Freire On Oppression

Women and men are born equal. However, females are receiving unequal judgement and unfair treatment in the society, and thus Marilyn Frye brings up the notion of “oppression”, claiming that women are oppressed. Throughout the essay, I will first give the definition of Frye’s oppression and then list 5 critical qualifications to be considered oppressed. After that, I will explain my appreciation on Frye’s perspective on elaborating oppression using the “bird cage” analogy. I will support Frye’s “double-bind” argument for sexism followed by flaws in the argument. Furthermore, I will point out some social group are mistakenly placed inside or outside the parameters of oppression, once the theory of oppression extends over other marginal groups.

Oppression has long shaped human society. Whether it be Egyptian slaves hundreds of years ago, or Latino people today, we have never, and will never, become free of oppression. Given our contingent history, I agree with the statement that there is no hierarchy of oppression. Audre Lorde discusses in her narrative, as she mentions how society has long befallen itself with structured oppression. She discusses how the LGBT and Black communities are connected because they have overlapping members. She further argues that all oppression stems from the same roots. This concept is further exemplified by “First They Came For The Socialists”, in which Martin Niemöller mentions how the Nazisinitially targeted one group of people, but began grouping many

Freire begins Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed by stating his interpretation of the educational system between teacher and student, focusing primarily on the “banking” system, which is exceptionally biased due to oppressive teachers who direct their own misguided inquiries upon their oppressed students. Freire continues on by maintaining “knowledge is a gift bestowed by those

Freire talks about the “banking concept of education”, explaining that students in this system are receptacles that are to be filled with the “content of the teachers narration”.(Freire, 1) These receptacles are expected to regurgitate information given in class, on tests, quizzes, and anything that requires an answer that is “word for word” what the teacher says. In a banking classroom, the teacher is the authority and the students are oppressed. Freire writes, “The more students work at storing deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world.” (Freire, 2).

Chapter 2 of Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed discusses a failed teaching method between the student and teacher. It’s a common mistake for teachers to treat the teaching process as a “banking concept”. Freire discusses how this concept takes away creativity from students by forcing them to memorize facts as the teacher “deposits” them into their minds. It’s not expected of the student to comprehend what they’re learning. It’s expected of them to take what the teacher is saying as fact without critically thinking about the meaning behind it. Freire explains,

Before the second segment begins, where a modern case study is applied to Marilyn Frye’s theory of oppression; it seems necessary to briefly mention a few ways that Frye believes that oppression can be surfaced unknowingly between men and women. The first example touches on the simple actions that men do for women such as opening a door, “The arresting of vision at a microscopic level yields such common confusion as that about the male door-opening ritual. This ritual, which is remarkably widespread across classes and races, puzzles many people, some of whom do and some of whom do not find it offensive. Look at the scene of the two people approaching a door. The male steps slightly ahead and opens the door. The male holds the door open while the female glides through. Then the male goes through. The door closes after them” (12). This particular quote receives a lot of backlash, as many people feel that this act is simply a helpful gesture between a man and a woman. This type of gesture is often times defined as chivalry. Frye argues that these “chivalrous” gestures are condoned oppressive behaviors, “The gallant gestures have no practical meaning. Their meaning is symbolic. The door-opening and similar services provided are services which really are needed by people who are for one reason or another incapacitated – unwell, burdened with parcels, etc. So the message is that women are incapable. The detachment of the acts from the concrete realities of what women need and do

In this course we learned about many different types of oppression, from the time America was first “discovered” and the discoverers began oppressing the Indians, to slavery, to the oppression of the mentally handicapped, all the way to more “modern” times in schools were students are being oppressed.

Education is meant to broaden the minds of incoming generations to the diverse cultures and aspects of the world. While its purpose is meant to open up horizons, it has also held up the task of oppressing opposing thoughts and judgments. Author James Baldwin exposes this truth in his article, “A Talk to Teachers,” as he chastises the education system’s contradicting actions inasmuch as the support of an all-encompassing education while scorning unconventional thinking. Baldwin’s purpose to confront the antithetical activity to hopefully change the system’s ways is attempted by persuading teachers who “deal with the minds and hearts of young people” that a paradox of education occurs when students develop a conscience--they become “at war” with society--is valid in that education should allow development for individual thoughts and varied opinions to challenge for the reconstruction of society’s oppressive nature.

Thus Black Studies argues for a number of far-reaching reforms. There should be a greater emphasis on student participation in the teaching/learning process, rather than the banking process where the teacher deposits knowledge into students’ heads and periodically (at exam time) makes withdrawals. ….. Finally, freedom, like effective education, is achieved most often when groups of human beings cooperate with each other, not when lone individuals compete against all others” (Cole, pg

In “Oppression,” what Frye is trying to argue is that oppression and being miserable are two different things, which is why she believes that men are not oppressed when they are told not to cry and be masculine. What she wants the readers to understand is that oppression double binds the oppressed. In addition, Frye wants us to understand that the forces and barriers that oppressed people experience are systematically related to each other. It immobilizes them and makes them similar to birds in a cage. The last thing that Frye wants us to understand from her article is that we need to stop seeing oppression at a microscopic level and start seeing it at a macroscopic level. I think the article relates to GSW 100 due to the fact that it talks

This research paper will outline the causes and traits of oppression in America. Dynamics such as the social, historical, and psychological systems that serve as vessels of oppression will be addressed. Using academic research, the goal for this essay will be to discuss the characteristics of oppression and how those characteristics are connected to its origin. The research will develop major themes that will serve to define agents, including classism, discrimination, and the intersectionality of different types of oppression. Discussions on strategies for addressing and ending the current oppression in America and recommendations for the future will be highlighted as well.

Oppression suppresses individuals or groups using power to maintain what can be seen as social place within a society. Keeping groups or individuals at a level where their rights are restricted below those of the suppressor due to things such as race or sex. Enforcing inequalities upon those who have none or limited means to fight for equality. Oppression keeps people within a restricted existence where they are unable to improve their situation due to restrictions imposed by the oppressor.

In “The Banking Concept of Education”, written by Paulo Freire, the author analyzes the modern day education system by comparing students to “containers” or waste receptacles that are meant to be “filled” by the teacher, or the depositor. The idea that teachers are meant to teach and students are only to listen is the main problem is today’s society. The concept is that a teacher is deemed more reputable “the more she fills the receptacles” while students are better the more they “permit themselves to be filled” (Freire 1). In turn, the “banking” concept of education is born suggesting that education becomes only an act of depositing instead of communication between both students and teachers. When students are denied their creative freedom,

In “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education,” from the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Revised Edition, Paulo Freire discusses two different types of education: “banking” and problem-posing. The banking concept of education is when teachers “make deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat” (318), and ‘problem posing’ is when the teachers and students are equal. Instead of being treated as human beings that have their own thoughts and ideas, students are treated as containers that are simply filled by a powerful being, a teacher. In school, teachers are dominants that provide knowledge to the students, the subordinates; the knowledge that students learn are limited to what they’re taught by teachers. Similarly, in Kurt Wimmer’s ‘Equilibrium’, Librians are treated as reservoirs for knowledge.

There are two ways in which one leads a classroom of young entrepreneurs of learning. These forms of education are concreted in either a banking concept or problem posing approach. Paulo Freire, the creator of such ideas, is a man who believes in the distinct difference that either reaps learning or destroys it. Banking concept education, according to Freire, is an education that “becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor” (Freire 244). In simpler terms, banking concept is the lack of true understanding by students. Learning is not a responsibility, instead it is an act to passively check off the list. In contrast, Freire speaks of problem posing as “liberating education [that] consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information” (Freire 249). To expand, Freire is bringing to light that this type of education is the development of genuine, active understanding between teachers and students. Freire believes in critical, investigative work between teachers and students. He believes that the banking concept restricts growth and keeps students and teachers from a true critical understanding of the world. Both banking concept education and problem posing education are evident in the film Mona Lisa Smile.