Saturday, March 31, 2012
Matrix of Oppression
Dworkin says that women are the glorious image of what men could be, while men are the dark reminder of what is. I do not think this is fair. Even if there is a power difference between men and women, men being the privileged group, I would not say women are glorious and men are not. This seems to be a sweeping generalization. I find the matrix of oppression an interesting piece to share. The biologically male sex is the privileged social group, transsexual and intersex individuals are in the border social groups and the biologically female sex is the oppressed social group. I find it interesting that transexuals are more privileged than women if they appear masculine to others. As far as religion, Atheists and Agnostics are more privileged than Jews, Muslims and Hindus. As long as you don't appear to be a woman or belong to a certain faith, you have an advantage. I believe the categorization and differential treatment of people is just human nature; not all men are evil. However, pornography, sexist advertising and other unequal aspects of society do promote an oppressed female image. The subservient female is normalized.
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Interestingly enough, human character has its strong points and a lot of weaknesses. As far as weaknesses is that in our search for superiority or freedom, there is always a group to pay the price and that is part of a world seeking self-pleasure. The subservient female has been normalized due to the infiltration of culture as well as women allowing certain expectations to remain in society. I refuse to believe that any man can simply view me as a piece of meat that just needs someone to take care of me.
ReplyDeleteI understand what you're trying to say here. However, if a woman is payed for her services (more so than men) for her sexual act in pornography, how is she being oppressed?
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