[wpietri]

Some geeks certainly deny the sexism -- he gives an example of one -- so I think an article on male privilege has to start out there.

I also think trauma can work both ways. My abuse for being a nerd didn't teach me that women were bad, it taught me that being mistreated for being different is bad. Ergo my hatred of sexist behavior in my industry.

More generally trauma can explain bad behavior, but I don't think it excuses it. (Not that you're suggesting otherwise, but I want to make sure people here don't slip into a common error.) A lot of physical abusers have been abused themselves. But a lot of abused people don't go on to abuse anyone else. There may be a reason that somebody is a sexist jerk, but we should still hold them to account.

[sqrt17]

> Some geeks certainly deny the sexism -- he gives an example of one -- so I think an article on male privilege has to start out there.

How is sexism a privilege? Sexism may be a bias, or as the grandparent hypothesizes, a lack of empathy;

Privilege may arise as a result of these biases (just as much as it would arise as a result of any other bias, against rural people, people with non-majority ethnicity, against unattached males over a certain age, etc.), but contrary to the title, the article is about sexism and not about privilege.

[wpietri]

Privilege here is a technical term.

Other people's sexism yields my male privilege. And yes, this article is definitely about male privilege.