Man, Check your privilege. By Aduwa Otieno

I will tell you a short story:
It’s almost 10PM.  My female friend and I are leaving Pawa254. We are from an art event, busy discussing how person X is a terrible poet and why we think person Y’s politics on gender is just bullshit. It’s just the two of us when we arrive at the junction that connects Valley Road and Upper State House Road. My friend, let’s call her Wangari, has to walk to town to catch a jav home, I, on the other hand, only has to walk to Mamlaka. Normally I’d just walk up Nyerere Road, then branch at the intersection with Mamlaka Road. But I’m in the company of a woman. , and that Serena stretch doesn’t look safe, at least for her. So, we trek all the way down Valley Road, connect with Kenyatta Avenue till we get to Odeon, where she gets a jav home.
You probably don’t get where I’m getting with this. Or, you just don’t see the moral of the story, especially if a man. You are not entirely to be blamed for not recognizing the gist of the story. You’ve been raised in a society that normalizes privileges to men at the expense of women. I’ll break it down for you.
Wangari, just by being female, is more likely to be a prey to sexual predators and other assaults perpetrated by men. I walk her to Khoja because, unlike me, she has to worry about her safety. She has to worry about the possibility of rape and being mugged, among other aggressions. I don’t worry about anything while walking back to Mamlaka. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen to me, as a man? Get mugged? But I don’t have valuables with me. And worth noting is that I’m relatively able-bodied. That means I’m less likely to be raped or assaulted than Wangari. And this comes as advantage by the virtue of my being male (and being able-bodied). That, friend, is male privilege. And it’s no rocket science how it marginalizes women.
Male privilege can be defined as unearned advantage men have over women just for being male. Obviously, male privilege is a creation of patriarchy. ALL men, believe me, are beneficiaries of it. Many men and even the marginalized fail to recognize this because it is deeply entrenched in our cultures, spaces and even religion. Its pervasive nature makes it hard for someone to view it as a gender issue. There are countless examples of male privileges that happen before our eyes, and we raise not a finger.
Before I began writing this, I was scrolling through my Twitter feeds. One tweet captured my attention. It was about a Saudi woman who, after reporting that she was a victim of rape, gets accused of extra-marital sex instead. It never felt real until I clicked on the link and read all through. The sexual aggressor, obviously male, was nowhere in the picture. To understand how male privilege is at work here, you need to look at the cultural and religious aspects of a country like Saudi Arabia. For a start, Saudi is deeply Islamic. Religion, as you probably know, codifies morality into absolutes that in most cases just aim to serve men. Pick up your holy writ. Look up the gender of those who happen to pass down the laws to the lay people.
In the case of the Saudi woman, the injustices perpetrated on her can thus be safely said to be religiously sanctioned. She lives in a sphere where consensual sexual is a non-issue when a man wants to bust a nut. She lives in a society where the law (codified by men) are harsher on women who have extra-marital affairs than male sexual aggressors. She lives in a culture that doesn’t even want her to drive a car. She lives in a country where writers of my kind get jailed or killed for merely stating this. Than a man could get away with rape just shows how male privilege is normalized in the Islamic world.
Here’s another instance: Male X, driven by the need to physically resemble Channing Tatum, decides to hit the gym. Female Y wants a Teyana Taylor body too. (She’s been watching Kanye West’s Fade video on repeat) They both meet at the same gym. In the process of lifting up heavy things and putting them down, it gets unbearable hot. Male X, without giving it any thought, takes off his T-shirt (size s, by the way. Yet he has a big upper body). Female Y, though, can’t bring herself to doing the same. Given the years of cultivation of the male perception that her nipples are for sexual arousal, she can’t possibly be like Male X without inviting the male gaze and other sexual micro-aggressions like sexual slurs. She’ll likely be called a slut. She could get slapped by some law with fancy words like ‘indecent exposure’. And the worst that could happen is sexual assault. Non-consensual sexual acts. Nobody has anything agains Male X taking off his shirt, but everyone will have everything against Female Y if she does the same. That’s male privilege.
This painfully reminds me of the incidence with Embassava touts. Men, of course. They undressed (read: sexually assaulted) a woman because apparently, how a woman dresses tells about what she wants to be done unto her. This is a case that captures the male privilege to authority. They feel like their authority should be extended to women. The walk around with a moral whip, lashing at any woman they deem morally wrong. Still on male privilege to authority, I’d argue that’s why we have mostly men in positions of power. How many women do you see in positions of authority? They were many back when Africa still valued its women. Back when Victorian ideals about women hadn’t been imposed on us. When Mekatilili Wa Menza were figures even men revered.
Male privilege also manifests itself in the academic sphere. Here’s your homework – use Google or your library to know why there are few female scientists and scholars. Tally up their numbers and then contrast with their male counterparts'. Also, look up the experiences these women go through while in the academic field.
Male privilege, just like other privileges, serves to marginalize a group of persons. Usually the minority. For instance, there’s straight privilege. Here, LGBT guys receive the short end of the stick. Imagine how hard it is, if not possible, for a gay couple to receive a marriage certificate when compared to hetero couple. Imagine how problematic it is for a genderqueer person to walk into a public washroom only to find that there’s only the gender binary, male and female signs on the doors.
Acknowledging that you, as a man, is a beneficiary of male privilege shouldn’t be seen as an admission of guilt. It should be an acknowledgement that women are victims to a system that lends you the upper hand. With that insight, you can work towards purging the structures that allow for such privileges.  There are many things you could do to balance the scales. For example, if your female colleague at work, who works just as much as you (maybe even more), gets paid less than you, raise a voice of concern as a start. Boycott if unheard. In other words, always check your privilege.
Beloved women, pick up your arms. It’s your fight. Be at the battle forefront. Fight to your last breath. That way your daughters won’t be put to chains by the society of men. If you don’t see a glimmer of hope in that, who will?

Photo credits to: questionsandtea.wordpress.com
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