The creation and support of sexist and racist thinking is continued/[PROLONGED????] by a combination of forces that work in ways such that when one is attacked, the others are able to uphold it. This is [also] true in the case of an individual force, such as the effect of an ideologically created ‘reality’ on members of a society, or the oppression of women of all class levels and races. They are intertwined, crossing paths and building on each other, impossible to rip apart completely, seemingly without one specific origin. Scholars and philosophers have theorized over this ‘origin’ in efforts of solving the problem it has resulted in. Marilyn Frye has created a theory, not of a single origin, but of how a combination of elements have created
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As a result, many don’t believe women to be oppressed. Our being dispersed (not only across the world, but culturally, economically, racially) makes it hard to recognize our common cage. Frye compares this cage to a ghetto of sorts where a woman's placed is defined by her function- and that function is to only ever to serve men. These services vary but there are constants. They always include personal service, such as the work of maids (often cleaning a place inhabited by women and men), cooks, or personal secretaries (a woman of a ‘higher’ would not do these services herself, but would be in charge of overseeing the people hired to do them). They include sex service, which is only ever to satisfy a man’s desires (this means sex, bearing children, or even “being attractive for him”), and ego service (praise and attention). At every race or class level, women are entrapped in this “ghetto” and serve men in a way that men never serve women. These barriers mean different things to people on different side. As Frye explains, they are “protecting his classification and status as male, as superior, as having a right to [...] access to a female or females” (Frye 13). These forces work to keep cultural and economic power in the control of males, and as they have been for centuries, they are not always as obvious they would be assumed to
As a result, many don’t believe women to be oppressed. Our being dispersed (not only across the world, but culturally, economically, racially) makes it hard to recognize our common cage. Frye compares this cage to a ghetto of sorts where a woman's placed is defined by her function- and that function is to only ever to serve men. These services vary but there are constants. They always include personal service, such as the work of maids (often cleaning a place inhabited by women and men), cooks, or personal secretaries (a woman of a ‘higher’ would not do these services herself, but would be in charge of overseeing the people hired to do them). They include sex service, which is only ever to satisfy a man’s desires (this means sex, bearing children, or even “being attractive for him”), and ego service (praise and attention). At every race or class level, women are entrapped in this “ghetto” and serve men in a way that men never serve women. These barriers mean different things to people on different side. As Frye explains, they are “protecting his classification and status as male, as superior, as having a right to [...] access to a female or females” (Frye 13). These forces work to keep cultural and economic power in the control of males, and as they have been for centuries, they are not always as obvious they would be assumed to