Throughout the course of this week’s readings, I withdrew the “intersection” among races and genders. I saw the similarity between how men are usually unconscious of their oppressiveness over women and how whites are negligent of their privilege. Privilege is defined as power and strength but a lack of moral strength: McIntosh mentions in “White Privilege and Male Privilege” that “privilege simply confers dominance, gives permission to control, because of one’s race or sex.” Privileged people should appreciate their beneficial rights, instead of abusing them and help underprivileged
In the male-dominant society, women often face dilemmas especially in sexual activities. The community censures only women when they involve in sexual activities with men; Frye mentions “Both heterosexual activity and nonactivity are likely to be taken as proof that you wanted to be raped, and hence, of course, weren’t really raped at all. You can’t win. You are caught in a bind, caught between systematically related pressures”. She emphasizes how women, the “oppressed,” have controlled “sexual” rights. Women were forced to control their basic rights while men did not have their sexual rights. She compares women’s lives to birds living in a “cage surrounded by a network, of systematically related barriers”.
I must address Frye’s metaphorical use of “door-opening” to explain how people misunderstand the “oppressive system” between two genders impressed me: some people think that women are stubborn and filled with anger and complaints while men always do the tough work. Frye compares the commonly mistaken idea that men are also oppressed by the stresses of having to be masculine with the phenomenon of the pressure to open the door for women who are not “incapacitated”. I could not agree more with Frye’s description of the oppressed woman’s experience. I felt like all my irritation at being ignored as a woman till now all melted down after reading the article. I love how she connects these behaviors to those of servants toward masters: she writes, “The message of the false helpfulness of male gallantry is female dependence, the invisibility or insignificance of women, and contempt for women”. I think “false helpfulness of male gallantry” is the perfect way of explaining men’s unnecessary gestures to help women.
Fortunately, Lorde suggests that women can still have social power even in a patriarchal world, and the only way to survive in the society where people are intolerable of differences is to “make the differences strengths. For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” I agree that people need to acknowledge the differences instead of disregarding them. The more they ignore the differences of skin color or class, the wider the gap among the people will grow.
It is quite easy to draw similarities between unacknowledged male privilege and white privilege because “whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege”. I think men are oblivious to their privilege because they already are in the superior position and therefore insensible to how women would feel inferior to them. Men think that they are predominant and deserve the privilege they possess because they have done the most important tasks during civilization. Even if there were men who supported the improvement of women’s status, they tended to insist that “male domination is natural and follows inevitably from evolutionary pressures” and oppress women as a result.
In the male-dominant society, women often face dilemmas especially in sexual activities. The community censures only women when they involve in sexual activities with men; Frye mentions “Both heterosexual activity and nonactivity are likely to be taken as proof that you wanted to be raped, and hence, of course, weren’t really raped at all. You can’t win. You are caught in a bind, caught between systematically related pressures”. She emphasizes how women, the “oppressed,” have controlled “sexual” rights. Women were forced to control their basic rights while men did not have their sexual rights. She compares women’s lives to birds living in a “cage surrounded by a network, of systematically related barriers”.
I must address Frye’s metaphorical use of “door-opening” to explain how people misunderstand the “oppressive system” between two genders impressed me: some people think that women are stubborn and filled with anger and complaints while men always do the tough work. Frye compares the commonly mistaken idea that men are also oppressed by the stresses of having to be masculine with the phenomenon of the pressure to open the door for women who are not “incapacitated”. I could not agree more with Frye’s description of the oppressed woman’s experience. I felt like all my irritation at being ignored as a woman till now all melted down after reading the article. I love how she connects these behaviors to those of servants toward masters: she writes, “The message of the false helpfulness of male gallantry is female dependence, the invisibility or insignificance of women, and contempt for women”. I think “false helpfulness of male gallantry” is the perfect way of explaining men’s unnecessary gestures to help women.
Fortunately, Lorde suggests that women can still have social power even in a patriarchal world, and the only way to survive in the society where people are intolerable of differences is to “make the differences strengths. For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” I agree that people need to acknowledge the differences instead of disregarding them. The more they ignore the differences of skin color or class, the wider the gap among the people will grow.
It is quite easy to draw similarities between unacknowledged male privilege and white privilege because “whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege”. I think men are oblivious to their privilege because they already are in the superior position and therefore insensible to how women would feel inferior to them. Men think that they are predominant and deserve the privilege they possess because they have done the most important tasks during civilization. Even if there were men who supported the improvement of women’s status, they tended to insist that “male domination is natural and follows inevitably from evolutionary pressures” and oppress women as a result.
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