The Gender, Sexuality, and Race Room
In this nanoessay, I will discuss four topics. First, I will discuss the Male Privilege itself. Second, I will discuss Eminem's personal experience of the Male Privilege. Third, I will discuss Eminem's rejection of the Male Privilege. Forth, I will discuss the possibilities of more men rejecting the Male Privilege in the future.
Male Privilege has two aspects: societal status and modern ideology. Men do have some real advantages in Modern Society, like higher pay, and much higher chance of being among the 0.1% of population forming the Elite. Elite men do experience real privilege, yet lived experience of tens of millions of ordinary men is different. For these men, everyday experience is that of discrimination. Men are discriminated in Divorce procedures and Family Courts. Male offenders are more likely to be arrested and convicted then female offenders given the same evidence. Once convicted, men on average get 63% longer penalty for the same crime. Men accused of Sexual Offenses are presumed guilty by College Tribunals and MSM. Male victims of Domestic Violence are more likely to be arrested then helped by Law Enforcement.
Another important aspect of men's status in Modern Society is the perception of men by culture and academia. Male bashing and Violence Against Men are widely acceptable in the Main Stream Media. Even though less then 1% of people hold real power, most Liberals view men as Privileged Oppressors. Many Feminist and Liberal scholars (#notallofthem) believe that all men have unforgivable guilt. The article "Think It’s #NotAllMen? These 4 Facts Prove You’re Just Plain Wrong" posted on "Everyday Feminism" website summarizes the point of view of most Liberal Social Science scholars. The article argues that all men are guilty of some form of microaggression. An example of microaggression presented in the article is a man who "in a conversation with a woman, talks over or mansplains to her without recognizing the behavior". Any man must know that "You’re actually not automatically entitled to share your opinion; in fact, your opinion might be pointless or even harmful in some conversations," yet even a woke Liberal Feminist man can commit such microaggression. According to "Beware the Feminist Man" published by Harvard Crimson, "What these male feminists fail to realize is that, as men, they will always be oppressors. No matter how many feminist marches they attend or how much feminist literature they read, they are not exempt from perpetuating the subordination of women." Thus, according to many great minds of Academia, men can never expiate their guilt.
According to some Feminist and Liberal thinkers, men have an ethical duty to accept the worst abuse without complaining. According to "The Problem With Twitter, as shown by the Sarah Jeong fracas" by Ezra Klein, men should not be offended by the phrase "kill all men". The phrase should be understood as venting frustration. Many media articles are defending the slogan "men are trash". Recently I have read an interesting conversation on the Reddit group r/Askfeminists. A college men who was already depressed and almost suicidal became even more depressed since he has to share a lounge with female students who openly profess hatred for men and claim that "we need fewer men on Earth". Most feminists told him that he is making a big deal out of nothing and that women just need to vent their anger at Patriarchy. One of the milder answers is: "it's important to realize that it isn't always about you, as harsh as that sounds... When you ask if you deserve these comments, unless they are directed at you, deserve has nothing to do with it." At the same time men lose their careers over the mildest joke, men themselves are required to be Stoic and accept the worst abuse as deserved.
For tens of millions of ordinary American men, Male Privilege is an experience of endless abuse and discrimination. For them, Male Privilege is also the requirement not to protest abuse and discrimination in any way.
The Male Privilege described above has been the standard in Western Society since 2013, and has been present in milder forms since 1990s. Marshall Mathers was born in 1972, so it would seem that his youth could not have been marked by the experience of the modern version of the Male Privilege. Nevertheless, he had a very similar experience growing up. Allegedly, he was abused by his mother, and many aspects of his later life indicate that his account is true. Some of the abuse is described in his song "Cleaning Out My Closet": she regularly hit him, spat at his face, called him "little $#@!". She even wished him dead. Like Liberals who justify Hate Speech against men, almost all abusers have endless rationalizations for their actions.
By the late 1990s, many men in Academia and MSM have accepted Male Privilege in its milder 1990s version. Even though things like #killallmen and #menaretrash were two decades away, a male bashing greeting card industry already flourished. Countless books written by male authors expressed collective guilt on behalf of all men. Another approach to Male Privilege was taken by a few men and women: they used logic and facts to prove that men are not always privileged and do in fact suffer discrimination. This approach is very useful in persuading men that they are neither innately evil nor privileged. Unfortunately reason and logic do not work on those who use men as scapegoats.
Eminem had a totally different approach toward those who wanted to force any version Male Privilege upon him. His songs in general and his disc ``The Marshall Mathers LP" (2000) in particular have the strongest possible message of noncompliance and disobedience. The first track called ``Public Service Announcement 2000" has the following words to anyone offended by the rest of the disc: "If you don't like it you can **** my ****ing ****". The song expressing the most powerful anger is "Kill You". "Amityville" also contains unrepeatable lyrics about Eminem's mother and sister. Had these lyrics (which I dare not repeat) been written in an online forum, the offender would have been banned from Social Media and visited by the FBI. Had anyone used these unspeakable words in an offline conversation, they would have been treated as a dangerous lunatic. Eminem's work, however, is Art of a Genius. It takes a genius to express anger as an Art Masterpiece. According to Wikipedia, the album sold 1.78 million copies in the US in its first week and 21 million copies overall. Eminem's genius sustained the spirit of Defiance in an age when bashing and scapegoating men was almost as fashionable as now. For a decade, Eminem's art gave strength to men who refuse to be apologetic for who they are.
Over almost two decades, Eminem's anger subsided and his youthful energy disappeared. He regrets his past and attacks President Trump. In the 2017 song "Bad Husband" he expresses remorse for his past. Eminem2000 or Slim Shady has retired. We are grateful for his past work, but we can not expect anything new as powerful as "The Marshall Mathers LP". No artist can produce good art on demand.
Is there any way for modern and future men to reject the Male Privilege? Men and women who support men want to be brave, but anyone can be fired and blacklisted for the slightest objection to Misandry or Discrimination Against Men. Offline, men are forced to keep quiet. Male bashing, discrimination, and enforced silence engenders anger in many men. During the past decade, men's anger has been widely expressed on Social Media. Up to about 2016, men's groups have been growing on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. MGTOW videos are popular and number about 400,000. Now, there is a Social Media Purge of all Politically Incorrect ideas, so all of channels dealing with men's issues are on borrowed time. Do they have any future?
Not being a soothsayer, I can not predict the Future, but I may have some insights. Many nanoessays, articles, books, videos, and audios expressing men's anger will be of poor quality and not gain popularity. In many cases, unskillful and crude expression of anger produces material worthy of scoffing and derision. That is not art.
Hopefully, there will be some self made musicians who will express anger as Art. Possibly, these songs and music videos expressing men's anger will gain popularity due to the very controversy they would generate. Only time will tell.
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Originally Posted by CCitizen
