Oppression
Dynamics
A little background
1. Social Group
• A group of people who share a range of physical, cultural, or
social characteristics within one of the social identity
categories
Social Identity Categories
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Sex
Class
Sexual Orientation
Physical, developmental, and psychological ability
Race
Religion
Age
Gender
2. Differences in Statuses
- Some people have greater access to social power and privilege
based upon membership in their social group (Examples).
- Some people’s access to social power is limited or denied
(Examples).
Statuses
• Advantaged: Agent, dominant, oppressor, privileged
• Targeted: Target, subordinate, oppressed, disadvantaged
Social Group Statuses
3. Oppression
• A system that maintains advantage and disadvantage based on
social group memberships and operates, intentionally and
unintentionally on individual, institutional and cultural levels
Individual
• Attitudes and actions reflect prejudice against a social group.
• Examples:
Institutional
• Policies, laws, rules, norms, and customs enacted by
organizations and social institutions that disadvantage some
social group and advantage others.
• Examples:
Societal/Cultural
• Social norms, roles, rituals, language, music, and art that
reflect and reinforce that belief that one social group is
superior to another.
• Examples:
• http://www.upworthy.com/i-am-livid-that-a-magazine-didthis-to-jennifer-lawrence-and-my-guess-is-she-is-too
4.Privilege
• UNEARNED access to resources (social power) only readily
available to some people as a result of their advantaged social
group membership.
• Examples:
5. Oppressions Many
Manifestations
6. Socialization
7. Oppression Based on Negative
Stereotypes
• Stereotypes: generalizations about the attributes of a
particular group that disregard individual diversity within the
group.
• They don’t “STICK” for Agent groups
• Examples of Stereotypes for Men/Women
8. Dynamics of Oppression
• A. Vertical Dynamics – Oppression occurs in interactions
between Agent groups and Targeted groups that maintain and
reinforce oppression.
• Examples:
Dynamics Cont’d
B. Horizontal Dynamics – Interactions among advantaged group
members and as well as interactions between targeted group
members can maintain and reinforce oppression
• Examples:
Internalized Dynamics
C. When members of
advantaged and targeted
groups adopt the dominant
ideology about their own
groups that maintains and
reinforces oppression.
• Advantaged groups accept
their group’s socially
superior status as
normal and deserved.
- Targeted groups internalize
dominant social messages of
inferiority about their group.
• Examples:
• http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=pds9za_oML0
Complexities of Multiple
Identities
• Oppression is
complicated and
dynamic.
• Disadvantage and
privilege is related
between all of our
social group
memberships.