Marilyn Frye Oppression Essay

Oppression can be defined in many ways. The merriam-webster dictionary defines oppression as unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power. A deeper definition of oppression was provided by Marilyn Frye in the reading “Oppression.” Frye defines oppression as the experience of being caged in; all avenues, in every direction, are blocked or booby trapped (Frye, 1983). Race, class, gender, and sexuality systems are all systems of oppression that will be identified in this paper. Race, class, gender, and sexuality are systems of oppression. What exactly does this mean? This means that people who are born into subordinate groups are prone to have unequal treatments, access to resources, opportunities, etc in life, which is in result to being born into a world where you are subjected to be oppressed. For example, in the reading “There is no hierarchy of oppression,” Lorde highlighted that she is black, a woman, and a lesbian. Those three characteristics alone are reasons for her to be oppressed in today’s society. Lorde goes on to say that “within the lesbian community I am Black, and within the Black community I am a lesbian (Lorde, 2009).” No matter which direction Lorde turns she is trapped in every way, she is in fact living in a double bind. The message I took from Lorde is that you can try and conform to what society labels …show more content…
Why is it that because a woman is Black, has children, poverty-stricken, and is less educated is forced to be oppressed by both their class and gender? Why is the system setup to oppress people based off of their race and class? Why is that caucasian lady seen as superior to me only because I am an African American? It has been stated that a white woman is penalized by her gender but has the advantage of race. While a black woman is disadvantaged by both her gender and her race. (Dastagir, 2016) Intersectionality aims to answer these questions and statement