Analysis Of The Article Five Faces Of Oppression By Iris Young
In the article “Five Faces of Oppression”, Iris Young articulates her argument of there being five types of oppression prevalent in society that is best described as a structural concept since it is not just in the way that everyone acts, but rather it’s ingrained into the average everyday life. Young begins by first laying out the foundation of the word “oppression” that she will further analyze. She acknowledges that, when on this topic, many would think that oppression is “the exercise of tyranny by a ruling group”, which isn’t wrong necessarily, however, it is the traditional usage that’ll evolve as time passes and new events occur.
As the 1960s and 1970s come around, the meaning of the word changes and it soon becomes a word to describe a type of oppression that “designates the disadvantage and injustice some people suffer, not because of a tyrannical power coerces them, but because of the everyday practices of a well-intentioned liberal society”. With this, she asserts that it is more or less a structural concept due to the point that the oppressive manner does not lie within the laws and policies, but rather in the well-intentioned everyday life actions from one person to another in society which allows oppression to embed itself in a way that will reproduce. Because of this, she believes that there isn’t a single definition that fully capture the essence of what oppression is so she separates it into five categories that’ll shed light on different angles on it.
Exploitation is the one that starts it all and she gives credit where it’s due by stating that it is first and foremost Marx’s theory and that she is merely explaining why it is a part of the oppression family of five. In a nutshell, she declares that it “enacts a structural relation social groups”. From there branches off to the social rules that comes along with it and it sets restrictions on who receives what job, the amount of compensation they are receiving, who does what type of job and so on and so forth. It is the taking the labor of one group to ultimately benefit another with little to no fair compensation of the work that they had just produced. This is duly enforced by capitalism. For sweatshop workers, they are put to work in strenuous conditions for a wage that is not well worth the labor they had to produce to make profit for those who own the company. She then focuses on the idea of gender exploitation which “has two aspects, transfer of fruits of material labor to men and transfer of the nurturing and sexual energies to men”.
It is obvious that women do labor at home through various tasks, however, the fact that it is being done for someone else that they are ultimately dependent on is what makes it exploitive. To add on, women are expected to be there sexually for men, bear their children and provide both with the utmost care while receiving little to no compensation for any of it. Another way of understanding exploitation is the unequal spread of resources, wealth, or anything substantial among different groups that came from the transfers of energies from one group for another.
Marginalization is more common than exploitation and it is those who “the system of labor cannot or will not use”. This does not only specify race, but a large number of other groups of people as well such as the elderly, the youth, single parents, the disabled, so on and so forth. This is considered one of the most threatening out of the five and it is because “a whole category of people [are] expelled from useful participation in social life, then is potentially subjected to severe material deprivation and even extermination”.
This means that since some groups may not be contributing to society in a useful manner, they may receive welfare and that comes with income restrictions and a gradual sense of growing dependence on the government. Continuing with the welfare example, it may lead to material deprivation because there're restrictions on how much one can make to maintain it, which keeps this particular group in an area that is inescapable dependency, and at that point, they are either deprived of the welfare or the possible income they could have above the maximum restriction point. She does admit that dependency is a way that forms oppression, but it’s not always the case because at one point in time, every person will have to experience that like those who are sick, recovering from childbirth and so on and so forth so it is not fair to put the blame on dependency itself. So marginalization, in short, is the social exclusion and disadvantage of certain groups in comparison to others. Powerlessness is the idea that there are those who have power and there are those who don’t. Those who feel powerless feel so because they do not or cannot take direct action to alter how they live. This is simply illustrated in the labor industry. The wage workers are conditioned, in a way, to take orders and just carry them out, without very much questioning or direct action to alter their life. They are considered to be non-professionals, and they lack the “authority, status and sense of self that professionals tend to have”. Professionals have a status privilege that consists of three elements, which are the acquiring of experience and education, the power of authority and respectability. With experience and education comes knowledge of what to do to progress and non-professionals lacks this kind of mindset. Professionals may not have authority over all, but they do have enough to give them a sense of power which once again, the non-professionals lack. Lastly, they have respectability which means that those around them are willing to listen to them and they receive more respectable treatment in comparison to others like non-professionals. This is also “in the dynamics of racism and sexism”.
Women often have to prove themselves worthy of respect and those of color must also prove themselves worthy daily. Cultural imperialism is the “universalization of a dominant group’s experience and culture, and its establishment as the norm”. This basically means that those from that group view their experiences and culture to be what everyone else in the world experiences as well, but that can be challenged when they come along another group that is relatively dominant too that claims their culture is universal. Some instances of this is heterosexuality vs homosexuality, women vs men and so on and so forth. She then brings up the culturally oppressed experience of “double consciousness”, a theory brought upon by W.E.B Du Bois. She explains by claiming it “arises when the oppressed subject refuses to coincide with these devalued, objectified, stereotyped visions of himself”. This occurs because there are those who are in a dilemma trying to either fit into the dominant culture or the subordinate culture. Those experiencing oppression through the use of cultural imperialism see their experiences in all and it becomes difficult for them to see life and society in any other manner.
Violence is the last face of oppression covered by Young. Many groups suffer from type of oppression by having to live looking behind their shoulders, fearful for the next attack not because of person they are, but most commonly because they are a part of that targeted group. She asserts that, “The oppression of violence consists not only in direct victimization, but in the daily knowledge shared by all member of oppressed groups that they are liable to violation, solely on the account of the group identity”. The constant fear leads to the deprivation of freedom and safety which forces them to use more of their energy to find ways to protect themselves. This is now considered a social practice due to the idea that it will typically be expected from certain situations such as men picking up a hitchhiker will lead to the thought of rape. Group-directed violence is in a way more tolerated and to further support that, they often receive no consequences from it therefore it has become more acceptable in society's eyes. With the use of violence, they either are Xenophobic or they are using it out of pure hatred. Xenophobic violence is known for its irrationality and is used in order to maintain authority and power. However, there are those who do not care for that and they use this expression to convey their anger and hatred against particular groups.
Oppression has five faces and it consists of exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence. All ties into it being a structural concept more or less because the roots lie in society and how different groups act amongst one another.
