they’re not allowed in the Women’s Tent. 

I was wondering about this today. Love it when the internet throws answers at me via the gay porn roulette without my having to Google it.

(via fuckingickyricky)

maymay:

This three-part Venn diagram titled “The Role of Privilege in Polyamorous Relationship Structures” is part of Franklin Veaux’s incredible sexual informatics visualizations and shows the overlap of “Male Privilege,” “Couple Privilege,” and “Entitlement”:

• At the intersection of male privilege and couple privilege is the one-penis policy (“OPP”), which is a manifestation of sexism that results in common relationship rules of the form “My partners can have other women, but not other men.”
• At the intersection of couple privilege and entitlement is the polyamory veto, which greatly contributes to systemic oppressions against “secondaries” and is typically retroactively justified by those who have “primary relationships” (and thus couple privilege) with the callous notion that “our relationship always comes first.”
• At the intersection of entitlement and male privilege is compulsory polygamy, including secular polygamous practice, and sounds like some shit-face saying things along the lines of, “I get to have a harem, but none of my women can have anyone else.”
• At the intersection of all three of male privilege, couple privilege, and entitlement are unicorn hunters, also known as Hot Bi Babe chasers, which sounds like, “We’re looking for an attractive bisexual woman to move in with us and to be with both of us exclusively. She will be lucky to share in all the love we have to offer her!”

What is too often left unsaid is that these are systemic problems within the polyamory community that the community, as a community, is heavily invested in denying (with the notable exception of Franklin’s visualizations, of course). There is also relatively little work within or directed at the polyamory community challenging these tropes in a forceful way. Franklin’s own writings, such as his recent essay Polyamory: Some Thoughts on Rules, lays a great foundation that I’d love to see advocated far more strongly than I’ve seen it been, to date.

I’m currently musing on these and similar topics in preparation for Atlanta Poly Weekend 2012, where I’ll be giving the conference’s opening keynote. I’ve been fortunate enough to be granted that remarkable opportunity, and at a time in my life when I’m struggling to unpack the effect these things have had on my personally important relationships.

Please let me know if you have any experiences to share that relate to these topics, or come across additional material that has informed your thinking on the matter.

For some of my own thought pieces on polyamory, see:

• Dreaming of Compassion: Technology, Polyamory, and Social Justice — Public Anthropology Conference 2011
• Anti-censorship best practices for the sex-positive publisher — Atlanta Poly Weekend 2011

(via Franklin Veaux’s Journal - Polyamory and Privilege)

queerestoffinches:

Just a reminder that using other cultures’ gender formations to legitimate your very specific and temporally significant one is colonialist as fuck and you need to step the fuck off. Your gendered embodiment is not at all the same as say a two spirit identified indigenous/first nations person so for you to make a comparison or justify your sense of gender through theirs is to do the same types of epistemic and physical violence they’ve faced from your imperialist whitebread ancestors for centuries.

Edit: quick edit but I should also acknowledge its not just white people who can do this type of violence, ayone who legitimates their western identity through comparing a “third gender” category (which itself is a legacy of fucked up colonialism) of non western gendered embodiments is contributing to this epistemic violence. I only highlight white people bcause its commonly white supremacy that fosters the environment for these structural violences to occur.

Mostly when I see people pointing out that non-binary genders exist in other cultures, I think, “I wish we had some recognition in our culture like that, too.”

I think it’s natural to find comfort in the fact that other human beings feel the same way as us, and to feel that we’re not alone. I am not going to give myself a label that belongs to a culture that’s not my own, but I may highlight similarities to feel closer to GSM people. Reaching out to people like me isn’t much to do with culture.

I’m all for avoiding cultural appropriation, but I’m also all for diversity and friendship. Clearly there is a fine line to walk, here.

(via lipsredasroses)

theskyandtheimpossibleexplode:

privilege
a poem for men who don’t understand what we mean when we say they have it

privilege is simple:
going for a pleasant stroll after dark,
not checking the back of your car as you get in, sleeping soundly,
speaking without interruption, and not remembering
dreams of rape, that follow you all day, that woke you crying, and
privilege
is not seeing your stripped, humiliated body
plastered in celebration across every magazine rack, privilege
is going to the movies and not seeing yourself
terrorized, defamed, battered, butchered
seeing something else

privilege is
riding your bicycle across town without being screamed at or
run off the road, not needing an abortion, taking off your shirt
on a hot day, in a crowd, not wishing you could type better
just in case, not shaving your legs, having a decent job and
expecting to keep it, not feeling the boss’s hand up your crotch,
dozing off on late-night busses, privilege
is being the hero in the TV show not the dumb broad,
living where your genitals are totemized not denied,
knowing your doctor won’t rape you

privilege is being
smiled at all day by nice helpful women, it is
the way you pass judgment on their appearance with magisterial authority,
the way you face a judge of your own sex in court and
are over-represented in Congress and are not strip searched for a traffic ticket
or used as a dart board by your friendly mechanic, privilege
is seeing your bearded face reflected through the history texts
not only of your high school days but all your life, not being
relegated to a paragraph
every other chapter, the way you occupy
entire volumes of poetry and more than your share of the couch unchallenged,
it is your mouthing smug, atrocious insults at women
who blink and change the subject — politely — privilege
is how seldom the rapist’s name appears in the papers
and the way you smirk over your PLAYBOY

it’s simple really, privilege
means someone else’s pain, your wealth
is my terror, your uniform
is a woman raped to death here, or in Cambodia or wherever
wherever your obscene privilege
writes your name in my blood, it’s that simple,
you’ve always had it, that’s why it doesn’t
seem to make you sick to your stomach,
you have it, we pay for it, now
do you understand

—D.A. Clarke

reprinted from Banshee, Peregrine Press

Copyright (c) 1981 D. A. Clarke. All Rights Reserved

(via justjasper)

hairyqueerkid:

Some of the problems i have with mainstream polyamory. I’m not even comfortable with the idea of “primary” and “secondary” partners. Hierarchy is not my thing.   

(via hairyqueerkid-deactivated201206)