Heterosexual Privilege

Privilege

Privilege refers to the advantage bestowed upon one group that is denied to others because of group membership. Traditionally, studies of social inequality have focused on the oppressed status of a minority group. However, focusing only on discrimination is not a complete picture. As one group is discriminated against, another group occupies a privileged, dominant status enjoying access to goods, services, or even an acceptance that other social groups do not posses. Understanding privilege is about understanding unearned institutionalized entitlements and advantages.

Gender and Race

A plethora of scholarship exists on how privilege is gendered. Many scholars who study privilege have used a concept to help explain its nuances first popularized by Peggy Mclntosh, “the invisible knapsack.” As a feminist scholar, she noted how she had long seen males bestowed a special status simply because of their gender. She argued that this privileged group was almost completely oblivious to these rewards. They carried this “knapsack” full of the tools and resources that enable its owner to succeed more easily than can a person or persons without the knapsack. The owner of the knapsack may recognize that others are disadvantaged yet the acknowledgment of how one's privileges are related to another's lack of privileges is a difficult concession for many to make. Yet, scholarly interest did not end at examining gender's place in privilege. Many scholars have argued that privilege extends to race as well, and whites are the beneficiaries. This advantage is obvious to those who do not have it, yet it is invisible to those who possess it. One's status as a member of the dominant group affords the person opportunities or entitlements that a person in another group cannot count on being available. Mclntosh created a list of 50 items of the privileges that she enjoyed as a white person, some of which included having the ease and ability to surround herself with people who looked like her if and when she wanted (in person and on television), the likelihood that the curriculum in her children's school would positively speak to their cultural heritage, and the simple fact that purchasing products for her hair was commonplace or knowing that when she found a product with a color named “skin color” that it would match her skin tone.

Sexual Orientation

The importance of the knapsack is its applicability in studying other forms of privilege, such as heterosexual privilege. The persons who unknowingly benefit from being members of a dominant group perceive their situation as the normal way society functions. Heterosexuals benefit from heterosexual social unions being seen as standard and legitimate. This normalization of heterosexuality is privileged above other sexual orientations. Sexuality is understood to encompass sexual attitudes, behaviors, and desires. Some scholars argue that human sexuality is innate whereas others view sexual orientation, like gender, as socially constructed. Regardless of where one stands in this debate, it is difficult to deny the power the dominant group has at both individual and institutional levels when gauging privilege as it relates to sexual orientation.

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