Cis Privilege Checklist « Taking Up Too Much Space.
I’m sure you guys have seen this before. I think this list has shortcomings, as it posits a basis similar to that of the white privilege checklist that it’s based on. I’d like to write out a more elaborate discussion sometime about the ways these different checklists compare and contrast.
Does anybody agree that this checklist, while an excellent tool for cisgendered people, doesn’t accomplish the same thing as the white privilege checklist? Or that the basis is flawed?
3 Comments
I’m interested to hear your thoughts. What basis is it that I’m assuming–the additive model of oppression rather than the multidimensional one? I don’t think it’s completely naive that way, but it’d be a valid critique, if it’s the one you’re making.
What do you think the difference in accomplishment is?
Please feel free to comment over on TUTMS, too.
I haven’t gotten to read this through a thoroughly as I’d like, but my first thought is that the White Privilege Checklist has things that distinguish major race-related issues from subtle-yet-poignant privilege. In this one, for example, healthcare, privacy, discrimination laws, etc. are out and out “trans issues” affected by policy, practice, etc. The White Privilege list has some of those issues, but most of them are subtle — one of my favorites is “I can chose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin.”
Maybe trans issues don’t surprise me much anymore, so the list would be more poignant to someone hearing it for the first time. When I think about my relation to privilege in the daily barrage of assumptions and assignations, I think more about day-to-day stuff like “I can cut my hair above my ears and no one misassumes my gender” or “If someone uses the wrong pronoun for me, they are put in an embarrassing situation and I am not.”
(I promise to read the whole thing before talking about it anymore…)
Thanks for the thoughts. It’s true that some of the striking things about the White Privilege checklist are subtle things. I might not have ever imagined that even finding bandages in my skin tone would arise as a problem, and once it occurs to you, it’s shocking, how pervasive white privilege is.