This week’s reading were very insightful and I love how these women were not afraid to express the different ways that they weren’t informed of how privileged and how oppression correlate.

Marilyn Fyre goes into detail about oppression, specifically pointing out the word Press in Oppression meaning there is always applied pressure somehow. Whether the pressure of a society, the pressure women feel after speaking up or defending themselves. The word press relates to being flattened or reduced, which was a remarkably interesting thing to mention. Women are molded and restricted by barriers society has placed. Women in general have truly little to no support. She continues expressing how women at times are considered difficult or unpleasant if they are not smiling in the face of oppression. Women are victim shamed for being sexually active and are consider promiscuous. If a woman says no, she is offend killed or talked down to for saying no. I experienced this when I was a teenaged girl. A guy would try to talk to me, I would ignore him, and he would say you are ugly anyway. Being a woman, we get sticked with a double standard that is so unfair. Oppression has always been a word I have been familiar with, I have experienced oppression walking on a sidewalk when I white person is walking, I would move out the way, and unknowingly for a while I did not realize they expect for me to move, til one day I decided I would not move out the way they had to step aside and let me pass for once! It was the funniest thing they were flustered and did not know which way to go LOL!.  I know this type of oppression is minuscule compared to those of others. Try it when you are walking down the street, white people see right through you like you do not exist. 

This also relates to Peggy Melntosh’s article White Privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack,  

She explains how most white people are not taught about their white privilege, especially Men. How they have this unwillingness to acknowledge that they have privileges. White people are taught not to recognize their white privilege and men taught not to acknowledge their male privilege. Honesty passing as a white Latina I did not realize that I had that privilege until I was in my twenty’s when I started to open my eyes outside of my own experiences. I can act as a shield to protect my Brown and Black family members and friends. Then there were things like the disrespect from strange men on the street that other women have experienced that I no longer felt alone. Men have the simple privilege of walking down the street at night with no care in the world and us women walk with precaution and on high alert the whole way home or we do the buddy system to make sure we get home safely.  

I would like to mention how optimistic I am for this generation because people are becoming more self-aware and having these uncomfortable conversations that make people aware of their actions and the ways they can change them for the better. We can all just look out for each other and acknowledge each other’s experiences.