Male privilege manifests itself in the smallest ways sometimes.
I read an article the other day about ingrained senses of dominance and subordination between men and women. The article stated that one way these ingrained ideas manifest themselves is when people are walking around. If a man and a woman are walking in opposite directions, and they are about to run into one another, the woman is typically the person who moves out of the way, and the man stays put in his path. When I read that, I didn't truly believe it. I thought that there must have been external factors that weren't considered in the study, or that it was mere coincidence. But the more I thought about it, the more curious I became.
So, I decided to try it out for myself.
On Tuesday, March 26, I walked around the quad with the purpose of discovery. Wherever I was walking, if I was about to run into a person walking in the opposite direction, I refused to change my path. Almost every time I crossed paths with another female, she either altered her path and moved out of my way, or came near me, apologized, and then moved out of my way. However, over the course of that day, I smack into a male five separate times. Three out of the five times, I received no apology from the male I bumped into. It seemed to me that there was a definite sense of entitlement when men walked as opposed to when women walked, based on my personal observations on the ISU quad.
Now, this is not to say that men never moved out of the way, or that women never ran straight into me. These things did occur but on a much smaller proportion. Additionally, this "experiment" was spontaneous and not planned out, so I didn't collect actual data, I just observed as I went through my day. I would love to conduct this as an actual experiment, and perhaps test out other variables.
What I learned, however, is that there definitely are standards when it comes to men and women, on the spectrum of dominance. Dominance is seen as natural for men, and submissiveness is seen as characteristic for women. These standards are changing, and I would love a stronger push for further change.
Men, women, trans men, trans women, nonbinary, and everything in between — we are all humans. There shouldn't be certain expectations and limitations on people based on their gender. If a man wants to be docile, he shouldn't be regarded as weak. If a woman wants to be commanding, she shouldn't be regarded as bossy. We are all unique and deserved to be valued for who we are, not for how well we fit into boxes.
What are your thoughts? Do you believe that the experiment was sheer coincidence, or that there is some truth to the matter at hand? Share your thoughts with me through Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter! (@lolanushree).
