The Gaga Wave

Dear Women,

                                  

“You should know your place in the house."

Sincerely,

Your Oppressor

 

 

I think there’s a sweet blissful feeling of being ignorant. The way we are blind to the world and the harshness it makes us endure. I explained to my friend how Marilyn Frye changed my perspective on guys holding the door for me. I thought it was such a sweet gesture for a guy to race ahead of their group of friends just to hold the door open for the females. It was cute. However, these men hold the door open when we females are perfectly able to do it ourselves. When it comes to more substantial things they are nowhere to be found. When girls are being told they are too ugly or too fat or they need help with something else the men aren’t around because that’s something a woman can deal with themselves. Women are oppressed and the sad fact is we don’t realize the extent to which we are being smothered because women don’t realize that oppression comes in other forms other than outright cruelty.

              Oppression to me used to mean that someone was hindering the abilities of another in a way that could clearly be seen. Oppression, rather the root press, is defined by Marilyn Frye in her article “Oppression” as something used to mold things, to flatten them by squeezing out what’s inside them. To be oppressed isn’t just shown explicitly but implicitly as well. Like in the example of men holding the door for women or even when men assume a woman cannot open that jar of pickles. This makes me wonder how else am I being used like a piece of clay for a model project? How else am I looked down at, undermined, babied because of my gender? It makes me realize that not only do I have to face the battle my race causes but now my gender. Two things I cannot control are defining my life and how people look at and treat me.

In the article written by Audre Lorde titled “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” it relates to the article by Frye because both articles revolve around the topic of barriers. “Oppression” talks about barriers in the sense that we don’t see how trapped and confined we actually are as women. In Lorde’s article barriers are discussed in the sense that there is only a small window available for change to actually take place. The articles relate to one another in the sense that there are barriers that keep women oppressed and ignorant. Women of color especially are at a disadvantage, as well as those who are poor. There is an unspoken rule that women shouldn’t wear certain clothing because it is said to entice males and it’ll be their fault in a case of rape or harassment, since their outfit showed “they wanted it.”

An idea that I find the most valuable in both essays is the fact that barriers are placed on women in society. I think of it more like a cage, kind of like the one you would get for a dog. When you buy the cage you make sure there is a little bit of extra room so the dog can feel comfortable and would be able to move around. Women are placed in such a cage. It’s wrong for us to be called strong instead of sensitive. If we say we want a job before a family an uproar occurs. People need to be valued in society just like the average white male.

-Tatiana F.