FEM1100 _ Women, Feminism, Gender_ Intro

- We examine the complex ways that power circulates the lives of individuals and groups - Feminists ask questions about power function - No agreed upon def of feminism - Feminism is about process (breaking it down) Oppression, Power Choice: - Oppression: systemic discrimination against certain groups, pushing down certain groups in a way that benefits certain groups, inequality of power, eliminating or undervalue the characteristics of what makes a human themselves - Mariyn expands into the word “press” in oppression - the root word of oppression is press to mold things, to flatten , and to reduce them in bulk - Something pressed is something caught between among forces of barriers, they are so jointly related to one another together that they restrain restrict or prevent a thing or a person or groups of peoples mobility or motion - To mold immobilized to reduce - oppression - Unjust systems of oper, whole systems of barriers - Oppression is not about a single force of barriers but a whole system of forces and barriers - A network of systemic related barriers Systemically Related Barriers: - Part of a system - Marilyn uses a perspective of a birdcage to describe the idea of systemic oppression - Pg 4 - A system of interconnected or related barriers to confine - When we can see the wires we can see the enormity of systemic oppression - Individual acts are always focused on compared to the larger picture of discrimination that is detrimental to individuals - Are all limits oppressive, are all barriers oppressive? Not all suffering barriers or limits are oppressive. - Internalized oppression\ 1. What are the four levels of racism Jay Smooth discusses? Individuals racism (Internalized racism, interpersonal racism), systemic racism (institutional racism, structural racism) Internal - bias that we put on ourself Interpersonal - acting out internal racism on each other Institutional_ racist policy in any institution that often play out unjust Structural- Unjust racist patterns that play out across institutions 2. According to Jay Smooth, why is it important to be systematically aware? (WHAT SMOOTH SAYS) - Too much focus on individual blurs the way we understand racism