Non-Creative Privilege

All over the internet there are blogs that discuss the topic of privilege, the idea being that while most people don’t think about it or even realize it, the simple fact that they are white/male/heterosexual/cisgender (meaning not trans) means that they often are treated better than the people who are not white/male/heterosexual/cisgender, whether they realize it or not and like most things on the internet it seems to cause quite a stir, generally among people that have the aforementioned privilege but have convinced themselves that as long as their not actively assholes then obviously you can’t possibly be talking about them. But that’s another story entirely. It’s worth noting there are a lot of other privileges and that is essentially what I decided I’d like to write about today. The privilege of non-creatives, or people who work in ‘normal’ jobs.

The very fact that I even have to use the word ‘normal’ to describe individuals who work a 9 to 5 at an office or even in retail or food services is itself part of this privilege. Because no one questions the validity of their work. Nobody debates the importance of doctors or lawyers or even school teachers, (except for the G.O.P. they seem to debate school teachers importance but that too is a whole other blogpost).

There aren’t people constantly asking you (particularly within your own family) so when are you going to get a real job? Even though you’ve been writing for the last ten years and generally speaking there aren’t tens of thousands of people trying to tell you that, you can’t do it.

There’s also very rarely a time when someone says, I wish I could cut a patient open like that but I just don’t have the time/patience/energy/talent.

Nobody tries to devalue what you do constantly.

Nobody says the words: (insert job title here) is dead. Nobody operates/teaches/constructs (etc) anymore.

People probably don’t assume that you’re lazy or stupid or living with your parents.

And though you may not be aware of it, the mere fact that nobody is questioning the validity of your work because it’s ‘an actual job’ means that you are benefitting from a non-creative privilege. Think about how it would feel for someone to question what you do the next time you consider asking an author/artist, “When are they going to get a real job?”