I experience privilege every day to an extent that I had not realized before reading the required readings and watching the very informative, interesting video. The video alone struck me in ways the readings were not able to because it was such a visual representation of the differences in hardships we face everyday. It taught me that although I may go through certain difficulties, there may very well be a long line of individuals behind me who face oppression in ways I am not subject to, such as sexual orientation and many more. The video made me even more grateful that I am able to wake up everyday with access to clean water, a roof over my head, and food in my fridge. I am able to attend college, unlike many other individuals around the world with no access to an education. I am able to work the job that I am employed in, which provides me with enough money to pay for my bills and the extra little things I want but do not necessarily need. I may not be rich, but I am able to sustain myself in a manner which many around the world, and maybe even in my vicinity are not. I also experience oppression, being a woman that belongs to a minority group, but lives in a capitalist country, and a young mother. The boundaries that are placed around me to not allow me to succeed work with each other to keep me oppressed. Furthermore, Marilyn Frye details how women are sexually discriminated, specifically in the country where I reside; “Another example: It is common in the United States that women, especially younger women, are in a bind where neither sexual activity nor sexual inactivity is all right. If she is heterosexually active, a woman is open to censure and punishment for being loose, unprincipled or a whore”. Due to the fact that I am a mother, when I walk down the street I know that it is evident that I have been sexually active and it construes an image of me in stranger’s heads which I cannot change. I also have to act a certain way and so does my child, so that my parenting skills are not questioned or challenged by society.

Watching the video and doing the readings clarified my definition of privilege and oppression. Privilege is having the ability to do or obtain something that someone else is not able to, although both parties have no control over this. It is something that you are born with or into that makes your life easier than another person’s. Oppression is the social act of severe restrictions that impede an individual, or group of individuals, from being able to successfully maneuver the boundaries around them. As defined by Marilyn Frye, it is comparable to a bird cage, in which all of the wires work together to constraint the bird’s flight to freedom.