Oppression By Marilyn Frye

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Recommended: Gender role in literature

Marilyn Frye, a feminist philosopher, discusses the idea of oppression and how it conforms people into gender roles. She claims that it is based upon membership in a group which leads to shaping, pressing, and molding individuals, both women and men. She happens to apply the use of an analogy of a bird trapped within a cage to fit her description. She characterizes the presentation of the individual bars as no barrier, and that the small groupings of the bars should also be insignificant to the overall structure. If you take an extremely close look at the system, you will perceive that the microscopic view only sees one or a few bars. On the other hand, from a more broad distinguishment, the macroscopic view witnesses the entire cage. This formulation leads to one of her main points for her argument that one is obligated to look at society more extensively, from a broader outlook, and comprehend how particular pieces fit into that universal network. Frye will go on to describe different mechanisms of oppression such as the double bind and confinement and dispersal. The double bind can defined as a circumstance where options are reduced to a very few and all of them reveal one to penalty, censure, or …show more content…

These constraints include being less emotional, not being involved with fashion, or even special types of careers, like nursing. One of the definitions of oppression includes mental pressure or distress, and I feel that men not being able to do some of these activities or commit to some of these lifestyles, simply because society views it as inappropriate, is a factor to oppression. If some men happen to like or favor some of these things, then what is the big problem with that? Society should not maintain the authority to determine roles for women and men and what things they should or should not be involved

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