The Four I's of Oppression
In this video by Luna Malbroux she discusses the 4 types of oppression. The first being Ideological oppression which is a set of ideas or beliefs instilled in us from a young age. The belief that girls wear pink and are delicate while boys wear blue and are rough. We grow up believing in these stereotypes, believing that boys can not express their feelings or emotions and girls need to be obedient and nice. These stereotypes allow for oppression at a very young age, it allows for boys to be dominant and not show emotions while girls are obedient thus allowing sexism.
Sexism brings up interpersonal oppression which is the way oppression is expressed between any group or individuals. The idea that one specific group is better than the other and it gives the dominant group the ability to mistreat the oppressed group. This belief allows for disrespect or mistreatment of women in almost all cultures. Institutionalized oppression which is a systemic mistreatment of people or social identity group, supported by society and institutions. This type of oppression affects many groups of individuals. One example can be a women's right to make decisions about their own body, there have been recent changes in the law like the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. The women most affected are unfortunately women of low income jobs and women of color who have less access to health care. These policies and law changes feels like an attack on women's freedom and are constructed by society to continue to oppress women and diminish the right to make our own decisions.
The next type of oppression and in my opinion the most impactful is Internalized oppression. This oppression addresses the way we as individuals absorb the belief system that is instilled in us from a very young age. This can really affect our mental well-being and affect us in negative ways. We can tend to belief that we may be undeserving of some of our accomplishments. I can recall as a new graduate nurse going into my patient's room to introduce myself and some of my patient's assumed I was their CNA simply because of my race. I felt the need to prove that I was a good nurse capable of providing the medical care they needed. I experienced some mental conflict within myself because I knew that many hispanic women were not going to college and becoming educated. I was the first college graduate in my family and while I was very proud of this accomplishment, I also doubted my abilities as a hispanic educated woman. All the women in my family were homemakers or working low paying jobs and I could have easily taken that path but my mother also instilled in me the belief that I had the ability to pursue a career and make positive change for the next generation of women in my family. I knew I had to graduate college not only for myself but for my family. I wanted to eliminate the stigma suggesting that hispanic females are not worthy of pursuing a career.
My take away on the video is the importance of having the knowledge of all oppressions and how it affects us in every aspect of our lives is crucial. We need to address all negative impacts that oppression causes and be open to discussion even when it is an uncomfortable conversation. On last week's reading Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan Johnson it discussed the importance of opening up discussion even when it makes us feel somewhat uncomfortable. We can't ignore the fact that this oppression exists in our everyday life and need to be open to discussion. We need to open up the discussion of how oppression impacts us as individuals and what actions we can take to make significant changes. Just like the quote says, "The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people." I find this to be a very strong quote because we can say that we are not the problem because we treat everyone equally but on the other hand avoid bringing up these issues that affect us as individuals and in society as a whole.
