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Comment by jasonshen | Hacker News Reader

It's important to me that this post be read and considered by a wide audience of people. If my content angers and offends someone to the point at which they refuse to consider the content, I have lost.

By acknowledging upfront that I have many biases and that I hold a very real position of privilege in society as a man, I am trying to speak not from up high, but as a peer, as an equal.

I don't feel this is an unrealistic expectation. The whole point of this post is that women face unique challenges that men often do not understand. Your suggestion that my disclaimer only exists in an "upside down" universe suggests you don't agree with that assertion.

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I read your article. It's well written and it's worth reading. Let your words stand on their own. Give your target audience the benefit of the doubt.

Also, your assertion - "By acknowledging upfront that I have many biases and that I hold a very real position of privilege in society as a man, I am trying to speak not from up high, but as a peer, as an equal." is also reverse discrimination. I am sure not every man or woman would agree that a man always has the upper hand. And please, your statement is general to the point of meaningless.

Like I said, in the spirit of open discussion, you have written a great article but your disclaimer is a weak point.

> Your suggestion that my disclaimer only exists in an "upside down" universe suggests you don't agree with that assertion.

No -- I don't agree with a social movement that induces you to lead with an apology for an innate traits such as your gender.

If you write with ignorance and privilege that will shine through regardless of your disclaimer.

If people take offense to you or your writing regardless of the content of your writing and make assumptions on you based on their perceptions of your sex and gender identification, well, we have a word to describe such prejudice, don't we?

What seems fair and reasonable to one person may seem very unfair and unreasonable to another. People may very well take offense to my writing based on their perceptions of my gender, and I am taking precautions to avoid that when possible. It is human nature to jump to conclusions. Good writing help readers avoid doing that.

As the old saying goes, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

The top comments on here are all from men who took offense to their fellow man's rather non-controversial (IMHO) acknowledgement that a man necessarily, by definition, lacks the first-person experience on women's issues. They have not commented on anything of substance from the actual article.

So this mysterious word of yours.... what is it?

Mine is "privilege blindness": http://www.shakesville.com/2008/04/blindness-of-privilege.ht...

That's a really great post and a very useful concept. Thanks.

Here's a lively discussion on male privilege:

http://www.amptoons.com/blog/the-male-privilege-checklist/

Aside from my opinion on the disclaimer, the link above definitely articulates "male privilege" in a more substantive way.

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