Thread by @madlori

This is a thread about how the much-discussed devaluation of expertise that's plaguing this country is a manifestation of white patriarchy. Ready? Here we go.1/

There's a well-known phenomenon in which professions that women enter in significant numbers become lower-paid and lose social capital. Biology, education, pediatric medicine. This isn't a vague impression, there have been multiple economic studies about this effect. 2/

It also works in reverse; when men decide a previously-female-dominated job is one they want to do, suddenly it becomes higher-paying and more prestigious. Computer programming is the usual example of this. 3/

Think about how deeply misogyny has to be ingrained in our brains that when women succeed in a previously men-only profession, it doesn't make us think better of women - it makes us think worse of the profession. 4/

The same thing is happening to knowledge and expertise, in general. 5/

Expertise used to be the sole province of white dudes. Now that women and BIPOC can acquire it, well, it just can't be all THAT special, right? A white man's expertise used to be sacrosanct, but if anyone can have that expertise? HORRORS. We better start devaluing it. 6/

And how many of those white dudes with expertise were mediocre? A lot. The Mediocre White Man has had a really excellent run of things. But if he has to compete with hypereducated, highly expert women and BIPOC? Mediocre White Man isn't ready for that kind of challenge. 7/

So that thing that gives women and BIPOC some skin in the game - their hard-won expertise - well, that's just not important anymore. It doesn't matter. The playing field is leveled so that white maleness can continue to be the primary advantage. 8/

Once again, society twists itself into knots and performs boggling mental gymnastics to avoid depriving white men of even the slightest bit of their power. The dumbest white dude's YouTube "research" is therefore equally valid to anyone else's doctoral-level work. 9/

To sum up:
Society: Knowledge is power!
Women and BIPOC: <acquire knowledge>
Society: Oh, did we say "knowledge," we meant "white maleness." 10/

I am not the first person to make this point, by far. But I was thinking about it and how it connected to the devaluation of professions when women enter them, and it occurred to me those are just two aspects of the same toxicity. So I thought I'd share. 11/11