Privilege and Intersectionality

If you identify with the gender you were assigned at birth, here are a bunch of unearned benefits you get that many folks do not. Read them and consider them. It’s not about shame. It’s about understanding.

This paper uses the 2013–2015 NSFG, a representative US-based dataset of individuals 15–44, to explore predictors of straight identification among all women and men and among subsets with substantial same-sex activity and/or attraction. After controlling for attractions and sexual practices, homophobia predicted straight identification in all groups. Among both groups of women, one femininity attitude and motherhood also predicted straight identification. One attitude reflecting alignment with normative masculinity significantly predicted straight identification among men with substantial same-sex activity and/or attraction. This paper also uses two waves of Add Health, a representative survey of young adults, to examine change to sexual identity over six years. Results show that among individuals who changed sexual identities between waves, heightened religiosity and political conservatism across waves were associated with increased odds of changing to a straight identity for women, but not for men. This suggests but does not prove a directional association between attitudes and identification for some individuals. Latent class analyses also found distinct groups of straight-identified men and women with substantial same-sex activity and/or attraction, indicating that it is a heterogeneous population in terms of attitudes, including homophobia. This suggests that straight identification is due partly to embeddedness in straight culture and enjoyment of straight privilege, not simply homophobia. While impossible to determine causality, the results show that straight identification is strongly related to non-sexual social factors, including religiosity and attitudes about sexuality and gender, in addition to attractions and sexual practices. The results also suggest that homophobia is related to identity formation for women, as well as men, but that there is substantial within-group variation.

Heterosexual privilege is a challenging concept to teach in undergraduate courses. Using data from self-reflection essays on the first and last days of the semester, we present students’ learning and growth in their understanding of heterosexual privilege and their ability to distinguish it from cisgender privilege. The majority of students accurately identified an instance of heterosexual privilege in their lives and discussed the counterpart to privilege: the marginalization and/or disenfranchisement experienced by individuals who hold other sexual identities. This article highlights the two most common misunderstandings of heterosexual privilege that emerged in students’ writing. On the first day of class, 18.2% outright denied that heterosexual privilege exists, and 17.6% conflated gender with sexuality. It reduced to 11.9% and 11.3%, respectively, on the last day of class. We saw growth in students’ sophistication of perspective even for some students who demonstrated these misunderstandings at the end of the term.

Although most research investigating diversity courses focuses on attitudes toward racial minorities and women, these courses may also influence student attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. The current study assessed student awareness of heterosexual privilege, prejudice against lesbians and gay men, and support for same-sex marriage. Students (N = 143) in a general diversity course completed identical surveys during the first and last weeks of the semester. Participants in diversity courses exhibited increased heterosexual privilege awareness and support for same-sex marriage, as well as less prejudice against lesbians and gay men, during the last week of the semester compared to pretest levels.

Gender-focused college courses seek to increase understanding of the systematic advantages associated with dominant group membership. These courses attempt to reduce prejudice and raise awareness of male and heterosexual privilege. Inclusion of privilege content within gender-focused courses has increased, but research to test interventions to increase privilege awareness and reduce prejudice remains sparse. The current studies provide experimental information about awareness of heterosexual privilege (Study 1) and male privilege (Study 2) and specific interventions for use in education, professional development, and community settings. Study 1 found the video intervention was effective in increasing heterosexual privilege awareness and internal motivation to respond without prejudice. Study 2 found that male privilege awareness was significantly increased and modern sexism was reduced by the video intervention. Findings provide information for applied practices such as pedagogical strategies when designing diversity courses and training workshops