2024 ICADV Fall Conference

Many men in the Abuse Intervention Programs (AIP’s) are resistant to material, but perhaps no topic brings about as much controversy as male privilege. Participants may feel like a victim to the court systems, their jobs, and grander political schemes. They carry profound misconceptions about feminism and often refuse to introspect the ways in which patriarchy harms them, much less those marginalized in society. Many poor and working class men have sexist ideology engrained from birth, and yet they do not realize the supposed privileges patriarchy grants them in their work or social settings. He may constantly feel like a failure, blaming himself and the women around him for not living up to the patriarchal ideal. As bell hooks quotes in The Will to Change, “As long as he is attacking women and not sexism or capitalism, he helps to maintain a system that allows him few, if any, benefits or privileges. He is an oppressor. He is an enemy to women. He is also an enemy to himself. He is also oppressed.” Our interpersonal interactions are rife with control, from the boss to workers, owner to producer, landlord to tenant, teacher to student, and governor to governed. In an act of displacement, many men unconsciously displace the controlling atmospheres of their work onto their wives, children, and/or pets. Socialization from male capitalists ensures that exploitation and oppression happens in the home, not in the workplace. Intervention groups can redirect attention to the oppression of authoritarian hierarchy embedded within patriarchy and capitalism, thus combatting the beliefs of scapegoating abused victims. The stated proposal seeks to analyze sociological perspectives on abuse and gain insight into tactics to understand male privilege among men who abuse.