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The Perils of "Privilege": Why Injustice Can't Be Solved by Accusing Others of Advantage Hardcover – March 14, 2017

by Phoebe Maltz Bovy (Author)
3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 47 ratings
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Top 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2017–The Washington Post

“Privilege”―the word, the idea, the accusation that is nearly impossible to disprove―is the new rhetorical power play. From social media to academia, public speech to casual conversation, the word is utilized to brand people of all kinds with a term once reserved exclusively for those who came from wealth and old money―inherited advantage.
Today “privileged” applies to anyone who enjoys an unearned advantage in life, inherited or not. White privilege, male privilege, straight privilege―those conditions make everyday life easier, less stressful, more lucrative, and generally better for those who hold one, two, or all three designations. But what about white female privilege in the context of feminism? Or fixed gender privilege in the context of transgender? Or weight and height privilege in the context of hiring practices and salary levels? Or food privilege in the context of widening inequality for single-parent families?
In The Perils of “Privilege,” Phoebe Maltz Bovy examines the rise of this word into extraordinary potency. Does calling out privilege help to change or soften it? Or simply reinforce it by dividing people against themselves? And is privilege a concept that, in fact, only privileged people are debating? The Perils of “Privilege” explores how this word is deployed, and offers ways to begin anew so many of the conversations it has silenced.

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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    St. Martin's Press
  4. Publication date
    March 14, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    5.86 x 1.11 x 8.53 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1250091209
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1250091208
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The last thing on 'privilege' you'll ever need to read." --The Washington Post

"Maltz Bovy’s book makes important points [...] The author is at her strongest when she points out the ways in which calling out privilege ends up maintaining the status quo, because examining privilege isn’t the same thing as changing the system." - Lilith

"A thoughtful, sometimes provocative book that wonders aloud at the limitations of privilege rhetoric by exploring how it intersects with other cultural contexts, including feminism, the trans movement, race, and beyond." --Refinery29

"A compelling argument about the damaging potential of privilege accusations." --bitch Magazine

"Honest...Maltz Bovy examines [a] monumental switch in thinking and the many dangers that come with it." --The Good Men Project


About the Author

Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a writer living in Toronto. Her work has appeared in The New Republic and The Atlantic, among other publications. She has a doctorate in French and French Studies from New York University.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press (March 14, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250091209
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250091208
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.86 x 1.11 x 8.53 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 47 ratings

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Phoebe Maltz Bovy

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3.7 out of 5 stars
47 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book has good insights and nice concepts. They describe it as well-researched and cleverly written, but some find the reading tedious and confusing.

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5 customers mention "Pacing"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book provides good insights and nice concepts. They appreciate the well-researched and clever writing style. The book is considered timely, important, and nuanced.

"...Nuanced because the argument is exhaustive, and while some reviews have found fault with the thoroughness of the examples, they fail to recognize..." Read more

"...Though it was well researched and cleverly written, I had to plough through many backtracks, hedges, and numerous punches in the face where anyone..." Read more

"Smart, fascinating look at privilege from a smart fascinating author." Read more

"...She has good insights that help make sense of what is going on with the use of the word in our culture...." Read more

3 customers mention "Comprehension"0 positive3 negative

Customers find the book tedious and difficult to understand. They say the public discourse is poorly understood, and the terms used are toxic. Readers also mention the book is repetitive and confusing.

"...It's everywhere in public discourse, until now, poorly understood and the terms use is toxic and unproductive which is the brilliantly explained..." Read more

"...Maltz Bovy's book to be - not just insulting, that's a given - but tedious, repetitive, and often confused and self-contradictory...." Read more

"...The concepts are nice, but the book is just so wordy. It's difficult slogging through the book." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Tortolita
    5.0 out of 5 stars Timely, Important and Nuanced
    Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Bovy's book is timely, important and nuanced. Timely because the privilege label has become the wallpaper of so many important discussions. It's everywhere in public discourse, until now, poorly understood and the terms use is toxic and unproductive which is the brilliantly explained conclusion. The book is important in real time. In matters of race and politics the subject of privilege fails to advance the cause on so many fronts that to ignore it leads to precisely the outcomes those who use it seek to avoid. Nuanced because the argument is exhaustive, and while some reviews have found fault with the thoroughness of the examples, they fail to recognize that's precisely the point. To seek to completely understand how the privilege label is deployed, and to utterly demolish it's use as an effective foil in public discourse, the arguments must be thorough. This book should be read by all those who publish newspapers and magazines, blogs and reviews.
    17 people found this helpful
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  • Anonymous
    4.0 out of 5 stars Not Great But Certainly Good!
    Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2017
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    She sometimes characterizes jokes as being said in seriousness or those that disagree with the concept of White Privilege or MRAs as being out-of-touch far-righters, which I don't like, as I lean left but do give special attention to the issues face by men and boys (not to mention everyone else I know of that does) but overall I like it. It's refreshing to see someone take on the issue of identity politics and privilege checking by not completely dismissing it but taking a step back and trying to figure out what will get people to listen and what will get people to roll their eyes and ignore you. Good book and I'd recommend it to anyone!
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Herbert Gintis
    2.0 out of 5 stars The Poverty of the Social Justice Warriors Revealed
    Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2018
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    I have been privileged in so many ways in my life. I am privileged to grow up in a society where my forefathers fought and died to construct a society based on freedom of expression, tolerance, and democracy. I am privileged to have had parents and grandparents with good values who worked hard to create a good life for themselves and their loved ones. I am privileged to have been endowed with a sound mind in a sound body. I have been privileged to be alive at all, and I am privileged to have my parents' generation successfully destroy fascism, a movement that destroyed much of my grandparents' generation in Europe.

    I am lucky to have been so privileged. I do not pride myself on my worldly success because I understand that without these privileges, I would have accomplished exactly nothing. I have dedicated my life in part to creating a world in which more people can enjoy privileges such as mine.

    But only in part, because I have other worthy personal goals.

    And I will never, never, be shamed into apologizing for my privileges. To do so would sully the memory of those who have fought and died to make my life, and the others with privileges similar to mine, possible. The moral weakness of the social justice warrior movement's attempt to make the privileged feel ashamed of their privileges is just this: it betrays the legacy of those who have fought and died to make our lives possible.

    The strategic weakness of the critique of privilege movement is simply that it will never even dent the social injustices around us. This is the subject of this book, although I must say that they author never gets around to this point until the final chapter, and never really argues for it. But it doesn't need much argument. Privileged groups cannot be shamed into giving up their privileges. They can, of course, be convinced that more should be done to improve the lot of the less privileged, but only by saying what precise measure can be implement to that end. The social justice warriors are a rather pathetic in this regard. I look forward to more promising movements in the future for progressive social change.
    21 people found this helpful
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  • J. E. Marlin
    3.0 out of 5 stars Calls Out the Privilege Framework But Still Assumes All Conservatives Are Racist
    Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Let's start with the positive: It took a lot of courage to write this book.

    Being accused of privilege is, as the author describes, a confusing and nasty experience that makes you want to take a shower. The deplorable p-word has been hurled at people for much lesser crimes than writing a book that calls into question the whole privilege rubric. So this book is a guarantee that the author, Phoebe Maltz Bovy, will have her character smeared ... and it has probably already happened on this very site, in other reviews of this book. She took all that on, and I salute her for calling out the privilege culture from the perspective of a leftist insider.

    There are serious problems with using privilege as a grid by which to understand the world, and Maltz Bovy points out some of them. Among them:
    - The concept of privilege is nearly meaningless, since anyone can be accused of privilege as long as there is someone somewhere in the world who has it worse off than they do. This is especially confusing to working-class people who get accused of privilege.
    - The accusation of privilege is often hurled based on blind assumptions about the conditions of the accusee's life. This is especially true on line.
    - Accusing someone of privilege does not tend to clarify issues; rather, it tends to make them defensive and put a stop to all discussion. Nor does insight into one's own privilege cause people to do more good in the world. Rather, it tends to make them self-absorbed.
    - The idea that NOT suffering injustice is a kind of privilege implies that everyone OUGHT to suffer injustice, which seems a little cruel. It's clearer to say that A has suffered injustice than to say that B is privileged for not suffering it.
    - Accusations of privilege tend to be hurled at people who are only moderately privileged (i.e. middle class), completely missing those who are truly privileged (the super-rich, who in Maltz Bovy's mind are the real bad guys ... more about this in a minute).

    All of these points could have been made more clearly and even more compellingly than Matlz Bovy makes them, but she did raise them, and I appreciate that.

    So what's my beef with the book?

    Matlz Bovy is attempting to call out the whole privilege framework while still keeping identity politics and the assumption that everyone on "the right" (i.e. anyone who is even a little bit conservative) are openly racist, classist people who never make an argument except to serve their own nefarious ends. This is sort of like trying to balance on two barstools on a slippery surface, then kick one out from under you while levitating that foot in the air. It leads to a lot of flailing.

    As a result, this conservative reader found Maltz Bovy's book to be - not just insulting, that's a given - but tedious, repetitive, and often confused and self-contradictory.

    For example, she quotes with an almost audible eye-roll the conservative argument that "most poor people in the United States own refrigerators." Now, it so happens that I grew up hearing this. It was intended to make me more aware of what I had, more thankful, and more compassionate and aware of people suffering in less developed countries. But Maltz Bovy doesn't even consider that this argument might be a sincere attempt to point out that even among the poor, the U.S. standard of living is not at plague-and-famine level and maybe we don't need a class war. Instead, she assumes it's a hardened, cynical attempt to dismiss the huge problem of poverty in America.

    Another page finds Maltz Bovy quoting a conservative writer who points out that the exact same argument is received differently depending on the race and sex of the person who makes it. Now, it so happens that she has made this exact same point just paragraphs before, in describing the privilege dynamic. But because it's coming from a conservative writer, Maltz Bovy interprets this as a complaint that "white men are being silenced" - which she interprets as thinly veiled racism, since we all know it's impossible for white men to be silenced in any context, ever. Never mind that she has already shown that EVERYONE is being silenced.

    So, that is why I found this book to be tedious reading. Though it was well researched and cleverly written, I had to plough through many backtracks, hedges, and numerous punches in the face where anyone with my political and social opinions was - not even accused of, but assumed to be defined by - racism.

    I recommend this book for anyone on the Left who is beginning to get uncomfortable with the concept of privilege as a framework and wants to understand why. But for those who don't buy into identity politics at all, you can perhaps find elsewhere refutations of privilege that are clearer, more concise, and less insulting.
    102 people found this helpful
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  • Lisasolo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2017
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    Smart, fascinating look at privilege from a smart fascinating author.
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