How do you experience male privilege?

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All those things sound so f****d up. That being said, I'm not sure that this is a universal concern that all women have. Not that I'm suggesting that you believe that either but I would feel dirty if I claimed to know what it was like to be a victim of sexual assault and to regularly feel threatened by others.

I actually feel safer as a woman, at least where I come from. I live in a city so I know there's always CCTV and witnesses with mobile phones if anything did happen to me. I know the bystander effect is an issue, but it's easier to get away from danger when there's 24 hour supermarkets around. Also men are statistically far more at risk of being assaulted than women and people generally want to protect women more than men. Of course, that's mostly in the case of stranger danger. Women are sadly more at risk for domestic abuse than men.

I have had the occasional a***hole annoy me or catcall me, but I'm from Glasgow so I know how to handle nutters and a***holes, many of which are women as well.

In terms of my own experience of male privilege, I can't say for certain. I've faced sexism but mostly from individuals rather than from an institution. The worst sexism I faced was when I had a male gym teacher who seemed to really resent women and treated the girls differently than the boys. All the girls got punished and were not allowed to participate in many of the activities because of something stupid, like one girl was bad at dribbling the ball so we all got told we sucked. When I was determined to play basketball with the boys he intimidated them so they felt too afraid to pass the ball to me. Turns out the guy was f*****g insane and going through a divorce. He got fired. He deserved it. I felt no pity.

In a sense I suppose it was a microcosm of sexism in society but I'm 26 and I'm struggling to see that much institutional sexism towards me. I'm more worried about my bosses being ableist. Even the job centre has suggested that I shouldn't tell propective employers if I have a disability, but I have had no problem getting interviews just because I'm female.

As a male, I have noticed that women are much less likely to interrupt me when I am speaking, and other men are much more likely to interrupt women when they are speaking.

I have noticed that my opinions and ideas are accepted as valid with less proof or justification.

I have noticed that many women will move out of my way when I am walking instead of the other way around.

I have noticed that I am subject to much less sexual harassment on average.

I have noticed that women have trouble getting jobs in management or anything involving numbers or hard science.

I have noticed that women shrink away from me or hide when we are both walking down a dark street.

I have noticed that strong female protagonists are not considered marketable (sadly).

Inversely, we do have some disadvantages.

I cannot play with children without being suspected of pedophilia.

I will probably not get custody of my children.

My feelings are unimportant.

When women get raped or die, it is (rightly) a terrrible and horrendous thing. When men get raped or die nobody cares. There is a cliche in media that women die to further the story of the male protagonist, and that is bad. But it is equally disturbing that women are the ones to die because nobody would care if it was a guy that died.

These are, of course, broad generalities and anecdotes based upon my own experiences. The life of any single person is never a sufficient sample size.

I do not believe your feelings are unimportant.

Sure did and hate it.

At my last job, I had this really amazing boss who was caring, non-judgmental, and always pushed people to go do their best. And then IT happened!

He told us that he got a job closer to him and would be leaving by xyz, my heart just stopped.
I was upset and angry.

Anyway this new guy comes in as our new boss and really abuses his "male privilege." It was like Jesus leaving the Anti-Christ behind. Just an awful, awful man.

Now, mind you I was lab manager back then.
So on the first day, without introducing himself or saying who he was, he comes up to me randomly and i say hello? Can I help you? Suddenly he wants to know everything am doing and he actually said he thought i was a work study student. How insulting!

I told my boss about this incident and he informed me that he was his replacement.
Just then, my stomach turned.

It got worse too overtime, he began accusing me of stealing money from the department because I always was told to put normal hours when sick or medical leave. I must of told him like 3 times that I'd correct it but he was clearly looking to get rid of me because he kept going on blaming me about this or that or how it's my fault.

And to add the cherry on top ladies,
After i turned down their offer to make me a part-time teacher at the college. (Less pay, not worth it!)

He informs me that my position will be eliminated by xyz and that we don't need me anymore.
Just wow, does this guy get enjoyment by making people miserable?

Am the only woman in my department so, it's pretty easy to see how awful male privilege is.
So to end things off, right before my last day or so he right from under me tells me he has started interviews for my position. Literally he only had one interview but he decided to hire him the same day! Who does that? Oh and of course, it's a frkin guy! My collages told me that he has no associate degree, no experience at all! And yet is somehow going to be the new lab manager. Just wow. (I've known my collages for a while and they're older, I doubt they'd lie about this cause they were upset about it too)

Am glad however to have found a new place to work, where there is definitely more females than males.
But this male privilege stuff has got to stop, I mean man woman, gay, lesbian, fat, skinny, black, white, it doesn't matter! What should matter is your experience. Whoever is reading this that has their own business or hiring authority, please read what am saying to heart, it is a problem that happens far too often.

It makes me nervous around parks, because a grown man walking near a park is suspicious. I get nervous walking near houses because guy walking around is suspicious. I get nervous in stores, because a grown guy with a satchel looks like a thief.

The market in my town once got a new manager when I was in my late teens or early 20s. I had lived in that town for most of my life and was in that market often so I was familiar to many of the employees. One day they got a new manager, or perhaps one who typically worked a different shift, and he was very obviously following me around the market. I had my backpack and I think he thought I was going to shoplift something but it made no sense to me because most women carry purses in the market. I don't know why this particular manager was so paranoid of me.

I am sorry that happened to you. It kind of feels like an insult when people do that.

I don't know if this qualifies but as someone who lives in a college town I am ashamed to say (and according to other posts I'm not the only one) I cower when I see a group of young men walking towards me. There is an unspoken intimidation with a group of males passing you on the street that I just can't explain.

It totally qualifies. I always get nervous when I'm alone and in public if a group of men (or even just one man) tries to approach me or talk to me. I think every woman has that instinct, and it's not something men usually have to worry about.

This doesn't operate in my life at all.

Comments and concerns on this thread are foreign to me and not anything I can recall either experiencing or conceptualizing.

Actually, there's the opposite -- female privilege, in a sense.

As a level 2 autistic, I've experienced trouble with some aspects of independent living. If I were a male, there would be more societal pressure for me to be independent and be able to take care of myself. As a female, there is less stigma on being dependent and needy. So I can rely on my husband for help and not have a stigma an autistic male would have for needing help.

Well, I don't have this instinct. I walked at strange places and strange times and my father even gave me paralysing gas to carry with myself but I never needed to actually use it. But maybe my trousers and heavy trooper boots made me more confident anyway.
I was assaulted only once in my life, not sexually, it was an attempted robbery. But the attacker, althought 30cm taller and surely physically much stronger than me, got so startled by my apparent lack of fear (yay, Aspie advantage!) that when I started to shout at him (not scream, shout), he quickly got away.
But my brother got beaten in a similar situation So I don't feel less safe than guys, maybe even the opposite.

Also I work in a male-dominated field and most of my friends are guys. I like the culture I live in, where my relations with guys can be asexual by default. It was both funny and embrassing when I was in Istanbul with my boss and the hotel receptionist was so reluctant to give us separate rooms... lol. I'm really glad I live in my culture.

The question kind of doesn't make sense in the women's forum. Males and those who have passed for male long-term are the ones who directly experience male privilege. What females experience is merely the result of male privilege—sex-based disadvantage.

The_Amoeba laid it out for you. The privileges differ somewhat by the society in question.

This is a situation that just so happens to benefit you, not a sex-based privilege. Men decided that females should have their lives run by males, and that attitude continues in some form in many places. That's what makes female dependence and neediness more acceptable. Being dependent and less strongly encouraged to support ourselves does not benefit females in general, even if it benefits you. It makes us more vulnerable to abuse, isolation, and poverty.

It's harder to be attractive when you're female. Guys just have to be clean and have basic social skills. Girls have to be clean, well-dressed, blessed with nice facial features (like you can control genetics), socially savvy, and who knows what else. Unless you're genetically blessed, as in skinny with perfect facial features, you have to take meticulous care of your appearance, which I haven't been doing lately--and I've reaped the consequences. I'm no longer the pretty girl I was a few years ago. I wish I didn't have to walk around and worry about people judging me the moment I stepped out the door. Then again, maybe I'm just being hard on myself.

I know I should just lose some weight, start blow-drying my hair, wear makeup, and dress for style instead of comfort, but I've been stressed and sad lately and it's HARD! Amazing how stressful times can make you less attractive. Freshman year of college sucks.

I feel like I'm reading something I would've written two years ago! I'm so sorry you're going through a stressful time. It'll get better, though- take it from someone who's totally been there.

I don't, because I believe there's no such thing as male privilege, white privilege, Christian privilege, or any other privilege you want to get into.