Oppression by Marilyn Frye: Summary

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Throughout history, women have been victims of repression, because men comfort themselves with the idea that women need to be guided and looked after. But today, female oppression is worse because women have grown unaware since it has become a part of womens identity. The destruction of the female character has been silently shaped by mens desires and their diminishing view of the female character.

Marilyn Frye, an American feminist, focused her attention on the female role in todays modern society. Fryes article ‘Oppression’ revolts for female oppression, their diminished role in society, and the bars silently created around them. Frye was able to break down and interpret the word ‘oppression’. In her essay, she includes examples of men opening doors for women and metaphors that link oppression with birdcage social structures. In her analysis of oppression, Frye argues that members of oppressed groups commonly experience ‘double binds’, that they are daily faced with limited options to choose among. These binds are created and shaped by forces and barriers which are neither accidental nor avoidable but are systematically related to each other.

Frye believes that oppression can be surfaced unknowingly between men and women. The first example touches on the simple actions that men do for women, such as opening a door: The arresting of vision at a microscopic level yields such common confusion as that about the male door-opening ritual. This ritual, which is remarkably widespread across classes and races, puzzles many people, some of whom do and some of whom do not find it offensive. Look at the scene of the two people approaching a door. The male steps slightly ahead and opens the door. The male holds the door open while the female glides through. Then the male goes through. The door closes after them (12). This particular scenario happens to women often and can seem to many people that this is simply a helpful gesture between a man and a woman and is often defined as chivalry. Frye argues that these ‘chivalrous’ gestures are condoned oppressive behaviors: The gallant gestures have no practical meaning. Their meaning is symbolic. The door-opening and similar services provided are services which really are needed by people who are for one reason or another incapacitated unwell, burdened with parcels, etc. So, the message is that women are incapable. The detachment of the acts from the concrete realities of what women need and do not need is a vehicle for the message that womens actual needs and interests are unimportant or irrelevant (13). Frye seems to claim that when a man goes out of his way to perform such a simple task, he takes away any progress that a woman has made at that moment. The symbolism reveals the misconception that women need assistance, that women are unable to complete certain tasks for themselves, as they are weak and/or helpless. However, it should be noted that there is a certain detachment from these ideas, according to Frye: The detachment of the acts from the concrete realities of what women need and do not need is a vehicle for the message that womens actual needs and interests are unimportant or irrelevant (13). In summary, oppression makes its way into our daily lives through simple gestures that appear to be harmless. However, Frye strongly implies that these gestures only keep women from making decisions and progressing. Frye poses some great questions to ask oneself to attempt to determine when oppression occurs within society: Who constructs and what maintains it? Whose interests are served by its existence? Is it part of a structure that tends to confine, reduce, and immobilize some group? Is the individual a member of the confined group? (15). By asking these types of questions, one can uncover the root of the oppression and oppressive behavior.

Women are caught in a double bind, either as being weak and unable to defend themselves or as cruel and selfish for making their own decisions. Marilyn Frye outlined the story of men who cry oppression and institutions that instill the double bind. But people must adapt to a macroscopic viewpoint for women to truly progress by being unconfined and mobilized. Society needs to be able to give women the power to choose and do as they would like.

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Oppression by Marilyn Frye: Summary