Non-Plural Privilege

[voces]

There’s been a lot of discussion about many forms of culturally sanctioned privilege, including white privilege, class-based privilege, male privilege, cisgender privilege, able-bodied privilege and heterosexual privilege. Unfortunately, there has been comparatively little discussion of the privilege that non-plural people experience, mostly

Comments

Re: Privilege check.

[christinaathena]

The thing is, would you say nonplural people could be reduced to patterns, too, or does this just apply to us?

Everyone. The only difference is one vs several patterns. I guess I worded it poorly, but what I mean is, I tend to view consciousness as simply a pattern of neural activity. Ultimately, I think it's probably accurate to say that the idea of consciousness, of mind, is an illusion. A very strong and very useful illusion, but ultimately, an illusion, a useful fiction that makes description of actions and thoughts easier.

I didn't mean to imply that I saw plurality as being in any way inferior to singularity or that it's a disorder or anything, I just mean, it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea of sharing a body with someone else, of what it would be like to not have exclusive control over the physical form, but to have to share that with others. For me, the illusion that I'm always "the same person" is strong, and it's hard for me to imagine what it would be like to not see all of my body's actions as belonging to one mind.

That doesn't mean I disrespect plurals. There's lots of things other people do that I have a hard time understanding why they do it. That doesn't mean I denigrate them for it. Not understanding something =/= believing it's wrong or disordered or inferior or anything like that. It just means it's one of those "weird things that other people do". But that's how I view a lot of people, not just plurals or other minorities, but also the neurotypical majority!

Re: Privilege check.

[voces]

I don't see it much differently, but there's also a part of me that can accept subjectivity, and embrace it along with the idea that we're all neurally generated. I don't think that's necessarily illusory. I think that there's room to accept subjectivity when talking about consciousness. I just...really can't reduce it that far. Perhaps that's a bit old-fashioned of me, but I can't.

I don't think that you disrespect plurals, but that...I don't think that it's inherently a difficult concept. I know it might feel funny to you to share a body with others, but...it's just the way we are. I don't think that we have the 'illusion' that we're separate people, either. We are separate. Even if we are just patterns of neurones firing, the pattern that is 'me' fires in a different way from the pattern-that-is-Hess and the-pattern-that-is-Richard, ad infinitum.

By the way, isn't being trans sort of subjective? A trans woman perceives herself as female, regardless of what her body looks like, for example.

Re: Privilege check.

[christinaathena]

By the way, isn't being trans sort of subjective? A trans woman perceives herself as female, regardless of what her body looks like, for example.

Yeah. *nods*

I guess the problem is that I'm using "illusion" in a non-standard way. I wish I knew a better term. I'm not using "illusion" in a negative sense. I mean, in a sense, yes, it's an illusion that I'm female. Physically, I'm male. I have testes, male body hair patterns, a male body shape, presumably a Y chromosome. Outside of my brain, as far as I can tell, I'm completely male. I'm certainly not aware of any intersex traits. My brain, however, is set in a female pattern. So, in a sense, it is an illusion that I'm female. I don't think that's a bad thing, though. I can't change what's in my brain, but I can change what my body is like.

I suppose something "subjective idea" would be a better term than "illusion", both for plurality and for the trans thing. I think our views aren't so different. I worded my comment poorly, but I think what you're saying is not so different from what I was saying.