Changing a Privileged World

I apologize for the extreme delay with this post. We all know life gets in the way sometimes. My life has not been conducive for blogging as of late.

As a preface for this post, let me lend you a peek into my Tumblr blogging. I was recently asked if I ruled the world, what I would change. As you already know, I could probably write a book on said topic as to what is wrong in the world, what I would change, and why--I summed it up with no justification as:

"Everyone pays the same taxes, everyone makes the same amount of money on a liveable wage, there would be equal rights [regardless of] gender, race, history. There would be no lying in politics, the media would not have as much control as it does, nobody would care what Anthony Wiener does in his free time because his penis isn't going to be making any mayoral decisions, and college would be cheaper." -Me. http://rainvictoria.tumblr.com

To which a follower replied, "I think you should rule the world."


This blog post has very little to do with my Tumblr quote, except to further show my view on equal rights in society. Spring quarter 2013 at Western Washington University, I took a Sociology class on Gender and Society instructed by Dr. Jen Lois. This class was to fulfill a graduation requirement, and was by far the most educational college class I have taken. This 8:30 am class, three times per week, is from which I draw many of my facts and conclusions from.

Privilege, in sociological ideas, is defined as unearned advantage, allowing some to take the "path of least resistance." Having privilege allows you to not see it and when pointed out, we feel guilty and defensive because of the meritocracy and privilege contradiction (achieved status vs. unearned advantage). We hear jokes about "white privilege," but you would be naive to believe these examples are merely there for humor with no societal bases.
The most prevalent occurrences of privilege happen in the workplace. Personally, I think we deserve equal rights in the public sector and leave it up to individuals in the private sector. We see gendered jobs as being common. Only recently have we seen nursing wage increases due to more men entering the nursing occupation. We can see the "feminine" jobs are "less prestigious" and have lower pay. We also see that the occupation crossover from a gendered standpoint is one-sided with more men entering the traditionally more women-dominated fields. This varying based on blue vs. white collar status. We also see a gendered wage gap where still, women are paid 77 cents to a man's dollar. Don't even ask the numbers for when women have children. Well, I'll tell you anyway: single mothers on average only see 52 cents to a man's dollar. Anyone else appalled as I am? I can hear those in favor of the Feminist Theory having a field day with that statement.

Before all the men out there start tearing into me about feeding them to the female wolves with these numbers, I'll throw them a bone.
The root of how there are unequal rights and treatment is social construction. This idea emphasizes that society and social phenomena are produced by people. This unequal treatment is a product of human creation. Because we make these idea have meaning, they become real and have real consequences. Because we act like it's real, it is, and we are to blame.
Since we make these socially constructed ideas a reality, the class ceiling and glass escalator phenomena are real things.

Note: "glass ceiling" refers to an invisible ceiling that makes it so women are unable to get all the way to the top of a company. "Glass escalator" refers to a phenomena where men in female dominated companies more easily rise to the top.

 Obviously these social phenomena are not applicable in all cases. Think about it for a second though, between one and four percent of CEOs in the Fortune 500 companies are women. And this is an improvement from the time where the legal status of married women was "civil death" because women had no rights. This being in the time of witch hunts (literally) when "non-traditional" women "threatened" society and rebelled against it. These same women were coerced into confessing to witch crimes they never committed. In the industrial era, we developed the traditional, root ideas of masculinity and femininity.

As a side note, let me clarify that masculine and feminine ideology are social constructions and performances to the biological male/female sex.

I can feel that this is heading into a different topic about society. This is where I will stop, as Rome wasn't built in a day; I'll save my gendered media post for another day.
Why should we allow one person from too many years ago define our society today? We shouldn't. These socially constructed ideas have real consequences because we make them so.