# Women are more privileged than men (At least, in the West) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 16, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076 "2016-07-16T21:59:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ILikeForeignLanguages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bc8723/32.png) [@ILikeForeignLanguages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILikeForeignLanguages)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/1 "2016-07-16T21:59:08Z")
Men are definitely more privileged than women in many parts of the world; however, in Western Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, women are not oppressed, nor are they less privileged than men. Here’s proof: When a man gets cocky with a woman, it’s called “sexism,” but when a woman gets cocky or disrespectful with a man, it’s called “strength” or “independence.” Women regularly tell men what they are allowed to say. (Examples: “Don’t call women ‘bossy,’ don’t tell women to ‘calm down,’ don’t ‘wow’ women,” etc.). When was the last time you heard a man instruct a woman on what women shouldn’t say to men? Men are regularly told not to argue with women. No one would tell a woman not to argue with a man. Wives make their husbands sleep on the sofa during disagreements. I have never heard of a man making his wife sleep on the sofa. Mothers Day church services are held to heap praise on good mothers; Fathers Day church services are held to shame bad fathers. Women and children are told to go first at various events, from meals to emergency drills. Men are told to go last simply because they are men. It is politically incorrect for a male character to rescue a female in film, but a female rescuing a male is okay. False accusations of rape are a major problem for men, but not women. Male criminals are subjected to harsher punishment than female criminals. Women caught cheating on their husbands are allowed to play the victim card (“My husband wasn’t paying attention to me, etc.”) If a man caught in adultery tries to play the blame game (example: “My wife wasn’t satisfying me” etc.), he is told to buck up and take responsibility for his actions. The only area in which I acknowledge men might be more privileged is unequal pay, but even that is debatable. Other than that, women are the ones treated like royalty, not men. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/2 "2016-07-16T22:02:22Z")
Oh, sounds like someone’s girlfriend just dumped them. Poor baby. Also, most of your statements are bull, especially the one about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day church services. ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/3 "2016-07-16T22:04:25Z")
Have you been fitted for your MRA fedora yet? ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/4 "2016-07-16T22:07:10Z")
:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/5 "2016-07-16T22:22:08Z")
Someone falls for stereotypes, methinks. But I really don’t get that church reference. Perhaps the OP should try a different church. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/6 "2016-07-16T22:22:58Z")
I give up, what is this thread a parody of? ---
**Author:** ![Gladys\_Overnow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Gladys\_Overnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gladys_Overnow)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/7 "2016-07-16T22:32:26Z")
I can’t take a walk alone in my town’s reservation, not for fear of wild animals but for fear of men. I am at risk going any where alone at night. Where’s my privilege if I can’t even take a walk when and where I want to? ---
**Author:** ![StrangeBird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@StrangeBird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrangeBird)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/8 "2016-07-16T23:00:53Z")
> [@ILikeForeignLanguages](#): > > False accusations of rape are a major problem for men, but not women. Women are raped a lot more often than men, and most of the time the perpetrator isn’t jailed. > [@ILikeForeignLanguages](#): > > It is politically incorrect for a male character to rescue a female in film, but a female rescuing a male is okay. Males rescuing females still happens frequently in films, what are you on about? > [@ILikeForeignLanguages](#): > > Women and children are told to go first at various events, from meals to emergency drills. Men are told to go last simply because they are men. Currently? I have never heard women go first in an emergency drill, only in stories about the past (women and children first on the Titanic). ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/9 "2016-07-16T23:40:24Z")
> [@Gladys\_Overnow](#): > > I can’t take a walk alone in my town’s reservation, not for fear of wild animals but for fear of men. I am at risk going any where alone at night. Where’s my privilege if I can’t even take a walk when and where I want to? Are you a man or a woman? Do you think men are safe walking alone at night in a bad neighborhood? A man is much more likely to get beat up or killed. And most rapes of women aren’t random street rapes, as feminists are fond of pointing out. Where did this notion that men are always safe come from? > [@ILikeForeignLanguages](#): > > Male criminals are subjected to harsher punishment than female criminals. This is true, and obvious to anyone who reads the news. ([Link,](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/men-women-prison-sentence-length-gender-gap_n_1874742.html) [Link](http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2144002)) And feminists are trying to increase this disparity. There’s a movement by feminists in the UK to close women’s prisons altogether. ([Link,](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/01/why-we-should-close-womens-prisons-and-treat-their-crimes-more-fairly)[link,](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/10015766/Isnt-it-time-to-abolish-most-womens-prisons.html)[link](https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/06/we-should-stop-putting-women-in-jail-for-anything/)) And Hillary Clinton has made it part of her platform to increase the justice system’s discrimination in favor of women: (And she claims that women ought not to be held responsible for their crimes because they often come from abusive families. As if male prisoners don’t?!) [https://www.hillaryclinton.com/feed/us-has-5-worlds-women-30-its-women-prisoners-these-are-consequences/](https://www.hillaryclinton.com/feed/us-has-5-worlds-women-30-its-women-prisoners-these-are-consequences/) > **[Hillary Clinton: Women and prison – the cost in money and lives | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2016/04/27/opinions/hillary-clinton-women-and-mass-incarceration-crisis/index.html)** > > Clinton says women and their families are being crushed by a justice system that costs far too much in money and in lives derailed without making us safer. (She also has stated that women are the primary victims of war ([link](http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-victims-of-war/)), which is not true and ought to be offensive to the soldiers, mostly male, who are killed and maimed in the wars she has promoted. Can you imagine the outrage if someone said men are the primary victims of rape, because they have to watch their family members go through it?) ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/10 "2016-07-17T01:47:10Z")
Sexual violence, glass-ceiling in the workplace, less pay for equal work, degrading stereotypes, and vastly under-represented in government. Oh, yeah, there’s a privileged class! The claims made are chock full of nuts, and I don’t mean coffee. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/11 "2016-07-17T01:51:12Z")
no, women are just less under-privileged in the west. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/12 "2016-07-17T01:51:22Z")
> [@Gladys\_Overnow](#): > > I can’t take a walk alone in my town’s reservation, not for fear of wild animals but for fear of men. I am at risk going any where alone at night. Where’s my privilege if I can’t even take a walk when and where I want to? When you’re being assaulted, you can instruct them not to call you “bossy”. So you’ve got that going for you. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/13 "2016-07-17T02:00:34Z")
I was going to guess July 2016. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/14 "2016-07-17T02:37:22Z")
Yep, yep. Join date surprised me too. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/15 "2016-07-17T03:16:35Z")
You know how else we are super privileged. We get to have as much sex as we want. Unless we are really grody or something. All we have to do is walk into a bar in fuck me heels and someone will screw us silly. Plus, we can wear fuck me heels in a bar and spend all night turning you losers down. And still find someone to screw us silly. ---
**Author:** ![2ManyTacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/3da27b/32.png) [@2ManyTacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2ManyTacos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/16 "2016-07-17T04:51:50Z")
I do think that the OP’s statement is indisputably true for anything having to do with _dating,_ _marriage/divorce,_ and _child-rearing._ As I’m not a woman, I can’t speak to anything beyond that, however. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/17 "2016-07-17T05:30:52Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I was going to guess July 2016. > [@ddsun](#): > > Yep, yep. Join date surprised me too. It’s either a delayed reaction or a late bloomer. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/18 "2016-07-17T11:47:01Z")
When men’s reproductive rights are determined by the state, you’ll have a point. Until then, your theory is nonsensical. A woman is not a free creature so long as her biology determines her destiny, or the state determines her reproductive choices. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/19 "2016-07-17T12:03:18Z")
Paraplegics get those cool rolling chairs, and here I am using my legs like a schmuck! ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/20 "2016-07-17T12:09:11Z")
“…and what does the man get? The big piece of chicken. That’s it. He gets the big piece of chicken.” _-Chris Rock_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076.md?page=2)