One of the benefits that oppression confers upon the oppressors is that the most humble among them is made to feel superior; thus, a poor white in the South can console himself with the thought that he is not a “dirty nigger” — and the more prosperous whites cleverly exploit this pride. Similarly, the most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women.

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) French author, existentialist philosopher, feminist theorist

The Second Sex, Introduction (1950) [tr. Parshley (1952)]

See Johnson.