Gender Oppression Through the Lense of Racism
When it comes to gender oppression, it is important to view it through other systems of oppression because it allows us to understand the many different ways in which individuals or groups experience it and how these other oppressions contribute to gender oppression as well. There are people who suffer because of many systems of oppression, such as racism, poverty, or cissexism. These systems start to intersect, become dependent on each other, and they can only be understood all together as one sum. This is known as intersectionality. Moreover, when it comes to viewing gender oppression through the lens of racism, it could be either beneficial or harmful when we are dealing with
…show more content…
As stated by Jennifer Finney Boylan, “white privilege” still exist among white trans people because in a study conducted in 2012, black trans people did worse than white trans people when it came to discrimination within housing and employment. They also reveal that they suffered higher suicide rates.
These statistics come to show that because of someone’s race, they are subject to even more unfair treatment and are provided less support from their communities. Throughout the article, Boylan provides us with examples of the various deaths of trans people of color and what she was doing around the time when those murders occurred. These comparisons of her life and those of colored trans people, reveal how “white privilege” drastically protects her from the different types of gender oppressions suffered by other trans people. Furthermore, we seen that she is an educated woman who is able to discuss her experience as a trans women and how much progress has been made. However, this brings up the point of how we need to be able to view gender oppression through various lenses because as we can see intersectionality changes they way people experience living as transmen or trans women. While Boylan is able to talk about her experience and represent transwomen on television, she is not able to represent all transwomen or transmen because she
Whiteness and racism comes from the oppression, colonization and systems of dominance over black people and their feelings. In this case, an intersectional feminist analysis matters because women who are able bodied, cis-gendered, privileged and white are only being considered whereas bell hooks argue that men, women and trans people who oppressed should be fought for. And Peggy McIntosh adds onto this but a white woman who addresses and recognizes her privilege to help other white individuals understand what they have and blacks do not.
White privilege is a unique form of racism given its fascinating characteristic of not involving hostility. Therefore, it cannot be directly blamed on someone (Pludo, 2015). The lack of blame does not cause any discomfort on the white persons enjoying the privileges.
To be a person, requires intersectionality. Intersectionality is the idea that people do not function on only one aspect of their being, but instead, function on every aspect. Aspects that include race, gender, ability, etc. With this intersectionality comes innumerable categories that lie on the scale of privileged, oppressed, or somewhere in between. To be privileged is to have advantages that are not necessarily earned, and instead come with a specific, usually uncontrollable feature, such as race, gender, class, and ability. To be oppressed is to have disadvantages that are not earned, but instead come with the same uncontrollable categories as privilege. Even cis-gendered, heterosexual, white, men have aspects of their intersectionality that might not place them at the top of the privilege hierarchy. And it is in these complications where people start to place doubts on their own privileges. It is important to realize that it is nearly impossible to have privilege in every single way or oppression in every single way, yet, this is not an excuse to deny privileges. Even with some oppressions, some are still granted more advantages than others. To delve into this deeper, analyzing writings from established writers, such as Peggy McIntosh and Devon Carbado become necessary.
In 1989 Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality”. It can be defined as the way multiple oppressions of race and gender are experienced in a person’s life. Kimberle’ explains that the experience of being a black woman cannot be defined by just race or gender alone but by the joined forces of both. She argues that Black women are discriminated against in ways that often do not fit into the systematic categories of oppression of either “racism” or “sexism” but as a combination of both.
This essay will critically analyze the various forms of oppression that are set out through Audrey Lorde’s concept of the “mythical norm” as discussed by Barbara Perry. Through the “mythical norm”, it can be seen that oppressions exists through the forms of racism and sexism which are exhibited through many scholarly texts and articles. Racism can be seen as a means of privilege and power that is given to individuals who coincide with the criteria of societies norm. In this case, these individuals consist of white, heterosexual, male beings who unknowingly oppress their racialized counterparts. Oppression can also be seen through the form of sexism. Sexism looks at the injustice and inequality of male dominance over female, which results to men being more privileged and advantaged in society over women who are disadvantaged. Therefore, privilege and power is obtained by those who coincide with the concept of the “mythical norm”, leaving minority groups who do not coincide with this conception oppressed through the forms of racism and sexism.
I decided to write my paper on “Lesbianism An act of resistance”. While she made a lot of good points I found myself lost in the beginning, trying to figure out which direction she was pointing the paper in. Mainly the paper was used to compare a lot of injustices to lesbian women by male-supremacist, racist, misogynist, and homophobic men. Not too far into the reading she started comparing women’s oppression and African Americans oppression in the USA. Her end goal was to point out that racism and sexism were created and acted on initially by the same person; the white male. I can agree to an extent with her, but, in the end, we are our own person and it’s been a continued behavior. Are we supposed to expect that because of one race,
Almost everyone has heard the famous hymn, “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” but not all understand the true meaning when it says, “Red, and yellow, black, and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” The moment sin entered into the world, perfection no longer existed. This loss of perfection changed the way humans viewed each other. It made one ethnicity view another ethnicity as inferior, and in doing so, created what people now know of as racism. For centuries, racism has been a part of society, shaping the way humans view each other, but with the aid of Young Women 's Christian Association (YWCA) - Stand Against Racism, racial discrimination and injustice can be eliminated.
While in history there has been social and cultural segregation where people who have “white privilege” are given more of an advantage, but I do not believe that still holds true to this day. I am not going to deny that in the past people who were white did have more privilege then those who were of color. Although, I strongly disagree with white privilege being as prominent as some would like to believe.
To begin with, when looking back into history, we notice that the female gender was a barrier to certain privileges before the Women’s Right Movement. Yet, race and ethnicity always played a bigger role even before that. With both a person’s sex and race being ascribed characteristics, (9/27/2016) a person would assume similar lifestyles, but reality is far from that. Instead, we have social problems like women competing against other women just to achieve the same pay for the same job, as if competing against men wasn’t enough. To be more specific, I am referring to women of color working twice as hard to keep up with White women.
Throughout our time in class, we’ve hosted conversations about the injustices women face, more specifically, the struggles endured by black women throughout history. Most, if not all, of these experiences may be direct results of a woman’s class, gender, sexuality, nationality, also due to the intersection of structures of races. According to the Tumblr page, Intersectional Feminism for Beginners, intersectionality, originally, referred to the discriminations black women faced. These discriminations were not only in the form of racism, sexism, and class oppression. Today, the term includes an analysis of the discrimination faced by those who identify with any group of people, whether it be cultural, biological, or social, that aren’t “favored
Although we live in the 21-century women of color across the United States, have been victims of one or more forms of discrimination. The fight to bridge the gender equality gap is a war that has been going on for generations. Women of color never had the gratification of being just a woman, for they are intertwined with issues of sexualization and sexual exploitation. The representations of the past and present frames WOC as sexualized objects. It’s part of a system of social disempowerment and victimization. It’s part of the larger picture of institutionalized racism that has great personal and
The oppression of women has been brought into light in the recent years but it was the norm in many societies in early history especially in premodern east Asia. During that time, the roles of men and women in society were determined by great scholars that had the power to get their voice to be heard and set general rules in society. In China, scholars like Confucius, Mencius, and Mozi had great impact on the way people divided the roles between men and women. The overall oppression of women in premodern east Asia can be seen through quotes from great scholars about how women should be obedient to men, should not make important decisions in their families, and are not spoken of equally to men in society.
The movie industry has developed tremendously with movies made that are not afraid to address the current social issues in the world. There is also a trend today where more books are made into movies with the list being endless such as the popular hunger games and Harry Potter books. This caters to those who prefer watching the aspects of the book rather than reading and those who have read the book and what their imagination of scenes in the book fulfilled. The Help (2011) is an adaptation from the book with the same title by Kathryn Stockett. The movie is about African American maids and the hardships they had to endure working for white families during the civil rights
Fundamentally, gender, racism and class are three controversial social issues that have for a long period triggered heated debate in the American society. In essence, this issues concern the daily lives of American citizen and immigrants disregarding their class, social status, educational level or the position they hold in the society. Therefore, it is imperative that these issues are analyzed comprehensively in order to take an informed stand about the impact they have to the society. This paper, seeks to critically examine how gender, racism and class are addressed in the two movies “Bread and Roses “and ”Hammering it”.
Feminist perspective developed with the ideology that women face large amounts of inequalities in a patriarchal society. They aimed to address and rid the social world of this oppression of women by men. According to Bishop, (2015) “oppression occurs when one group of people use different forms of power to keep another group down in order to exploit them. The oppressor uses the power; the oppressed are exploited” (p. 133-134). Oppression must be by individual experience and not grouped into being the same for all. This includes understanding the original ideology of feminist theory being critiqued as only considering the experiences of middle class, white women. That black women, of lower class experienced oppression much different from the other women. Women are oppressed, thus has to be understood in a different construct that women are similar in some sources, experience of oppression but also experience oppression very differently from one individual to another. Feminist theories have further been expanded do its continuation throughout society and decades to encompass many more issues and arenas than just men and women relationships. Now it seeks to understand and address oppression based on culture, race, class, etc and not only for women but for all. Therefore, Bishop (2014) outlines five components that seem common to all forms of oppression and serve to maintain its presence in society.