Hacker News Reader

Comment by jerrya | Hacker News Reader

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?

View on HN

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.

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.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com