Oppression By Marilyn Frye Summary

More specifically, in the case of sexual assault, this approach focusses on the changes in the labour force (gender based) and conflicts between genders over the acceptability and criminalization of sexualized violence as the starting point of explanation. One such concept is marxist-feminism, as a form conflict theory. According to this theory, the incidence of sexual assault in Canada is a result of the power imbalance between men and women, in which women are expected to assume a subordinate relationship to men in our capitalist society. Consequently, sexual assault can be seen as a logical extension of the typical interactions between women and men in which women are made dependent on men for economic production. Women's vulnerability to sexual assault is a result of their subordinate relationship to men. The set of beliefs and attitudes that divide people into classes by sex and justify one sex's superiority is called sexism. There are a number of sexist dictates that serve to maintain this subordinate relationship. The first tenet concerns women's status in society: women occupy a relatively powerless position in society and are the recipients of fewer advantages and privileges (economic). Men's benefits are built into a patriarchal system which begin in a basis of economics and branch out to other aspects of social life from there. Secondly, sexual assault is as a means of control over women: assault plays a role in

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.

A story is most powerful when it inspires the reader to believe that reading the story is “necessary”. In our textbook, there are three stories that hold true to this idea and follow the “Between Worlds” theme. These stories are, “A Cab Drivers Daughter” by Waheeda Samady, “Three Ways of Meeting Oppression” by Martin Luther King Jr., and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates. In “A Cab Drivers Daughter” a Pediatrician examines her life and the life of her father; she notes all the stereotypes and negativity that surrounds an immigrant driving a cab. This story shines light on the generation gap and cultural beliefs. Secondly, “Three Ways of Meeting Oppression” is the explanation behind the ideology of the

explicitly explains that there are five specific factors of oppression that affect many people in their day to day lives. Those five faces are exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. Exploitation is the act towards the usage of labor of a specific social group to benefit another group. Marginalization is commonly the exclusion of people of a third world such as racially marked groups, unemployed, disabled, elderly, etc. Powerlessness is the concept how people of power often profit from the labor of others. Cultural imperialism is the idea of a dominant group becoming a norm of society thus making non-dominant groups behaviors as

How does one tell his indefinitely straight friends he is gay? Well, once it’s out, the three of them are on the greatest quest to help him feel comfortable, and to find the right one. It might not be the easiest adventure for them but friends stay to the end, and even longer.

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

Most of the literature on black oppression fails to take into account the struggle of black women in a society filled with injustice. As evidenced in Huey P. Newtons “To Die for the People” Newton argues that the black man often blames himself for his own failure because he lacks the sophistication needed to understand that society, and parenting have failed him. He believes that political institutions attempt to hold black people captive. Newton states, “the black male faces a hostile environment and is not sure that it is not his own sins that have attracted the hostilities of society” . It is clear that the black man in the United States, has been enslaved, and used as a political and economic tool. Nonetheless, Huey P. Newton does a

Throughout history, many people have been oppressed because of their race, religion and gender, resulting in the loss of their rights and freedom. Despite the fact that freedom is an inherent rights of any human being, many examples have proven that these rights often require rebellious acts to obtain said rights. Although human rights have evolved over the years, humans still fail to learn from their mistakes, resulting in history repeating itself. Through storytelling and novels, people show depictions of history to honour those who have died and to educate younger generations to prevent unfortunate events from occurring again. In this same vein, Lawrence Hill and Alice Walker display oppression through abuse, structural inequality and gender stereotypes. Although the novels, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill and The Colour Purple by Alice Walker were written in different time periods and revolved around different cultural influences, each demonstrates the theme of oppression throughout various events.

What defines power in today’s society? Is it money? Privilege? Status? In Chapter 2 of Justice And The Politics of Difference, entitled “The Five Faces of Oppression,” Iris Marion Young offers a unique perspective on what power really is in modern day society and how oppression plays a role in it. According to Young, power is the result of having a concrete societal position that grants you respect and opportunities from people (A page would be nice right here.). However, Young argues that this “power” is so reliant upon your perceived status and worth from individuals, that if lacking these things, you then become vulnerable to oppression. Oppression

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

Another common form of abuse exhibited against women is sexual abuse. Despite sexual abuse having the overarching inclusion of a sexual activity, Women Against Abuse candidly states, “Sexual abuse is not about sex. It is about power, and includes any sexual behavior performed without a partner’s consent” (“Types of Abuse”). Sexual assault is about exerting power over one’s partner, and in similar way,

Women face two key forms of oppression in this world, powerlessness and exploitation. These two forms fall into Iris M. Young’s ideas of oppression in her article “Five Faces of Oppression”. The definition of cultural imperialism and exploitation used in this essay are taken from Young’s essay. Cultural imperialism is where the dominant customs and morals of a society are rendered as the norm and those who are not in the norm are considered others. Exploitation is a form of oppression where a class structure is present and this class structure includes a dominant group of people who are in power of a subordinate group. Two authors, John Stuart Mill and Simone de Beauvoir, talk about how the oppression of women is not due to nature. It is rather, in Mill’s view, due to a premodern law of force which divides men and women between the strong and the weak. Beauvoir sees this oppression of women as a result from socialization, which conformed women to become immanent. Both these authors have reasonable arguments and have a similar understanding that the inferiority of women is not from the simple nature of being women. Other factors come into play when understanding why women are oppressed, and both authors recognize the fact that society and old habits must change for the equality of women and men to become a reality.

“Five Faces of Oppression” by Iris M. Young tries to create an idea that we can critique the reality and stages of oppression of different groups. She argues that oppression is structural in the sense that injustices arise from systematic everyday activities, and not from policies or how people act. Since oppression is systematically reproduced and thus ingrained into culture, politics and economics, therefore it cannot be simply removed from our society. She separates the condition of oppression into five different forms: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. Young states that exploitation is where oppression occurs in the transfer of one social group’s products of labor to benefit the wealthier class. She also argues that women are also exploited to through this from of

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

“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman,” Virginia Woolf once boldly stated. Though she was from a privileged background and was well educated, Woolf still felt she was faced with the oppression that women have been treated with for as far as history goes back. Her education allowed her to explore the works of the most celebrated authors, but one who she had a long and complicated relationship with was the Bard of Avon himself, William Shakespeare. As one of the most highly regarded and well studied authors of all time, Shakespeare has been elevated from mere playwright to a pillar of the British Empire, instrumental to the institutions that boasted British superiority. It is evident throughout Woolf’s writing that Shakespeare’s works were highly influential. Her novels frequently allude to his plays, most notably Orlando, Mrs. Dalloway, and also in her famous essay, A Room of One’s Own. Though Woolf admires Shakespeare’s androgyny (specifically in A Room of One’s Own), she also makes the case that his treatment of female characters does not allow for the women to be three-dimensional, therefore leaving them flat and lacking in depth. Even though for the most part Woolf’s assertion is correct, there are several examples in Shakespeare’s plays that suggest otherwise, namely in the play Othello. Additionally, in a similar vain, one could explore Shakespeare’s treatment of other minority groups in his works, such as Jews and anyone who is not English. Though it is easy to