In the readings of this week, we read about “there is no hierarchy of oppression” by Audre Lorde. In this reading, Audre Lorde speaks about “oppression, and the intolerance of difference come in all shapes and sexes and colors and sexualities.” She wants you to know that to be free from oppression, you need to tackle all the forms of oppression as one. The readings touch on intersectionality, which I did not understand, but once I read more about it, I understood that there is an overlapping factor of discrimination or disadvantage. Audre lord explains that she can’t be entirely okay with the one side of her identity being oppressed and the other side of her identity benefiting from it.
In the Allan Johnson reading, “Patriarchy: the system,” he speaks about the misconceptions and stereotypes of the word patriarchy. The understanding is that the word patriarchy is related to men because it identifies that all men are automatically oppressive. Johnsons bring up a point that people are confused about how they cannot separate the patriarchy as a system and as an individual. We need to see this from a sociological perspective to understand better the individual and why things like gender oppression arise. We need to see the social construction and participate in it without being aware. We need to understand the rotation that this effect can have by identifying the patriarchy as men who want to oppress women. We need to eliminate the thought we automatically have when we think about the word so it doesn’t continue to be used in a context that does not have the true meaning.