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.
I sympathize with that, but I came to terms with it over a decade ago. My knowledge of popular music is pretty encyclopedic up to the mid-90s, and all but nonexistent thereafter. But if it really mattered to me personally (as opposed to feeling the need to do it for social reasons), I’d have kept up to date – not least because I’d have wanted to.
In fact, the Guardian’s Charlie Brooker (who I think is fortyish and who has recently had his first child) wrote about this very topic in his latest column.
Arg, Xena >.< I haven't watched that in at least a decade and still remember how obvious the white/good not-white/evil split was.
Nanasha — I know what you mean about some of the "classics" not being very compelling reads. Of Mice and Men might be one of the worst things I've ever slogged through (loved Cinderhouse Rules though). Read both of those and LoTR at ~16, I don't think I'd have really understood them at 10, and the movies do cut a great deal (like the jesus figure that really seals it as being a religious allegory) — IIRC The Hobbit is children's stories? So it makes sense why you'd have enjoyed that more.
Regarding your last paragraph, you might want to give Good Reads a go, it’s basically social media for books.
And btw, I’ll readily admit LoTR is one of my guilty pleasures, much like Kerli (you should see people when my usual steampunk and metal stuff switches to her!)
Wetherby — and for smart music (as in the algorithm is intelligent) try Last.fm — and if you want, my usual steampunk playlist should be easy to find, same SN as here. I gave up on popular music somewhere around the Backstreet Bos and N’Sync period though (omgs they’re popular again though! I feel old and I’m really not!)
The Hobbit was definitely aimed at a younger audience.
Has anyone read The Father Christmas Letters?
Nobody’s mentioned Discworld yet? 😉
@Wetherby- OH GOD, HOW DID HE WRITE MY LIFE?
Also, to be fair, I do have Things That I Like, but most of these Things are Things that People Who Know Things Know Nothing About. So I go to work and people are talking about American Idol and the Giants and I’m like……”ok…” and people talk about their diets and it really kills me not to just say, “BUT YOU ARE JUST FINE THE WAY YOU ARE!” because that’s not what they WANT to hear.
And all of my friends have moved away or are sinking into this weird “late 20’s blah” thing where they really do much of nothing and feel like they’re stagnating and since I’m married and have a kid for some reason that means that I Know Everything And Am Therefore Intimidating To Be Around.
So I’m lonely and exhausted, and my daughter is amazing but exhastING, and my husband is a zombie from working graveyard-something about working those hours just shuts your brain right off and we can’t seem to have a meaningful conversation about anything.
And I want to play new games, but I can’t seem to bring myself to figure out how to deal with the motion controls, but at the same time I’m glued to my 3DS and replaying Ocarina of Time for the bazillionth time (this time I’m playing Master Quest at least). And there’s just a point where I have to tell myself “FUCK IT” and give up on the new cool things that are out there because I’m overstimulated and temporally challenged and even when I want to think about things my brain seems to have gotten to the point where I just kind of switch off like some kind of circuit keeps blowing in my head and refuses to comprehend things.
But in some good news, this little fetus inside of me has a healthy, well-formed heart (I had to go to a children’s hospital to get a special heart scan because I have some weird hormonal issues that increase the risk of congenital malformations), and that really makes me happy. And my 2 year old, while great at giving me a heart attack by running ahead on the sidewalk when cars are zipping around nearby, has encouraged me to start jogging more often just for the fun of it (even though I jog like a lumpy, pregnant, floppy person). I guess I am just at a point in my life where I want to DO SOMETHING or CREATE SOMETHING instead of just CONSUME SOMETHING. And maybe being a parent is part of why I feel like that. Of course, maybe it’s all just some kind of cosmic joke as well. But seeing as I tend to love old movies and old music as well as the stuff from the 90’s and my own childhood, it just kinda makes me think to myself that perhaps the problem isn’t that I’m out of touch with society, it’s that what society wants to tell me is meaningful is just out of touch with *ME* and my priorities/interests.
Ok, I think it’s time to go practice my ocarina. XD
I’m getting my doctorate in early modern German history with a focus on military history. I’m willing to spend the rest of my life on “long-ass wars.” I think it’s fair to say that everyone’s mileage may vary, yes?
I think class discrimination tends to be a bit neglected in a lot of online discussions which acknowledge sexism, racism and homophobia. Having a ‘stupid’ working-class accent, no access to a decent education, parents with a lower education level etc affect how you’re perceived and how you perceive yourself and restrict your opportunities just as much.
Some poor working-class men get angry at being told they’re privileged by well-off and articulate middle-class feminists and I can kind of see their point TBH. They’re just focusing on gender when it’s their economic and social background that’s really holding them back.
“it just kinda makes me think to myself that perhaps the problem isn’t that I’m out of touch with society, it’s that what society wants to tell me is meaningful is just out of touch with *ME* and my priorities/interests.” — TRUFAX!! Seriously though, the diets/celebs/fashion/omgs can you people have a serious discussion!? is basically why I gave up on pop culture at like 17. Like, what do you people mean you need a “translation” of Shakespeare?!
Except now all my “oh we can discuss Kant?” friends are marrying and having kids and having Serious Careers while I…paint? Then again, I gave up on doing that for anyone else years ago.
Also, you’re creating a new human — that definitely counts as creating something. Enjoy your ocarina, I loved that game (and then moved on to Kingdom Hearts); and I’m glad your newest little one is growing healthy.
Hey. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m tipsy, but it’s OK. You’re going to be OK. I’m glad the child you’re carrying is ok, that’s great.
I’m 30 and I worry all the time about whether or not my life has passed me by. The point is doing what you need to do at the time you need to do it, not measuring up to anyone else. That’s what I tell myself every time and it holds the fear at bay for a while.
Anyway, to move to the point that lies above the real point you’re making, the thing about consuming things the way I and the fans I know do is that it is an active process. “Star Trek would have been so much better if this had happened in the Original Series…” “Oh yeah? Then what happens to this timeline?” and before we know it we have spun off a story on our own. It’s not just passive.
@VoIP: “I’m 30 and I worry all the time about whether or not my life has passed me by. The point is doing what you need to do at the time you need to do it, not measuring up to anyone else.
Is it OK if I print this out and hang it on my wall? XD
I’m not!!
And you know the hilarious thing? there are some women my age at church and they all have kids. When we’re talking over coffee, I’ll mention, sometimes, how much I envy them for starting their real lives while I’m in grad school, rotating softly, over and over, in this liminal realm.
But every single one of them envies me even as I envied them–they all want to go back to school and do what I do. Argenti Aertheri, as fucked up as it may seem, the rest of our cohort envies us.
Go hog wild.
My point is that it involves a narrowing, a deliberate decision to narrow what you look at at the beginning of any given day, and that’s a decision that won’t just come to you, you have to force yourself to make it each time.
Anna — you’re back on topic not discussing LoTR right? LoTR’s classes seem to be royalty and not-royalty. Yeah, you must be back on topic.
In which case I don’t think it’s just online discussion, though the desire of many Americans to act like we rule the world probably means it permeates everything online (at least everything in English anyways) — considering what time it is on the east coast here, I’m guessing you aren’t American? We have this goddamned blinder to class here, where people seriously act like it just doesn’t exist because social mobility — even if they’re receiving gov’n benefits of some sort or struggling to get by, and certainly if they aren’t, our upper class basically has to maintain the allusion anyone could “make it big” or, well, look at OWS.
This is also how NWO manages to go on about new world orders while thinking himself sane btw — we do have a ruling class and most people stubbornly refuse to admit that because admitting it would mean admitting they can’t just work hard enough and manage to end up there too. (note that this has basically nothing to do with feminism besides intersectionality though, NWO has it fucking backwards)
You might be right, the FWB and I basically never discuss each other’s art because it quickly turns into a “you’re a better artist” “no you are!”…and he’s applying at Disney I think, because it’ll look good on his resume and he wants to work in Hollywood (he does lighting design, theatre/film work) — the grass is always greener on the other side I guess?
Oh, and another thing about age: nobody ever stops struggling or freaking out, you just get more experienced at whatever it is you’re doing while you’re freaking out.
Heh, yeah, I commented on the post without reading the comments
I’m English and I have definitely wondered this about America. Your social class doesn’t seem to be a whole lot different from ours, except that your elite don’t have 28 surnames and a title. But acknowledging that the playing field isn’t level is communism? Over here, even though there’s a lot more social mobility than there used to be, we’re hyper-aware of where we fit in to the system.
Bear in mind I’m getting my impressions of this from a) Ayn Rand fanboys ranting on the internet and b) Gilmore Girls, so correct me if I’m wrong. 😀 I’m genuinely interested
Anyway, my first encounter with feminism was through some aggressively articulate rich girls who were completely blind to their class privilege and lived up to a few of the humourless, victim mentality stereotypes. Let’s just say that it’s taken me a while and a lot of reading to shake off the associations and start to identify as feminist.
Actually, our elite are more likely to be new money–the really old families, like my boyfriends’, don’t have very much anymore. It’s all money and, within those constraints, influence–family is one means to influence, but not the only one.
Yes. Our Founding Myth is that the field is level. If someone has succeeded more than others, he (it’s always a “he”) must deserve it more, by definition.
oops: he’s only old money on one side: his dad grew up sharecropping. So one family.
“But acknowledging that the playing field isn’t level is communism?” — it’s worse than that, any request to remotely level it is communism, that’s why it’s “universal healthcare” and not socialized medicine. That’s the only chance we stand at getting the republicans to approve it (and they’re so far right as to be laughable, but with a two party system laughing isn’t helpful either)
The Ayn Rand fanboys are mostly Ron Paul supporters in my experience — they think they like the sound of a free market, but either don’t care about social justice issues, or are privileged enough to be blind to them. Ron Paul is unelectable in our two party system though, our right needs the religious vote, and Paul’s too much of an atheist for them, our “left” is really central but has enough sense of social justice not to be willing to hand social security (our only real safety net) to capitalism and corporations…not that the right isn’t trying to privatize our retirement fund.
That’s more a rant about having to vote centralist to keep abortion legal than on topic >.< (I just cannot believe we're debating birth control in 2012, that's truly mind boggling) — I know what you mean about feminism's class issues too, but I think it's partly that we want to act like everything is equal, which means higher ed is often needed to see what's really going on behind all the stick figure models in ads, breast implants, etc — those things are fairly obvious to most people, but to the Rand/Paul supporters, it's just how capitalism works, sex sells after all. And the idea of regulating things like ads gets people up in arms about communistic censorship (we can’t even issue a legal gag order that has any actual standing, and many, many people see this as one of the best parts of the first amendment).
I haven’t seen the Gilmore Girls though, sorry.
VoIP — just to be pedantic, boyfriends’ would be more than one boyfriend, one boyfriend and referring to both sides of the family would still be boyfriend’s (of the singular boyfriend) — too many years of Latin!
I appear to have gone into mod while ranting about our political system >.<
VoIP basically nailed the question with this though:
"Yes. Our Founding Myth is that the field is level. If someone has succeeded more than others, he (it’s always a “he”) must deserve it more, by definition."
I think part of the Usonian discomfort with class is that it feels limiting to acknowledge (But we can all be billionaires if we work hard enough!), but another part is inherited disdain for awareness of “one’s place.” We don’t like boot-licking based on class, the idea that we have “betters,” or the idea that we can’t become one of our betters and receive the boot-licking based on class because we worked hard and damnit this wealth better come with privileges.
(ps societies have contradictions)
RE: LOTR
I actually read The Hobbit first without even knowing of the existence of The Lord of the Rings. I will always remember this as being an awesome thing, and I really hope that the movies haven’t spoiled the possibility of that kind of thing happening. Hell, you probably couldn’t even buy a recently printed copy of The Hobbit without getting some mention of LOTR and THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURES BY PETER JACKSON PLEASE GIVE US MONEY NAO on it. There may have been a mention somewhere in my school library’s copy, but it wasn’t obvious if there was, so when I found LOTR the surprise was really gratifying.
“I appear to have gone into mod while ranting about our political system >.<"
No worries, I’ll check back when I can. Have to get ready for work now
“Yes. Our Founding Myth is that the field is level. If someone has succeeded more than others, he (it’s always a “he”) must deserve it more, by definition.”
This makes me sad, really. I think the American Dream and similar ideals are a very worthy thing to found a country on, opportunity for all. That the same old system reasserted itself isn’t a failing, it just means that maybe there have to be certain social safeguards – universal health and education and a safety net – for true social mobility to be possible. IDK, I don’t feel I understand the US well enough to be discussing this