On my privilege.

AFTERTHOUGHT: I did not mean to post this on International Women's Day; that's just when I got it finished. I started writing it a few days ago, but felt stuck for reasons that a sortof explain here.

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I recently came across this tweet and found it salient enough to retweet myself:

"...I have been socialized not to take up space..."@thatkatiemack #sspodcast #thebitchcastiscoming pic.twitter.com/uYAsekXTdW

— Dylan Thomas (@DylanTheThomas) March 6, 2016

I like it, but it's tough. "advocate with me instead of for me" is a level of nuance I don't think I can fully grasp yet. I'd like to think that I already do this, but I probably just keep my mouth shut for fear of making the situation worse. I seem to be more blind to my sexism than I imagined I could be. 

I am a white, cisgender, middle-class, Canadian male. I have some privilege on hand that I appear to carelessly strew about me. I just wish I understood when I was doing it. I want to be an advocate like @alix suggests around the 53 minute mark of the podcast embedded above. I want to give outsiders room to speak; I want to trust that they are sharing their experience without couching it for me. 

But lately, with how the dialogue's been going, with how many times I seem to put my foot in my mouth, I just want to hide. I want to do my job and spend the rest of my time in a corner where I won't hurt anybody. My intentions are good, but my privilege blinds me. 

I'm one of those guys.