[tsotha]

What a load of crap. Female comic book characters are scantily clad? You don't say. But let me suggest that has not much to do with "privilege" and everything to do with the fact that teenage boys are hard-wired to appreciate this kind of thing. No, it's not a "social construct" or an effort to keep the oppressed in her place.

Where do I sign up for the privilige of having members of the opposite sex fall all over themselves doing things for me in order to get my attention?

[wladimir]

Where do I sign up for the privilige of having members of the opposite sex fall all over themselves doing things for me in order to get my attention?

Yes. I think we should drop this discussion as it is bound to turn into a stereotype-fest which is counter-productive. The first step in getting rid of gender discrimination is to not make gender an issue at all.

It takes a great shift to regard people as individual people, not males or females. It requires "shutting out" a lot of cultural programming and maybe even biological reactions. Both for men and women. Most gender-discrimination is not conscious at all.

Arguing about "privilege" doesn't help anyone. How to go about this? On the internet it might be easier by just removing "gender" fields. But in the non-virtual world?

[rmc]

Where do I sign up for the privilige of having members of the opposite sex fall all over themselves doing things for me in order to get my attention?

If you're an attractive man, then you can get gay men (esp. older gay men, especially older, ugly, gay men), to do this. If you want people falling all over you, and doing things, there are ways to do that.

[tsotha]

Well, you see I specified "opposite sex".

[rmc]

What you meant (i presume) is "i want people who I want to sleep with to fall over themselves to please me". What women actually get lots of time is "people I don't really want to sleep with, but want to sleep with me, falling over themselves to try to please me". As such I think the analogy of 'ugly gay guy hitting on straight guy' is apt, and similar to what a lot of women face.

[tsotha]

It's not really the same. The thing is gay guys don't actually constitute a large percentage of the population, but straight guys do. Women get all sorts of preferential treatment without even realizing it.

I once went to Vegas with a friend and his attractive wife. We showed up without any kind of plans, and she decided she wanted to go to one of the more exclusive restaurants. I wandered over to ask if they could squeeze us in. Nope. All booked until we were gone. So I went back to the casino and broke the bad news, at which point she went to the restaurant to talk to them herself. We were eating there a few hours later.

Now, she didn't give them a big tip or promise sex or anything like that. She just asked (well, "wheedled" is probably a better word). And she knew to ask when they said no to me because that kind of thing happens all the time. Why? Well, according to her it's because men just don't know how to ask. I have another theory, which is that (straight) men are wired to do things for attractive women even when there's no chance of a relationship.