The phrase “solidarity is for white women” emphasizes the limited amount of women in color who participates in academic debates related to female issues. However, this is ironic since solidarity means agreement among individuals with common interest. The phrase species white women even though minorities are the people excluded from the debate agreements. Allan G. Johnson would certainty say that the white women have the privilege in mainstream media. “What it does mean is that I’m also getting something that other people are denied, people who are like me in every respect for the social categories they belong to”. The phrase attempts to bridge the gap between the whites and minorities in mainstream women media.
Eduardo Bonilla- Silva,
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I would describe my father’s assumptions about gender as signs of oppression against me Frye views gender oppression as building barriers to restrain someone from mobility. A person could mold an individual based on what he/ she wants. My father has molded to be his perfect daughter. I have to dress properly to be characterized as a woman in his eyes; but if I am too proactive, he assume my intentions of having relations with a man. I have been confined in an insignificant space that restricts me from the real world. “It is perfectly obvious that the bird is surrounded by a network of systematically related barriers, no one of which would be the least hindurance to its flight, but which, by their relations to each other, are as confining as the sold walls of the dungen” ( Frye, Oppresion).
In the oppression passage, Fyre mentions that the female may be blocked from a “natural” or “physical” category. Based on my experience, the “natural” category is systematically reducing, molding, and immobilizing me from my father’s actions and phrases. Also Fyre explains the oppression from just being a woman in the world; she is attached to the any disadvantages and deprivations she suffers, either great or small. However, men are not the oppressed victims. The male gender provides good status, despite his race, class, or age. I always thought I was part of the non-oppressed people, in accordance to gender, in society. I now understand
Doetsch-Kidder’s (2016) monograph defines the important role of intersectionality as a defining sea-change in the way that women of color began to unify across racial and cultural barriers. Interviews with minority activists define the perception of the diversification of feminist ideology through the lens of intersectionality. One interview with a African-American activist named Donna illustrates the unity between women of color that evolved in the 1970s: “But overall, we are all fighting for civil rights, so there has to be some type of overlap with each one” (Doetsch-Kidder, 2016, p.103). This development defines the “overlapping’ ideology of different feminist groups, which soon began to devolve the racial and cultural barriers not only between women of color, but also with white feminist groups. In Doetsch-Kidder’s (2016) point of view, the civil rights movement laid the foundation for intersectional feminist principles to be practiced for women seeking greater representation in the workplace.
Given the definition of oppression as a system of interrelated barriers and forces which “mold”, “immobilize”, and “reduce” a certain group of people, and affect their subordination to another group (Frye 4), Frye lists out five premises in order to be considered oppressed. First of all, the group of people must be restricted. In other words, there must be limitations or barriers on them. For example, women make 78 cents for every dollar earned by men (Kessler 1). Second, “those restrictions surely cause harm, which must outweigh any potential benefits oppressed groups experience as a result of those same restrictions” (Gillingham 1). For
Just like the author, until we see the world, our experiences will be the only thing we use to judge the world off of. Some have firsthand experiences of inequality and some do not. Some are exposed to it early in life and some still live in oblivion. While the author was growing, men and women played different roles. The men he knew worked
In "Oppression" by Marilyn Frye, Frye discussed how a bird cage symbolizes the systematic oppression of women. Frye explains that if you look at a single wire in a bird cage you cannot understand why the bird, is unable to simply fly around the wire and be free. But, when you step back and look at the cage as a whole system of interlocking wires you realize that the bird has no chance of escaping because of all the barriers put in their way (Frye). This is exactly the same case for women. When somebody tries to see the oppression of women. they look only at one problem women face, refusing to step back and see there is no one cause for their oppression. If instead they looked at all the barriers women face at once, they would finally see that women have no way of escaping oppression without continuous efforts of every person involved in the oppression, including the woman being oppressed and the sexist men doing the oppressing.
The role of the patriarchal society and its impact on the oppression of female characters
Similarly, Patricia Hill’s work “Black Feminist Thought” explains the need for black feminism. For Hill U.S. black feminism is needed in order for black women to survive, cope with, and resist their differential treatment in society. Black feminist thought creates a collective identity among this marginalized group of African-American women. Hill provides several features that make U.S. Black feminist thought different than any other set of feminism. The first feature Hill speaks about is ‘blackness’ it is this concept that makes U.S. black feminist a different group that suffers a “double oppression”. Thus, U.S. Black women collectively participate in a dialectical relationship which links African American women’s oppression and activism. Hill speaks on the U.S. black feminist thought and the dilemma they face in American society. During the women’s right movement there was a tremendous difference between black and white women’s experiences, “while women of color were urged, at every turn, to become permanently infertile, white women enjoying prosperous economic conditions were urged, by the same forces, to reproduce themselves”. It is this difference in attitudes that demonstrate why there is a need to focuses on the linkage of experiences and ideas experienced by the black women in America. Consequently, Davis analyzes the hypocritical differences of the government of the
For centuries and even today, gender inequality and racial prejudice continue to exist. Throughout time these concepts have overlapped and intertwined, each other creating complex interactions and a negative influence upon society. In the 1980s, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw through her article, named Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color, introduced the term “Intersectionality.” Intersectionality, is the theory of how different types of discriminations interact thus, goes hand in hand with Judith Butler, in her article titled “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” which expresses the term “gender acts” and helps decipher a probable cause of the many discriminations faced in contemporary society. Since both gender inequality and racial inequality share a common thread, I believe that what intersectionality represents will help understand Judith Butler’s view on gender classification and the dynamic it’s caused on our social and political formation.
However, the minority individuals now do not even have the ability to realize those harmful effects; in another word, identity liberalism has not been pushed to the phase in which the aforementioned threats from difference and the related conflicts are worth too many concerns. Lilla’s argument is predicated by minority groups with enough power and representation, the justification of which is missing in the article. In the current phase, the under-representation of minority groups is the much more serious problem. This under-representation, in the perspective of gender inequality, is illustrated by Audre Lorde: “what does it mean in personal and political terms when even the two Black women who did present here were literally found at the last hour?” (Lorde 22). If the minority groups get no representation, how can the white Americans feel challenge and threat; if differences do not show up, how can the exclusiveness of individual groups be broken and passed across? Therefore, the unity matters only if the differences
Our text notes that “However, no one person is completely oppressed or completely privileged” (2008). This is a completely true statement, and it coincides with the theory of intersectionality because everyone regardless of your gender, race, or class; had been at one point or another been oppressed by someone or something.
In an attempt to define Black Feminism, Collins clarifies that it must “avoid the idealist position that ideas can be evaluated in isolation from the groups that create them (Collins 385).” This clarification forms her basis for why Black Feminism is necessary, and who it serves. Thinking about feminism historically, the concerns of black women were pushed aside in favor of fighting sexism; a notable example occurs within the Suffrage movement, where votes for white women were prioritized over women of color in order to push such legislation through. And even when feminism began looking at other social injustices, such as racism and class issues, often only prominent feminists were invited to the discussion. What resulted was, and often continues to be, a problem of white women speaking for oppressed people. It’s impossible, Collins argues, to have Black Feminist thought without examining the experiences and positions of African American women. Therefore, Black Feminism must be a movement that “encompasses theoretical interpretations of Black women’s reality by those who live in it (Collins 386).” However, such a definition brings about many questions:
In an attempt to define Black Feminism, Collins clarifies that it must “avoid the idealist position that ideas can be evaluated in isolation from the groups that create them (Collins 385).” In reality, this forms her basis for why Black Feminism is necessary, and who it serves. Thinking about feminism historically, the concerns of black women were pushed aside in favor of fighting sexism, most notably during the Suffrage movement. And even when feminism began looking at other social injustices, such as racism and class issues, only prominent feminists were invited to the discussion. What resulted was, and often continues to be, a problem of white women speaking for oppressed people. It’s impossible, Collins argues, to have Black Feminist thought without examining the experiences and positions of African American women. Therefore, Black Feminism must be a movement that “encompasses theoretical interpretations of Black women’s reality by those who live in it (Collins 386).” However, such a definition brings about many questions: who’s experiences are valued, how do black women take their voice back, and how can they center feminist thinking on their own unique standpoint?
Oppression signifies an authority over another group, disengaging that particular group from the rest of society. “The term oppression encapsulates the fusion of institutional and systemic discrimination, personal bias, bigotry, and social prejudice in a complex web of relationships and structures that shade most aspects of life in our society” (Bell, 1997). In one way or another every individual experiences some form of oppression, whether it be through race, sex, gender, religion, age, wealth and/or sexual orientation. These cultural minorities experience inequality where a dominant culture casts its authority and power through exercises of unjust and cruel methods; these methods have been experienced through the Women’s Movement, the
As African-American women address social issues that are important to their life experiences, such as class and race, instead to acknowledge “common oppression” of gender inequality, they are often criticized by “white bourgeois feminists” (hooks, 2000). Their ability to gain any form of equality within society is tarnished by such groups as they develop a “fear of encountering racism” from simply joining this movement (hooks, 2000). As white men, black men, and white women oppress them, their issues are often ignored due to reoccurring stereotypes and myths that claim black women are strong, independent, and “superhuman” (hooks, 2000). It becomes extremely difficult to seek liberation and equity within a “racist, sexist, and classist” society, as their gender and race causes them to be at the “bottom of the occupational ladder” and “social status” (hooks, 2000, pg. 16). As black women are perceived to demonstrate strength and dynamic qualities as white women perpetrate the image of being
She comments on the oppression experienced by woman through three distinct lenses: that of biological differences, that of the psychoanalytical perspective, and finally through the lens of historical materialism.
These explanations analyze factors such as fear of dividing the minority community, lack of knowledge of feminism, the focus on male liberation in the black social movement in the 60’s, and the idea of matriarchy (Simons). Overall, black feminist, on the other hand, believe that racism, the major factor, hinders the development of feminist awareness among minority women and other problems that seem to arise within the feminist movement and community (Simons).