I think “defaultness” is altogether too non-loaded. To be in the default (the usual term is “unmarked”) category does tend to confer advantage, but not always (for example, “rich” or “upper class” are marked). Privilege refers not only to the advantage enjoyed by certain classes of people over some minorities, but also to the blindness that privileged people tend to have toward the oppression the minorities face. It’s called “privilege”, rather than just “not-oppression”, because treating privilege as unmarked contributes to its invisibility.
I will add to this that I frequently make a point of talking about “unexamined privilege” rather than “privilege” when I want to communicate the unmarked nature of it, precisely because the increasingly popular habit of using “privilege” to indicate not only the state of having advantages but the state of being unaware of those advantages causes a lot more confusion than it’s worth (e.g., tedious discussions about whether it’s preferable to get rid of one’s privilege, which with the more confusing unpacking leads to the answer “Well, yes and no.”).
My impression was that it was enough that you could be blind towards oppression, no actual blindness required, and that you wouldn’t stop being privileged just because you became aware of oppression, i. e. that recognition of privilege didn’t automatically negate it. Is that wrong?
Er, yes, you’re right. Privilege is the advantage enjoyed by the unmarked, or (capacity for) blindness toward oppression. One or the other will suffice, you don’t need both.
I think the concept of privilege is probably important, but I’m male and wouldn’t totally know.
Maybe defaultness as an alternative word?
It seems pretty non-loaded to me.
I think “defaultness” is altogether too non-loaded. To be in the default (the usual term is “unmarked”) category does tend to confer advantage, but not always (for example, “rich” or “upper class” are marked). Privilege refers not only to the advantage enjoyed by certain classes of people over some minorities, but also to the blindness that privileged people tend to have toward the oppression the minorities face. It’s called “privilege”, rather than just “not-oppression”, because treating privilege as unmarked contributes to its invisibility.
I will add to this that I frequently make a point of talking about “unexamined privilege” rather than “privilege” when I want to communicate the unmarked nature of it, precisely because the increasingly popular habit of using “privilege” to indicate not only the state of having advantages but the state of being unaware of those advantages causes a lot more confusion than it’s worth (e.g., tedious discussions about whether it’s preferable to get rid of one’s privilege, which with the more confusing unpacking leads to the answer “Well, yes and no.”).
My impression was that it was enough that you could be blind towards oppression, no actual blindness required, and that you wouldn’t stop being privileged just because you became aware of oppression, i. e. that recognition of privilege didn’t automatically negate it. Is that wrong?
Er, yes, you’re right. Privilege is the advantage enjoyed by the unmarked, or (capacity for) blindness toward oppression. One or the other will suffice, you don’t need both.
Come to think of it, “Status Quo Bias” is pretty relevant.