Oppression

Over time, women have struggled to free themselves of systematic oppression that prevents them from achieving and succeeding in society. In the poem “It’s a Woman’s World”, Eavan Boland is an examination on the status of women in society. The title, which is an allusion to the James Brown song “It’s a Man’s World”, suggests that Boland believes that women are superior to men regarding status in society. However, the content of the poem promptly proceeds to contradict the title. Throughout…

A black woman in a white, male dominated society, Zora Neale Hurston had to struggle through a double barrier to achieve a voice others took for granted. As if in response to her social oppression, Hurston once wrote, “I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.” In a time in which it was socially acceptable to remain submissive to the “illusion” of identity that society offered, Hurston demonstrates…

“The Story of an Hour” written in 1894 by Kate Chopin, is a short story focused on Louise Mallard’s reaction when she is informed that her husband has passed as a result of a train accident. As expected, she initially expresses shock and grief. She locks herself away in her room and soon after her feelings evolve and begin to overwhelm her. Ironically, as the story continues, the tone shifts and there are indications that Mrs. Mallard has other feelings, that at face value would be considered…

oppressors. This argument can be substantiated for both groups. For the oppressed there will be ignorance due to their inability to access certain areas of knowledge, and for the oppressor there will also be ignorance that is created due to the oppression they exact on other groups they deem lesser…

on serious issues. These issues range from the proper way to raise a child to how science can go horribly wrong, but one topic that I think most writers try to talk about the most frequent, because no one wants to talk about them outright, is the oppression of different people and cultures throughout time. This issue spans time and even in modern society no one wants to willingly talk about these different groups of people or cultures that are being held down or left behind. If you look at older…

Frankenstein In a lot of aspects society came up with the idea to view being different as something scary because it is not something that they are normally used to. In the story of Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelly she gives out a story about a horrendous looking monster that deals with a variety of rejection among humankind even from his own creator due to his physical appearance and his creator then suffers horrible consequences while his monster lives and roams the Earth. In the story of…

the elimination of all males? Perhaps, to some extremists, it may be; however, that radical “white feminism” does not represent the movement at all. According to Everyday Feminism, “[f]eminism strives to end the discrimination, exploitation, and oppression of people due to their gender, sexual orientation, race, class, and other differences and supports people in being free to determine their own lives for themselves” (Kim). It does not condone the hatred of men and,…

closely related, it is interesting to see how the effects of control being imposed on students at such a young age basically blinds them to what creativity is like. This kind of hegemony basically blinds people by not letting them challenge their oppression. Even though the education system, Wall Street, and the Islamic Republic have different levels in the…

James Q Wilson once said, “Man’s moral sense is not a strong beacon light…it is, rather, a small candle flame…flickering and sputtering in the strong winds of power and passion, greed and ideology” (Amstutz 9). Morality refers to a person’s values and beliefs about what is right and wrong, just and unjust, and fair and unfair. However, the concept of morality is more nuanced that its definition, given the multiple factors that inform a person’s moral compass—such as, their religion—and the many…

Even when applied to broader projects such as Black Feminist Thought, epistemic relativism has been used to counter race and gender oppression and further understandings of the connections between knowledge and the politics of empowerment. In her book ‘Black Feminist Thought’ (1990), Patricia Collins states that defining colored women as self-defined and self-reliant individuals has reconceptualised…