Oppression, White Privilege, Women Redefining Difference.

This week in women studies, we discussed the topics of oppression, privilege, and intersectionality and how they relate to us and our society. We were assigned to read three articles on our theme and every article shed a different light and perspective on the topic at hand.

The first reading was titled “Oppression”, by Marilyn Frye. In this exerpt, she explained in detail the meaning of oppression and who is oppressed. She goes on to say why oppression is still occurring and why sometimes, it is hard to see. Frye relates oppression to a bird cage, where if you look closely and only focus on one thing that could hold a person back from being successful or “freeing themselves”, then it would easily be hard to miss all the other things holding someone back. You would not be able to fully see why someone or the “bird” could not fly away unless you took a step back and realized there are many barriers holding them back. I thought this was a great metaphor for oppression and the problems that arise when people cannot see nor understand it.

The second reading was called “White Privilege”, by Peggy McIntosh. Within this article, McIntosh focused on describing what white privilege is, and privilege in general. She also explains that white privilege is still an issue because people often deny being privileged and how that denial is the reason these inequalities have a hard time of being “acknowledged, lessened or even ended”. Furthermore she says that anyone with a privilege is taught not to recognize their privilege. This article really resonated with me because it made me look back and think of any way that I may be privileged. And that a lot of work needs to be done within our society.

The last article that we were assigned was called Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference, by Audre Lorde. In this article, Lorde explained how in America, the “norm” is defined as a white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secure. She then goes to talk about the differences of those outside of the “norm” who are not acknowledge or appreciated for their differences, such as black women or other minorities.

Throughout this week, i have learned quite a bit about oppression and privilege, and have come to better understanding of these topics with help of these articles. With that said, it is clear that society has a lot of work to do when it comes to these things. Hopefully with time, and authors like these, more people can understand the problems that need attention in our world today and will take the steps to help change it.