Five Faces Of Oppression

Iris Young. Five Faces Of Oppression. Oppression, Privilege, & Resistance. McGraw-Hill, 2004. Pg. 37-63.

Young's article, Five Faces of Oppression, explains five types of oppression: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. Exploitation is used by the the establishment of a class system. Class systems are used to separate/classify people, which in turn leads to those in power discriminating against those without it. Marginalization causes racial oppression. This is when people are racially divided and it is determined who can work and who can't. Powerlessness is when people are oppressed simply by not having the power. Those in power exercise it over the powerless, giving them orders and telling them what they must do. Cultural imperialism is when the dominant group's experience and culture is established as norms. When the dominant group has the power, they oppress those who do not share their culture. The last oppression is Violence. Violence is used to oppress people through damage, humiliation or physical harm to a person. These five types of oppression are used to discriminate and assure dominance over those who are being oppressed.

I believe the main arguments in Five Faces Of Oppression was to categorize the five different ways the people without power are oppressed. In all five of these categories, the dominant group who oppresses people are the ones with power. Young's explanation of oppression shows us how a group who possesses power can control and keep down those who do not have power. Those who possess the power also gain it through ascribed status.

I agree with Young's argument that only those with power are the ones who can oppress. Without power, people cannot create class systems, determine who can work, have the power to tell people what to do, make others accept their culture or be allowed to commit violence. These are all traits that the dominant group in power has. Without power, people are subjugated to the five categories of oppression. I think it is wrong that those who control power use it to oppress others. Those who possess the power should try to help those without it.

As a minority, I can see and understand how the dominant group oppresses those without power. But as a male, I get a small sense of what it is like to be in the dominant group. I believe that racial, gender, class and other groups that I can identify with, can be applied to Young's argument. It is explained that these five types of oppression are applied to different groups, which in turn gives them different names; racism, sexism, classism, herterosexism, ageism, etc. The dominant group in our culture would be white and male. Young argues that those with power are the dominant group. In my case, I am not part of the dominant group when it comes to race, but I am when it comes to gender.