Roseanne Explains Male Privilege

Sometimes it can be difficult to explain patriarchy because of how ubiquitous it is.  Author of The Gender Knot, Allan G. Johnson describes patriarchy as a society that "... promotes male privilege by being male dominated, male identified and male centered.  It is also organized around an obsession with control and involves as one of its key aspects the oppression of women."  Privilege is often difficult to recognize in ourselves because the benefits that come with gender, race, class, sexuality and ability privilege are usually invisible to those who receive it.

But leave it to Roseanne, a feminist television icon, of the late 80's - early 90's in her hit television show following a working class family through their daily emotional and financial struggles, to simplify male privilege in a humorous way. 

In this episode of Roseanne, her youngest son DJ is dating a woman who bosses him around and creates a clear double standard between them.  Roseanne immediately takes a liking to her and Dan Connor, her husband, feels like her son is being pushed around.

Roseanne very simply explains how male privilege gives boys a social advantage that girls don't have.  When Dan tries to compare how his son is being treated by telling Roseanne that she would never allow a man to treat one of her daughters that way she says, "that is completely different Dan, a boy starts life way up here on a throne and a girl is down here, so if a boy is pushing a girl around he's trying to keep her down but if a girl is pushing a boy around she is trying to elevate herself."

Thanks Roseanne for unpacking male privilege in less then 30 seconds.

Copyright 2010, by the Contributing Authors. Cite/attribute Resource. femfreq. (2010, July 20). Roseanne Explains Male Privilege. Retrieved May 21, 2012, from Critical Commons Web site: http://criticalcommons.org/Members/femfreq/commentaries/roseanne-explains-male-privilege. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.