Regarding "Oppression"

Oppression - Marilyn Frye

Reflection

Though it may not be a popular opinion, I do not believe feminism in its current incarnation (as in, regards to how it is currently in our society) is healthy at all.  I am a vocal supporter of equality for both men and women, but I do believe that some (note: some, not all) people have lost sight of what feminism was intended to be, and use it more to victimize themselves than to actual bring about positive change.  More on this in a second.

The author talks about "oppression" quite a bit - it's even in the title - and specifically references how the counter-argument to feminism in and of itself is often that men are oppressed too, while feminism argues that women are oppressed.  My question in response to it, is why are we having this argument at all? What I mean is, both men and women are oppressed, but why do we break it down and "pick sides" by looking at it from a gender perspective? In every race, gender, category, city, you name it, there's people that are going to have it worse off than others.  Rather than working together for a common goal to improve the lives of everyone, we resort to taking sides and creating enemies out of ourselves.

Women are unfairly oppressed in the country - whether it has to do with jobs, the awful sense of rape culture in society, or even just wages and things of the sort.  Men are oppressed too, and one thing the author brings up is the fact that men are looked at as "weak" if they cry, and how women may not want a man that appears weak.  And while I can't dispute that these things do happen and attention should be brought to them, I think the entire idea of picking sides is absolutely silly.  As people, both men and women, we should do whatever we can to make things better for everyone.  If the goal of women is to make things better just for women, then eventually things get worse for men.  And when that happens, men become "more oppressed" and fight to change that, which leads to women doing the same.  In other words, it's a vicious cycle of constant one-ups-manship.

I quite liked the article because at least the author made an effort to portray both sides as having issues, and not trying to shut down one side or the other.  As a people and a society, we have so much more we could be doing to improve and reduce "oppression" for everyone, but instead it feels like sometimes we're taking steps backwards rather than forwards.

Video: The video, while it isn't perfect, sort of shows what I'm talking about, in that it gives the viewer the ability to judge which side was "in the wrong".  I would have liked to have found something that explains it better, but I think it was alright.

The above picture is meant to represent the idea of gender equality, in that both sides are oppressed equally.

Additional questions/comments: I don't think there's much else I have to add, other than perhaps to ask what others think? I understand that the way I worded it may have been confusing, but I hate the idea of generalizing anyone's oppression because everyone can suffer in different ways.