So straight white science fiction author dude John Scalzi has created a bit of a hubbub amongst straight white dudes on the interwebs with a blog post called Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is. The post, later reposted on Kotaku, is basically an attempt to talk to fellow dudes in their own language about the concept of privilege “without invoking the dreaded word ‘privilege,’ to which they react like vampires being fed a garlic tart at high noon.” (And they do.)
Scalzi’s thesis:
Dudes. Imagine life here in the US – or indeed, pretty much anywhere in the Western world – is a massive role playing game, like World of Warcraft except appallingly mundane, where most quests involve the acquisition of money, cell phones and donuts, although not always at the same time. Let’s call it The Real World. You have installed The Real World on your computer and are about to start playing, but first you go to the settings tab to bind your keys, fiddle with your defaults, and choose the difficulty setting for the game. Got it?
Okay: In the role playing game known as The Real World, “Straight White Male” is the lowest difficulty setting there is.
This means that the default behaviors for almost all the non-player characters in the game are easier on you than they would be otherwise. The default barriers for completions of quests are lower. Your leveling-up thresholds come more quickly. You automatically gain entry to some parts of the map that others have to work for. The game is easier to play, automatically, and when you need help, by default it’s easier to get.
Scalzi should have added “cis” to “straight white male,” but otherwise I’d say that’s fairly spot-on.
Of course, as Scalzi himself points out, life for straight white (cis) dudes is not always peaches and cream. They may have any of a number of disadvantages in life that make things difficult for them. They may have been born poor, or in a war zone; they may have been abused as children or the victim of crime or violence as an adult. Or faced any number of other problems and conditions and disadvantages.
Scalzi deals with this issue a little more obliquely than he could have, noting that some people begin the grand game of “The Real World” with more points than others, and that this can make a good deal of difference.
But do straight white cis males face disadvantages stemming from being straight white cis men? I honestly can’t think of any that have affected my life in any serious way, and these small disadvantages pale in comparison to the many advantages. Yeah, I had to register for the draft when I turned 18. Of course, when I registered there was no draft, and there still isn’t one, and the draft has virtually no chance of being resurrected in the foreseeable future, so I can’t say this requirement has affected my life in any tangible way.
As Scalzi puts it:
If you start with fewer points and fewer of them in critical stat categories, or choose poorly regarding the skills you decide to level up on, then the game will still be difficult for you. But because you’re playing on the “Straight White Male” setting, gaining points and leveling up will still by default be easier, all other things being equal, than for another player using a higher difficulty setting.
Anyway, Scalzi got a lot of responses to his post, many of them from straight white dudes outraged by his assertions. So he wrote a followup taking some of these critics to task. He was particularly amused by the criticism that by “picking on” straight white males he was being racist and sexist.
This particular comment was lobbed at me primarily from aggrieved straight white males. Leaving aside entirely that the piece was neither, let me just say that I think it’s delightful that these straight white males are now engaged on issues of racism and sexism. It would be additionally delightful if they were engaged on issues of racism and sexism even when they did not feel it was being applied to them — say, for example,when it’s regarding people who historically have most often had to deal with racism and sexism (i.e., not white males). Keep at it, straight white males! You’re on the path now!
I am sure there are many gems of obtuseosity in the comments, and in the Reddit thread on his original post. But it’s Friday night, and I have a migraine — which sucks, but it’s not because I’m a straight white cis dude — so I’m going to let you guys find them for me.
EDITED TO ADD: Thinking a bit more about Scalzi’s central metaphor here, and I don’t think it completely works: he assumes that obstacles other than racism, sexism, and homophobia can be explained as the equivalent of having started the game with fewer points. But it you have, for example, a disability, that’s something that makes you life harder every day; it’s more akin to raising the difficulty level than to starting off with fewer points. (Not to mention that you’re likely to face bigotry because of it as well.) This doesn’t erase the privileges a straight white male with disabilities gets from being straight, white, and male, of course, but it does ratchet up the difficulty.
darksidecat — I wasted mine on my mother’s Stephan King collection, Tolkien is definitely a step up.
“Let me play your game: When has anyone anywhere is this thread said that they only care about sexual orientation?” — or even mentioned marriage, other than in direct reply to your mentioning marriage.
None of your friends/family/coworkers have displayed any form of homophobia or discomfort towards gay people?
You dirty liar, you cited another queer person as proof that lbgt people do not face that much oppression.
Are you for real dude? XDXDXD
Yup, us getting angry about you minimizing queer oppression is totally like racism. Also white people are discriminated against now? and men certainly are not discriminated for having too much sex. XDXDXDXD
“White dudes get more attention in hiring, for the same effort.”
‘Error.’
Beep-boop, beep-boop. One of the worst fallacies on the internet today is that talking like Spock/a robot makes you “the logical one”. I honestly CBA to read most of your nonsense, but in one comment you’ve managed to make at least two logical fallacies (relative privation and black-and-white thinking), and I imagine I’d find many more if I read the rest of the thread. Also, it’s interesting that you try to push the burden of proof onto everyone else, regardless of whether they’re making a new claim or denying one of yours, and that when proof IS provided, you ignore it.
Lets clear things up for a moment:
I never claimed, not do I believe, that sexism, racism, and gender bashing do not exist. I am against all three, as well.
I meerly claimed that, in the hypothetical situation of people playing the world as a video game, that it is ridiculous to use “sexual orientation”, “race”, and “sex” as difficult settings. If these were on the “easiest setting”, one would assume life would be the easiest, and hardest being the hardests, obviously. However, being a white, cis, straight male is not a good indicator if you are going to have a good life or not. More proper is if you are educated, have money, have access to health care, etc.
I also had the “audacity” to claim that all races, sexes, and even orientations are discriminated against in some form or another, but a lot of the problems are ignored when it doesn’t allign with your political ideology.
And because of what I said, I was flamed, vilified, and disrespected, despite remaining calm. I even conceded a few points, especially on the definitions on words.
But because I was a bit mean in my disagreement, everyone assumed the worst out of me.
~
I’ve always supported gay marrage, nay, complete rights of marriage. I never thought bad of someone for their sexual identity, and people who did as such I thought were evil. I’ve always just wanted the best for people.
But I guess that isn’t enough for feminists.
I’ve really been skeptical towards feminists. My best friend is one…but sometimes he’d just pull out some ridiculous posts that I couldn’t agree with.
But now my skepticism has changed to not giving a fuck. I know some people thought I was a bit mean in the first post, but does that really justify the inane reactions? I mena, I don’t believe I even swore, nor called anyone names, nor delivered insults beyond “liberals put on blinders”.
Basically, I’m done. This debate has derailed completely from the source, nobody is treating anyone fairly anymore, and its just getting pointless.
I know people are going to call this a victory. They will go “LOL, we OWNED this dumbfuck TROLL!”. Yes, you made a person who was against liberals and feminists to someone who is VERY against them. Great job.
I’ll still treat people fairly. All people. But the next time I near a feminist argument…I’m just not going to take it seriously. Sorry.
No1curr, dude.
And the gaslighting continues! Its me who is actually misrepresenting and lying about what you have said!
Dude, I’m actually not familiar with any affirmative action codified as law that has been written in the last two decades, only with some state colleges granting tiebreaker policies to minorities. You’re the one who needs a citation that it is still a thing worth noting to begin with.
That isn’t true by definition. Able Bodied, Neurotypical Whitey McStraighterson III doesn’t have to deal with discrimination. Also, once is a typo; repeatedly, it’s the concussed gibbon school of grammar. It’s merely, you cretin.
White, straight dudes are not discriminated against for being white, straight dudes. We are aware of other oppressions, they just disproportionately affect non-white, LGBT, and women more, so we aren’t playing any violins for white straight dudes qua white straight dudes.
Then you shouldn’t have quoted me before saying it, cretin.
Incurious cretin.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=bertrand-mullainathan+2004+pdf
You kind of did, dude. You are pretending it’s just as bad for dudes qua dudes. Else, you are dishonestly trying to hide other forms of oppression as oppression of dudes qua dudes. Either way, not working.
I charge a dollar per word to do your homework for you, kid.
And I’m sure you’d be such a good ally if you weren’t alienated.
You can’t even plug a paper name into google, don’t think we can’t tell you don’t know how to research.
It goes well beyond ‘socially unacceptable’. You are trying to lighten the fact that people are fucking hated. To the point where they can be beaten to death. We are not blind, south park wannabe.
Do you expect me to write in 5 dimensional text that simultaneously conveys all my concerns for the world or something?
Last note:
“You dirty liar, you cited another queer person as proof that lbgt people do not face that much oppression.”
Did I? I didn’t mean to. I was trying to say that in my area oppression was very light, nothing more. Not that you would believe that.
If one conversation that didn’t go against your way makes you write off any political movement completely, you were already looking for an excuse to do so.
Damn, couldn’t even stick the flounce for ten minutes.
@ Rutee
I actually kind of like “meerly”. It makes me think of meercats, which is the first pleasant association bloopy’s ramblings have produced so far.
Because you haven’t dishonestly represented yourself or others here before. Eyes rolling so hard they’re hitting my glasses.
Or meerKats, even. Apparently the inability to spell is contagious.
“And because of what I said, I was flamed, vilified, and disrespected, despite remaining calm.”
Can we get a quickie vote here — who else here has dealt with an emotional abusive asshole who pulled the “I was calm, why are you getting angry”? Because I have, and hello gaslighting 101 (again)
We can actually read you know…and you literally said in your last post that not eating for a few days was more dangerous than being killed — you wonder why that makes us not like you very much?
@lauralot89 — I care that he stays gone…as in, anyone want cookies?
He clearly doesn’t get this isn’t some hypothetical game we can just walk away from (for most/all of us, I don’t want to speak for everyone else)
Time and time again!
Um no one was saying class issues did not count dude. At all.
I don’t give a flipping fuck if you hate liberals/feminists now more than ever. Was I suppose to play nice and suck up just to appease some random troll?
You called trans people “transvestites”.Also insults/swearing aren’t the only way you can hurt people.
*raises hand* -_-
Rutee — if you can write in 5 dimensions, I will like, worship you or something. Doesn’t matter the topic, so long as it violates the known laws of physics 🙂
“You called trans people “transvestites”.Also insults/swearing aren’t the only way you can hurt people.” — and then said to take a chill pill if that was offensive
We have 3 votes, can we cast him off the island? Daviiddd…. your toadies need mod powers over here!
gaslightingggg
fess up to what you are doing and saying fucker
Or just get lost, that remains a preferred option.
I kind of love the troll logic that bloopy is attempting. I already hated liberals and feminists, and now that it has been proven that liberals and feminists think I’m a dumbass, I hate liberals and feminists even more! If you’d all just been nicer to me I would have…continued to hate liberals and feminists, but with less of the Power of Butthurt behind me.
The Power of Butthurt should be the title of the next MRA anthem.
Why do mediocrities think we care about their opinion? You’re a prop, nobody cares about a prop’s opinion.