The oppressed majority

Well, were making progress nine year olds can get a divorce.

Well ye know
What woman is, for none of woman born
Can choose but drain the bitter dregs of woe
Which ever to the oppressed from the oppressors flow.

SHELLEY

"Gender oppression cuts through all other forms of domination and exploitation in human societies. In particular, it extends beyond class conflicts, but it also cuts through all collective social realities - ethnic, national, religious, local. Moreover, it is closely tied up with the private sphere, individual and daily life, making awareness of its existence and the emergence of a collective emancipatory project particularly difficult. Finally, it is a socially constructed oppression, producing an ideological representation of differences often perceived as natural, and confined to the field of biology or psychology." source.

Okay here's the thing: I know that speaking of the oppression of women seems dramatic and potentially even a little patronizing. I mean, first, I am a man and so I am by necessity speaking of things of which I have no first hand knowledge. Second, I am speaking out against something that the subjects of the oppression have been working to eliminate for centuries and so, who am I to be acting as if I can have some impact on the issue? 

The problem is that I cannot think of the oppression of any group without also being aware of the oppression that occurs within that group and which is usually supported by that group's culture.

For instance, when I think about Afghanistan and the terror and disruption that is endemic in that ragged excuse for a country, I can't help but also think: "the women have it worse." In fact one of the things that the Taliban have in common with the government of President Hamid Karzai is that they both support the oppression of women. One more than the other certainly, but both see women as something "other" and have a cultural tradition of treating women as chattel.

When I think of the stigma and prejudice expressed toward Hispanics in this country, I cannot help but think "Latinas have it worse." 

When I think of people in poverty in the US, I cannot help but think that poor women have it worse.

Whether it is gays in the military, the development of democracy in another country or the impact of the recession on the American middle class, the constant will always be that the women in those situations, as a cohort, have it harder than the men. 

In the dreaded "untouchable" caste that continues to this day Hindu cultures, untouchable women are more affected by that status than are untouchable men.

As the quotes at the beginning of this essay attest, there is no form of oppression greater than the oppression of women because it crosses every demographic aside from gender. It is also insidious, greater tolerance being granted for this form of oppression. The United States maintains a cordial relationship with Saudi Arabia and Egypt despite the inequalities in the treatment of women in those states. 

Imagine not being able to access the independence and freedom of driving your own vehicle because you were born female.

Since war has existed, the standard process for victors in close fought wars has been "rape and pillage." A term thrown around with the same alacrity as "collateral damage," the euphemism under which it is now subsumed. Women in war are a tactic as much as men. 

Rape, the threat of rape, the horrible mutilation and brutal treatment   and/or murder that often accompanies or follows the rape and the fact that men's reaction to the rape of their mate is often to feel that they themselves have been shamed; these things have been constants of human conflict for women - generally waged in grand style by men - regardless of their own stake in the conflict. Women are "booty." 

In Part Two the author arrogantly attempts to explain all this.