Just what the world needs - another blog on an undefined topic, with scant regard for potential readership.

I'll deal with/explain the title first.  It's relatively irony-free, but references a recent discussion I had with someone about the pros and cons of adding presence at a Russell Group university to one's CV.  Obviously, context is everything, and if you're in the position of not caring, or not wanting to care, about the effect of presumed status upon casual onlookers, then so much the better.  There comes a point when interested parties will go out of their way to employ all manner of investigative procedures in an attempt to divine something - anything - about you that is external to the known or knowable public locus, whether that involves spending hours on Google, or ransacking your recycling sacks.  If you find it all distasteful, you are not alone.  You should also steer well clear of the Internet.

The notion of any kind of privilege being mythical, however, relates to something beyond the scraps of personal intelligence mined for good or ill in the modern world.  It precariously coincides with some of Carl Jung's points about "individuation", and if you've been raising your eyes heavenwards at the soap opera concerning Bradley Manning's attempts to transition himself into Chelsea Elizabeth, I have some sympathy for you.  The world may be desperately short of heroes, but witnessing freakish confusion and Newtonian fascination played out in a semi-public, media-saturated arena will do little to allay any fears you may have that it's now possible to know too much about anything.

Thus, "Mythical Privilege" isn't just a pseudo-clever starting point for a series of arch examinations of culturally significant tropes and misfires, but a self-aware kick to the crotch of assumed values and social hierarchies.  I hope you derive some pleasure from it all, but keeping your expectations low is advisable.  You don't know me, I have no idea who you are, and it's probably best all round if we keep it that way.