A Special Message to Our Male Readers

Discussion got a lil heated on my post about the bar scene, so I wanted to say a few things to our male audience (and everyone, really).

First of all, thank you for being open minded enough to read an evolving body of work that usually criticizes your kind, or points out the privileges you have and don't even notice. I know sometimes it's probably uncomfortable when it feels like the finger is pointed at you. But those are the moments when you should pay the most attention. Did something we say trigger a nerve with you, or piss you off because you also participate in an act we've critiqued? Maybe it's worth it to examine that and see if your status as a male bodied person with privileges attached to that is integral to why you're pissed. I'm not asking you to always understand where we are coming from, but to give it thought, especially if something makes you angry or upset.

Being in Res Life at Smith, I've had a lot of training and conversations and roleplays around privilege and subordinate/dominant groups, and as a white person, have had to confront my fair share of unintended racism and privilege that I didn't even know I had. Men, this may shock you, but you are a dominant group, in this society and most around the world.

You have always held positions of power and now that women have made some advances through the ranks, winning the right to vote, to not be raped by our husbands, to adequate pay (oops, not yet ladies, let's keep working), sometimes we might point out dynamics that you see as "complaining" or "nitpicky." In social justice work, these things we notice are called "micro-aggressions" (though I'd say some of them, like widespread rape and sexual assault are MACRO-aggression). To you, it's things that we should be able to blow off, like advertising that portrays women as nearly climaxing over house cleaning supplies or half-naked broads selling beer or the fact that there's no male version of slut. But to us, day after day, these micro-aggressions add up to a very real force of oppression. And that, for me at least, is why I write this blog: to point out these things, to spread some awareness, and to share some sexual wisdom.

However. Sometimes, we might be wrong. Sometimes, we might misread someone's intentions and label them as sexist or oppressive or just a dick when they're not. And I encourage you to point that out, but please, do so respectfully. This blog is neither an academic journal nor an OpenDiary, so let's keep the comments clean (ish) and focused on critiquing the statements made, not the person making them.

Once again, thank you so much for reading, and refer us to your friends!

Much love,
The Albright Sheriff