Peculiar Benefits = Privilege

In "Bad Feminist," Gay describes her own personal experiences with privilege, she is successful in also acknowledging where both her lack and presence of privilege present in her life.

On page 17, when she says, "There are all kinds of infuriating reminders of my place in the world- random people questioning me in the parking lot at work as if it is unfathomable that I'm a faculty member, the persistence of lawmakers trying to legislate the female body, street harassment, strangers wanting to touch my hair."
This is a qualifying statement to her previous discussion in this essay, where she discusses the privilege she does have in her nationality, socioeconomic status, and education. However, the salient identities of her race, gender, and ethnicity are those that, in a sense, empower society to act upon them and make comments about hair and feel as though it is acceptable for them to harass her as a woman. Several of the things she discusses are also very identifiable across race lines, too, as I am a white female but still deal with similar comments from complete strangers (commonly, men) on a daily basis.
Accusations of this privilege imply that there are no potential shortcomings among those peculiar benefits. Gay very comprehensively and objectively does this in her "Peculiar Benefits" essay, as she is able to take her own experience and describe it in a way that many may find commonalities among.

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