week 2 – inequalities: sexism and other oppressions

Have you encountered resistance from people about taking this course? How does derision of Women’s Studies and feminism work to discredit women? We will look at the ways in which differences between people, or groups of people, are assigned value by society and the effects this judgment has.

All women are different. We know this to be true. Yet there exists a mythical norm of woman – as if because we share the same gender, all women have the same experiences and the same feelings. While there are many commonalities, each of us is unique. We will look at ways in which society labels people and how this affects their lives.

‘Woman’ is not the only mythical norm. When greater value is assigned to a certain characteristic, it is generally assumed to be the default. Have you noticed that people will sometimes only qualify if something is perceived as other than the standard? “Female doctor.” (Have you heard someone talk about their “male doctor”?) Subtle clues like this can give you great insight. Members of privileged groups are taught not to see the ways in which they are favored. The privilege becomes invisible.

We are often taught that things are not as simple as black and white. It’s true, there are always complexities. There are many polarized differences in our world (like black and white, gay and straight, old and young, etc.) There is nothing wrong with difference.. But it is when value is assigned to these differences and one option is seen as better that it becomes a problem. One is assigned more value by society. What makes one thing better than another? What makes one person better than another? The readings for this week will explore how the systems of inequality are interconnected and reinforced by society. Figure 2.1 in your textbook (p. 61) lists some of the dichotomies we will examine in this course. A simplified version of this, and the social ills caused by these views, is below:

IDENTITY, CONFLICT *& POWER
Identity Construct	Power Group Non-Target	Non-Power Target	Ism
Gender	Men	Women	Sexism
Race	White	People of Color	Racism
Class	Middle, Upper	Poor, Working	Classism
Sexuality	Heterosexual	Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual	Homophobia
Age	Middle	Young, Old	Ageism
Ability	Temporarily Able-bodied	People with disabilities	Ableism
Religion	Christianity	Islam, Judaism	Anti-Semitism
Culture	European/Western	Non-European	Eurocentrism

Adapted from Children’s Creative Response to Conflict (CCRC) Bias Awareness Workshops

When we actually take the time to examine societal binaries, we often study the vantage point of the ‘lesser’. “Oh, those poor _____ people.” This air of condescension sometimes takes the shape of revulsion: “If only those _______ people would _______, they would not have that problem.” This bootstrap myth is one method for continuing oppression. It implies that the person in question is at fault. Quindlen’s article for this week focuses on this view and where it comes from. These judgements are often made without question – they can be deeply ingrained and reinforced. We will examine the ways in which people are viewed as lesser than others and how to break the cycle.

Isms What is an ism? You have likely heard of many of the isms listed in the table above (sexism, racism), but what do they mean? The text defines them as “[s]ystems that facilitate privilege and inequality” (p.62). A person cannot pick their place on the societal chart and point to their one “place” in society. A leftist bumper sticker slogan reads, “Every bigot will be reincarnated as a gay homeless person of color.” What does this mean? A person removed from their privileged status can more easily see the power often granted to non-target groups. How would such a switch occur? Perhaps by means of something which will not happen in their lifetime, like reincarnation, as the bumper sticker suggests.

But transitions between power groups do – and will – occur in some people’s lives. Note that the table above discusses the power group for ability as “temporarily able-bodied”. This reinforces the fact that not everyone is born with their disability. Ability can change – it can happen to anyone at any time. A person who fits easily into the ‘power groups’ above is able to take advantage of the privileges that come, often without a second thought, with their identity. McIntosh’s article about privilege “explains, it is easier to grant that others are disadvantaged than to admit being overprivileged.” (p.62, WVFV) We will analyze the institutions that create and maintain these privileges.

Some people feel uncomfortable with the term oppression, which will crop up in this chapter from time to time. Perhaps it is seen as minimizing other injustices in the world, such as slavery and genocide. While these are certainly horrific atrocities, it should not keep us from examining other injustices and naming them as such.

“The reluctance to see women as oppressed has several sources. The first is that many women enjoy race or class privilege and it’s difficult for many to see them as oppressed without, as Sam Keen put it, insulting “truly oppressed” groups such as the lower classes or racial minorities. How, for example, can we count upper-class women among the oppressed and lower-class among the oppressors?

Although Keen’s objection has a certain logic to it, it rests on a confusion between the position of women and men as groups and as individuals. To identify “female” as an oppressed status under patriarchy doesn’t mean that every woman suffers its consequences to an equal degree, just as living in a racist society doesn’t mean that every person of color suffers equally or that every white person shares equally in the benefits of race privilege. Living in patriarchy does mean, however, that every woman must come to grips with an inferior gender position and that whatever she achieves will be in spite of that position. With the exception of child care and other domestic work and a few paid occupations related to it, women in almost every field of adult endeavor must labor under the presumption that they are inferior to men, that they are interlopers from the margins of society who must justify their participation. Men have such experiences because of their race, ethnicity, or other minority standing, but rarely if ever because they’re men.” (“The Gender Knot” Allan G. Johnson, 1997)

Your readings in this chapter include an audio clip. I find it much more powerful to hear about Fannie Lou Hamer’s life in her own words. Compare the external reading and audio clip with the Activist Profile of her on p.72 in the text (both 3rd and 4th eds.). Does it have more meaning for you? Is it easier to view her as a real person (as opposed to some abstract historical figure) when you can hear her voice?

Chapter 2 readings

Textbook readings:

• Chapter 2 introduction, Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions, 3rd ed.: p.60-75; 4th ed.: p.59-75
• Reading 10 “Oppression”, Frye, 3rd &4th eds.: p.84-86
• Reading 11 “Tomorrow I’m Going to Rewrite the English Language”, Keith, 3rd &4th eds.: p.86-87
• Reading 12 “Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism”, Pharr, 3rd &4th eds.: p.87-91
• Reading 13 “White Privilege and Male Privilege”, McIntosh, 3rd &4th eds.: p.91-98
• Reading 14 “Something About the Subject Makes It Hard to Name”, Yamato, 3rd &4th eds.: p.99-101
• Reading 15 “Tired of Playing Monopoly?”, Langston, 3rd &4th eds.: p.101-106
• Reading 16 “Voices: On Becoming an Old Woman”, Copper, 3rd &4th eds.: p.106-109

Supplemental readings:

• Condoms in, anatomy out: Grocery chain pulls latest issue of Seventeen Callimachi, Seattle Times. 28 October 2005 http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20051028&slug=17magazine28 [updated 1/26/10]
• Fannie Lou Hamer oral history transcript New URL: http://digilib.usm.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/coh&CISOPTR=2957&REC=1 (click on each page on the left)
• On http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/audio.html, listen to
  “Fannie Lou Hamer talks about registering to vote” http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/realaudio/fannie_lou_hamer.ram (Real Audio file, 2 minutes)
• A New Kind Of Poverty, Quindlen, Newsweek, Dec 1, 2003, http://www.newsweek.com/id/60779?tid=relatedcl
• Read the abstracts and browse the links for these two books on Barbara Ehrenreich’s Web site:
  • “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” (2001) http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/nickelanddimed.htm
  • “Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream” (2006) http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/baitandswitch.htm

Please complete your summary in Blackboard. Your summary must include explicit references (that is, name the author and/or partial title) to at least three of the textbook readings and three supplemental readings.

Your two replies to your classmates’ summaries are due on Blackboard Thursday.

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