Interlocking Oppressions

[unspeakablehorror]

I think it's vital to emphasize the directional nature of oppression because otherwise the actual dynamics of who is being harmed and how much by it gets lost in a vague individualist 'everyone suffers from oppression' sentiment.

But I also think it's important to see how forms of oppression interlock. Even if this were not omnipresent, solidarity would still be vital, but the fact that it is consistently interlocking like this only increases its importance.

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Intersectionality is a big issue. So for instance, women and black people are oppressed, but black women more than white women or black men. A poor black lesbian in a wheelchair is really screwed.

However, it's also important to remember that oppression is a sword without a hilt: it always does damage to the oppressor as well as the oppressed. Not as much, not the same kind, but some. It's corrosive. It corrupts. And it is absolutely vital to know, not just your enemy's weaknesses, but when it's gone far enough that he is no longer quite sane. That changes his actions, and if you want to outmaneuver him, then you need to have some idea what he's done to himself so that you can fight him more effectively.

Take sexism for example. The more your enemy abuses and denigrates women, the more he buys into machismo ... the easier it gets to bait him into aggressive moves where you have laid a trap accordingly. Racism? Will incline your enemy to overlook people of color, so if want spies, recruit from there. And so on.

Re: Thoughts

[unspeakablehorror]

I agree that intersectionality is vital to understand, especially as one facet of oppression is misrepresenting intersectionality to be something it's not. To name a few examples I've encountered all too often:

*White people who are oppressed under other axes emphasizing their whiteness when they discuss their oppression and emphasizing specifically the white people in those groups as people they feel special solidarity towards

*Trans men trying to forward a narrative of transandrophobia and position their oppression as having some element of misandry rather than their oppression stemming from transphobia

*Black men and people positioning themselves as antiracist allies centering men in their antiracist activism (and thus ignoring the very issues of intersectionality that the original article on this topic was about!)

I think oppression can damage the oppressor, but as I said, I also think it's important to contextualize this to avoid contributing to narratives of fake oppression (ex racism against white people, misandry against men). While fascists for example are very direct in espousing these kinds of oppressive ideals, others cloak them in the language of intersectionality and social justice, and it's important to be able to recognize that too.