...the importance of women in society. For the longest time the history of the world has been written by men who have been the head of the patriarchy and have forgotten the role of women in history. It is important to realize that women do in fact have a place at the table with men when it comes to importance in history, and are not just the ones cooking and serving the meal. It is women who tasked with raising the next generation. By looking at women of the past, people of the future can learn and evolve to fight oppression and gain their own power. Come up with a good thesis that doesn’t suck. While women hold different experiences with power,...
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...Sexism is the postulation that people of certain sex are superior to the others. The term is also used to describe compliance to the traditional stereotypes of social roles that are based on either being male or female (Plan International Australia, 2016). Any gender can be subject to sexist views, but it is women and girls who are more prone to discrimination than men. The term sexism was coined between the 1960s and the 1980s, where the civil rights movement against racism at the time modelled the use of the term. Sexist views place what either gender should do, and an often infringes on the rights of women. The term was coined in a bid to create awareness on the oppression of girls and women. However, in the 21st century, the term is used...
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...The experience of Palestinian women in Israel and Muslim women in India in terms of their sense of belonging in their state or nation is seen as a case where members of a minority group are oppressed due to either their distinctive traditions, culture, language or religion by the majority in their own societies. In interpreting these two groups mainly from a research drawn out by Rouhana Hoda, I discuss problems faced by the different women of these groups and some of the oppressions that forces these women to choose between feminist and national agendas. Focusing on the experience of Muslim women in India, these women are members of the minority group and they are oppressed by the majority just within their own society...
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...Male privilege…In black and white Dorrell Anthony Alexander Western Washington University What is “Privilege”? When we speak of privilege, what exactly are we speaking of? Many find it easy to get the basic fundamentals of a “right” and a “privilege” confused, so for foundational purposes, I would like to lay out how they differ. First, let’s talk about two of the different kinds of rights; “natural” and “legal”. According to Merriam-Webster (2013) Natural rights are “rights which are "natural" in the sense of "not artificial, not man-made”; “as in rights deriving from logic, from human nature, or from the edicts of a god”. They are ”universal”, (they apply to all people, and do not derive from the laws of any specific society),”They exist necessarily, inhere in every individual, and can't be taken away” ( Merriam-Webster, 2013). For example, it has been argued that humans have a natural right to life. They're sometimes called inalienable rights. Legal rights, in contrast, are “rights based on a society's customs, laws, statutes or actions by legislatures” (Merriam-Webster, 2013). An example of a legal right is the right to vote of citizens. “Citizenship, itself, is often considered as the basis for having legal rights, and has been defined as the "right to have rights"(Broidy and Agnew, 1997), Legal rights are sometimes called civil rights or statutory rights which Broidy and Agnew (1997) believe are “culturally and politically relative”, since they depend on a specific...
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..."Once the Bleeding Begins, the Healing Can Begin"-Tori Amos www.welcometobarboados.com Oppression is defined as the use of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel and unjust manner. When someone is physically and/or mentally oppressed for having a belief or belonging to an individual group, it can be individually demoralizing and degenerizing. Unfortunatly, The human race has been known to enforce their ability to oppress people through many avenues such as an individual belief in religion, a physical handicap or the way an individual may dress. However, for this essay, I have looked closely at specific females that were oppressed through unequality in specific to their individual race, social heirarchy of power, and sexuality. Unequality between male and female has been seen all over the United States. For example, American females finally were given the right to vote in 1920. In a racial sense, whether male or female, black and white people were segregated in public up until the 1950s. Financial status determined your ranking on the social hierarchy of power granting an individual the ability to have a great influence or to f. dFinancial status was signifigant; higher amounts of incomes meant one had a strong influence in society and respect was demanded. All of which were based on the norms of the time. Currently The United States of America does enforce laws that restrict physical harm onto others and enacted an equal opportunity act, thus enabling all Americans regardless...
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...Assess the view that women are no longer oppressed by religion There are some aspects that show that women are no longer oppressed by religion as they are given more roles and responsibilities for example The Church of England has allowed women to be become priest since 1992. But in everyday life female followers of world religious leaders are often significantly more limited than males with regards to where they can go with whom they may associate. In this essay I am going to examine both views and examine whether women are no longer oppressed by religion. Everybody focuses to Muslim women worldwide as oppressed, more specifically the Muslim women in Afghanistan. People often fail to distinguish between culture and religion, two things that are completely different, In fact, Islam condemns oppression of any kind where it is towards a women or in general. Sometimes, people see covered Muslim women and they think oppression. This is wrong. Muslim woman are not oppressed, but they are liberated. This is because they are no longer valued for something material such as their good looks or she shape of her body. They compel others to judge her for her intelligence, kindness, honesty and personality. Therefore, people judge her for who she actually is. Women cover their hair to be modest. When they wear loose clothes, they are trying to be modest. In fact, nuns cover their hair out of modesty. Also, when we see the frequent pictures of the Virgin Mary, she is covering her hair...
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...Assess the view that women are no longer oppressed by religion (18 marks) Feminism is a conflict theory similar to Marxism, except instead of the working class being oppressed by the bourgeoisie, feminists (such as Simone De Beauvoir) believe that society is patriarchal and that women are oppressed by men. Religion is often viewed as something which preserves this and ensures that women remain subordinate to men by believing that their suffering is meaningful and they’ll be rewarded in heaven after death. There are many examples of patriarchy in religion, both historic and current. However, there is also sociological evidence that challenges the idea that women are subordinate to men. As Item A states, the feminist view that religion is a force for ‘patriarchal oppression’ is ‘supported by evidence such as the differential treatment of women in religious congregations.’ Evidence of patriarchy in places of worship is apparent in the way that men and women are required to worship separately in many faiths, such as orthodox synagogues where the men and women cannot sit together, and in the Islam faith women must pray behind the men, implying that the men are more important. However, this is not consistent in every religion, as in Reform Judaism and Christianity both men and women may worship together. Similarly, women can be oppressed through patriarchy in religious organisations. Karen Armstrong (1993) said that women being excluded from religious leadership in many faiths...
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...Knowledge is the Enlightenment, Necessary for Evolution: In Plato’s, “The Allegory of the Cave,” he is explaining in dialogue with question-and- answer form with Glaucon a student questioning the nature of human beings. The analogy of the cave and the prisoners within used to explain his belief. He discusses moral and philosophical problems; the prisoner must overcome to see the light after long periods of imprisonment. The light he refers to as a fire blazing at a distance, is the light the prisoners see while a low wall is along the way. The prisoner look over the wall to find strange images that he has never seen before is compelled immediately to look toward the light. The question then is would the prisoner suffer pain from the glare brought forth by the light, Plato then explains he will require to grow accustom to the light in order to clearly see the new images. Once the prisoner becomes accustom to the sight of the upper world, he will then see the reflection of others and of himself. Plato then explains the reaction the prisoner makes and his thoughts of himself to realize the reason about his own place. The prisoner, as Plato explains, realized that this exposure of new images in the upper world are not of what he was taught to be true in his old place in the den, and the wisdom brought forth by the den along with his fellow- prisoners; merely false notions. The truth the prisoner has seen in the upper world will then become a desire to continue to seek further the...
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...loose respect and are looked and frowned upon. To society “men” are not supposed to show any emotion but to be fearless and brave. They must always look hard, and if anytime a man puts his guard down he will be downgraded and will be looked as less than what he is. They will loose respect and will be picked on and/or putdown by others even women. Men in society have a strict way to be and act. Not following this idea that men are stones and must be powerful and strong is shaping and controlling the youth that is growing up and gives them a false sense that they must act a certain way to be considered a man. That they must abandon the way they think and feeling and hide it all to become even noticeable by others and not be disrespected. This is a big problem because to every man, being considered any less is their worst fear. This oppression does not only come from males but it also comes from females. Men who don’t fulfill these requirements to be considered a man are also looked down upon and also ignored by women. Women also have this idea that they need a bad boy who is fearless, who is big, strong, and powerful. Women demand this...
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...Cultures 3(1), 2015, pp. 24–44 ISSN (printed): 2327-5731 • e-ISSN 2375-6527 PHENOMENOLOGY OF RACIAL OPPRESSION LAUREN FREEMAN Lauren.Freeman@Louisville.edu University of Louisville ABSTRACT. This paper attempts to further understand the lived experiences of racial oppression by bringing together personal testimonies, resources from phenomenology, and empirical work on stereotype threat. Integrating these three areas provides a psychological, existential, physiological, and embodied understanding of the fundamental harm of racial oppression. My aim is to show that the harm of existing as racially oppressed is not just psychological or physiological. That is, racial oppression is not only harmful with regards to the immediate and lasting effects of the compiled stresses that result from continually being made aware of one’s bodily existence as “other” in a predominantly and normatively white world. In addition, racially oppressed people also often lose a sense of themselves, become alienated from themselves, and come to understand themselves vis-à-vis the oppressor. Combining contextualized analyses of the psychological, existential, physiological, and embodied dimensions of oppression, I argue that existing as racially oppressed in a white supremacist society also changes the ontological structure of one’s being-in-the-world. Keywords: phenomenology; oppression; stereotype threat; Martin Heidegger “Only when we come to be very clear about how race is lived, in...
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...photoshop. The male gaze creates this standard and many women of America are just desperately trying to keep up. It is an impossible height for us to reach and is even more difficult for women in the global south. Globalization has made the world smaller in that we can talk and share across cultures quickly. While we cannot control what other countries learn from our culture, we can see the devastating effects on women’s bodies all...
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...Privilege, Power, and Oppression Name Institution Privilege, Power, and Oppression I am not merely an individual; I am a product of a system of privilege. This is Tim Wise's position about how the community participates in constructing an individual. His primary concern is social privilege. Maybe the privilege never favored him, and privilege made him work hard. The system of privilege shaped the direction of his life. The hardships caused by lack of privilege and the real life brought by privilege is his construction: a product of the system of privilege. He is conscious about the power and legacy of privilege in the society (Tisdell, 1993). He says that Politicians often talk about issues like housing, poverty, healthcare and education, but they rarely link them to the role that racism plays in the United States. He adds that the media often reports personal crimes while under-reporting organized and traditional discrimination. In the country, Black and Latino males are most prospective to have their cars stopped and searched for drugs. Tim’s argument regarding the color-blind perspective relates completely to the issue of the privilege system. In the system, color-blindness is treated like an inability. Talking about the realities race, oppression and white privilege make people uncomfortable. There are races that feel superior and their position oppresses the minorities. Institutional privilege and inequality exist in every society, including...
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...Ramone Snowden Hum 200 June 30th, 2016 Oppression Oppression undermines groups or individuals of humanity in different ways and is a pervasive theme in the books Heart of Darkness and Tess of the D’Urbervilles. In the novel Heart of Darkness, oppression is demonstrated by human’s desire to control others through slavery. Oppression is also demonstrated in the novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles as viewed in the treatment of Tess and women of that time period. Oppression is the underlying theme within these books that demonstrates power and domination which results in the situations of slavery and victims of fate. These two novels give a better understanding of the theme of oppression that’s presented within the characters and the heart of the stories. Tess of the D’Urbervilles is a story about tragedy and oppressive events that Tess faces. These events begin to occur after the death of Prince, the horse of the Durbeyfield’s. With the death of Prince, Tess knew her family would face economic devastation. With Tess feeling guilty about the situation that happened, her parents decided to use her guilt against her to ultimately agree to work for Mrs. D’Urberville (Chap V). The Durbeyfield’s knew that they had a form of power over Tess because of her feelings of guilt and Tess allowed her parents to control her decision based on her guilt. Tess was so blinded by the death of Prince and the guilt that resulted, that she forgot what her brother Abraham...
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...naked truth of the erotic for so long. Lorde’s essay, equal parts informative and poetic, is a defiant declaration against oppression, and aims to reveal and convince the reader of the truth in relation to the erotic. Using invitational rhetoric, “Uses of the Erotic” communicates themes of feminine liberation and defiance in the face of oppression. Imparting information by way of defiant declaration, the reader is offered a path to illumination. Lorde opens her essay with an introduction, or shall I say, reintroduction to a misunderstood “erotic.” Her interpretation of the erotic differs greatly from society’s, which perceives it as a purely physical sexuality lacking in emotional intimacy. Lorde defines the erotic as “a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling” (Lorde, 1984, p. 53). She conveys the erotic to the reader as a fundamental inner force of connectedness, explaining that it functions not only as a physical experience and expression, but a metaphysical sense of connectedness as well. Lorde aims to reveal and convince the reader of the truth in relation to the erotic. She goes onto explain that women carry within themselves the erotic, a lost source power. When one frees themselves from the choking hold of this male modeled oppression, and embraces the elemental force within, a metamorphosis occurs, and the chaos that has ruled...
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...Vicky Silva 30 May 2015 English 204 Professor Jimenez The Complexities of Being a Feminist If being a woman in today’s patriarchal led society is hard to be taken serious, it is hard to imagine how much harder it must have been many, many generations ago, it must have been next to impossible to express a thought, an idea when the like of Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz was roaming the earth. Hell, it has only been less than 50 years ago when women were just viewed as housewives, secretaries and nurses. Yet, it has taken more than 100 years for women to be viewed as equals. This idea of gender equality is not something new. The feminist movement has been an old, progressive one. Many women and men alike have had these gender equity ideas for centuries; this idea is not a new one as pioneers from Sor Juana to Kate Chopin to even the present-day Emma Watson, have stated time and time again, women are faced with oppression by the patriarchal society in many different ways that hurt women and men alike. Kate Chopin wrote many short stories in her time that pushed the envelope for the feminist movement. Two stories in particular were “The Storm” and “ The Story of An Hour”. Both of these stories have a female protagonist oppressed by a male antagonist, which very much can be construed as a commentary of what social normal behavior was, a patriarchal driven society that oppressed any type of female freedoms or expressions. In Chopin’s short story, “The Story of An Hour” the...
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