ipl-logo

Peggy Mcintosh's Invisible Backpack

1084 Words5 Pages

Invisible Backpack: Reflective essay
Growing up we often fail to recognize how we are privileged and the opportunities we are given due to our privileges. In the essay “White Privilege: Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh discusses the privileges of being White and the ways she was prioritized because of her race. Throughout the essay McIntosh allows readers explore how she has been given opportunities, due to specific traits she has in her invisible backpack, privileges she once had taken forgranted. Her personal experiences take up most of the essay and with it she invites the reader to partake in her apprehensions and fears. Like McIntosh, I also have been rewarded with privilege contributed through my beauty, social class, …show more content…

I realized that society determines what it means to be beautiful, through social media, Hollywood, and advertisement. In her essay, McIntosh discuesses her personal experiences and with it she invites the reader to partake in her apprehensions and fears of what it means to have privilege. While reading the essay, It has been brought to my attention about how I am being viewed within a different standard because of the way I look. McIntosh illustrates how she was “as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture” (31). Sometimes, I too have even been put on a pedestal, not because my have made an accomplishment, but because I stand out doing so. By being attractive I instantly become the center of attention, therefore, my confidence instantly rises. My opinion instantly became valued and I recognized how I was rarely rejected. Occasionally, attractive people are on an increment list. They tend to have a higher standing in their careers due to being noticed by influential people. Attractive people are also known to have higher self-esteem. Although beauty is not the only reason I am in a positive place in my life today, it was, however, a good quality to have. I have been given opportunities to explore different career paths because of it, such as acting and modeling. I was able to experience having a career before completing high school. It is often said that our first impressions are the most important, this is very

Show More
Related

Analysis Of White Privilege Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack

327 Words | 2 Pages

This week we were assigned to read to different articles. The first article was written by Peggy McIntosh titled, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”. Throughout the article, Peggy showed the readers what it means to have white privilege. She showed the readers 50 different types of “advantages” that whites get over other races, such as African Americans. This is the biggest theme throughout her entire piece.

Read More

Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack Analysis

415 Words | 2 Pages

The “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” McIntosh begins her essay portraying the unwillingness of men to admit that they are over privileged. Even those who are willing to admit that women are at a disadvantage have a problem admitting their privilege. McIntosh realizes that this denial of privilege does not only apply to gender but to race as well. She realizes that white people including herself are thought to view racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage but have never had to considered an aspect of racism that befits them; white privilege. Although being a woman puts McIntosh at a disadvantage she realizes that by not acknowledging her privilege she is unintentionally oppressing others as well.

Read More

Peggy Mcintosh Invisible Knapsack

241 Words | 1 Pages

1.) What does Peggy McIntosh mean when she talks about the "invisible knapsack"? And as a future teacher, what are 3 ways that you would help your students avoid the effects of the "invisible knapsack"? Peggy McIntosh talks about the term “invisible knapsack”. She describes the term as being the hidden privileges of being in the majority.

Read More

Summary Of White Privilege Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack

609 Words | 3 Pages

White Privileges: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack In the article, White Privileges: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh explores the power of white privilege. White privilege, as McIntosh puts it, is an advantage enjoyed by white people beyond the common advantage of other races. The article begins with the author reflecting upon male privilege,, and then transitions into her own reflection on privileges involving race. To prove this, she lists the effect of white privilege in daily life.

Read More

Miss Clairol By Helena Viramontes

1473 Words | 6 Pages

Why do women feel constantly pressured to meet certain beauty standards that harm us? The answer varies, but in most cases, it is because that is what society has demanded of us for decades. The short story “Miss Clairol” by Helena Viramontes introduces us to the life of a single Chicana mother where she still acts like a teenager around her daughter while trying to satisfy the eurocentric beauty standards so that men consider her attractive, and at the same time ignoring her daughter often, which causes a role reversal with her daughter making her to be independent at a young age. In this short story, Viramontes offers us an insight into the under-reported life of a Chicana woman non-white in the US. In “Miss Clairol” the main character's

Read More

White Privilege Research Paper

1422 Words | 6 Pages

Whites are privileged because we are seen as the average American. We do not get second glances, because nobody suspects we are doing anything but living our lives. Though since we are not subject to this intense scrutiny we do not realize that we in turn do this to African Americans, just simply living their daily lives as well. McIntosh (1988) points out that she repeatedly forgot each of the realizations on this list until I wrote it down. For me white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject.

Read More

Summary Of White Privilege Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack

509 Words | 3 Pages

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack While reading this piece by Peggy McIntosh, I found myself as a white woman thinking, 'yes I can do these things,' and realized right there what white privilege looks like. Looking at the fifty points McIntosh discusses, it is clear that the predominance of white privilege affects her daily life. These daily effects McIntosh discusses range from who she wants to surround herself with, knowing and feeling financially secure and feeling welcomed in public life. While only choosing fifty instances where McIntosh feels her white privilege comes into contact, it is apparent that the instances are common when discussing primarily skin color compared to race, class, and religion. Without argument,

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Life With Daughters Watching The Miss American Pageant

547 Words | 3 Pages

In Gerald Early’s essay “Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America pageant,” Early talks about his experience of watching Miss America pageants with his family. The issue explored in his essay is the way black culture in society is affected by America’s standard of beauty and the difficulties black women experiences when trying to find one’s identity because of this. Early believes that America’s standard of beauty is white, the look that is most praised in the beauty pageants. He uses rhetorical strategies such as allusion, ethical persuasion, and emotional persuasion to emphasize that America's standard of beauty has an effect on black women.

Read More

Theme Of Isolation In The Birthmark

464 Words | 2 Pages

Same as Janet Tyler’s situation, in modern society it’s the same case if you’re not considered beautiful you are outcasted. Lit Technique 2- Irony What was deemed beautiful in this society, would be extremely ugly in ours. Everyone had gills and pig noses. Questions what beauty actually is and if it is skin deep and who can decide what beauty is.

Read More

Beauty And Attractiveness In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

977 Words | 4 Pages

Society views those who look attractive in a positive way and those who are not considered attractive in a negative way. Beauty is only linked to virtue by the assumptions that we makes of others. The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley proves this point because it shows judgements made on outer appearance, our constant fear of not achieving all of our goals, and the cause and effect of how judgements influence our actions. We make judgements on everyone's outer appearances. We don’t take the time to get to know them.

Read More

What Is Beauty In Frankenstein

952 Words | 4 Pages

When one first meet her, one has to admit, first thing they notice is her looks. Right? “wow she have it all” or maybe the opposite. Beauty for women may be easier for them, like getting out of an officer giving them a ticket or walking into a restaurant without a reservation. Beautiful women could get more smiles, more handsome men, and better treatment sometimes.

Read More

Bratz And Books: Why I Have To Be Sexy

1036 Words | 5 Pages

This book specifically enforced the idea that to be a woman, was to be beautiful, but it also introduced a secondary element. As a woman, my beauty needed to be valued by men, and this book’s focus drove that concept home for

Read More

Scrutinization Of Numbers

1148 Words | 5 Pages

Most of us have been socially conditioned to celebrate behaviors that are positive such as being confident and sensitive amongst other things. Mother Teresa wasn't beautiful because she was on the cover of every swimsuit catalog, she was beautiful because she devoted her life to helping those that needed help. The confusing aspect of personality in its relationship with beauty is that it's a completely subjective area where as physicality is easier to agree upon. No one can give you a definite answer if for example you were asked to say who was more beautiful a more confident individual or a more emotionally available one. It depends on the person’s taste as both qualities of confidence and emotional sensitivity is both positive traits although societies tend to sway towards certain qualities over others.

Read More

Definition Essay Beauty

361 Words | 2 Pages

Beauty defines an individual and appeals to the eyes of others. Beauty comes in 2 forms. Everybody has heard the saying that a person's beauty reflects on the inside and out. Some think that beauty comes from how a person carries themselves or how they look physically. Some may even believe that beauty comes from the way a person thinks.

Read More

Analyzing Lord Byron's Poetry

470 Words | 2 Pages

Some people like people from their looks but in reality it’s not all about the looks, it’s also about the way the person is altogether. In all honesty if the person has ugly ways you are not going to want to talk to them, you probably wouldn’t want anything to do with a person who treats you bad no matter how beautiful you think they are. I think as students in high school we don’t look at how sweet a person is, we look at how other people would feel and what they would say about you if you’re actually dealing with someone who isn’t as beautiful as someone else. We care way too much about what people think because we don’t want to get laugh but we don’t think about the other person whom may be getting laughed at because of the way they look.

Read More

More about Peggy Mcintosh's Invisible Backpack

Related Topics

Open Document