The Various Forms of Oppression

The Various Forms of Oppression

            According to the Meeriam-Webster dictionary, oppression is defined as an “unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power.” Throughout history, many people across the world have been oppressed by those who see themselves as above everyone else. The oppressed feel small and unappreciated, and they are silenced by society, the government, or their community. There have been many movements and organizations created for the oppressed, by the oppressed, to end the oppression they are experiencing, and we see it on the news and over social media every day. The oppression these people in power exercise take on several forms and stem throughout many groups of people in society. Specifically, oppression in “A White Women of Color” by Julia Alverez and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gillman takes the form of discrimination and silence. In their own experiences, the authors express these kinds of oppression onto paper and told their stories, whether it was being judged by the color of her skin or being silenced by a man who took full control over her.

            Julia Alverez wrote “A White Women of Color” to share her and her family’s experiences being oppressed based on people’s conception of beauty and what people think is acceptable in society. Back when she was living in the Dominican Republic, she was discriminated against because of the color of her skin, the way her hair looked like, and how her other siblings all looked different from each-other. It is no secret that throughout history, many people have been discriminated against because of the color of their skin, or because they looked different than everyone else. They are marginalized and buried deep in the hierarchy of our society because people think that because they look different, or a little off, there must be something wrong with them, or they just don’t fit in with the “norm”. This is what Alverez feels as she is growing up. Alverez writes, “Growing up in the Dominican Republic, I experienced Racism within my own family-though I didn’t think it was racism. But there was a hierarchy of beauty, which was the main currency in our family of daughters” (Alverez, 6). The Alverez family was teased constantly because each child had a different skin tone and people wondered how they all could possibly be related to each-other. The community felt that looking whiter and petite was more acceptable than looking dark and natural, but Alverez always liked to be in the sun, so her skin was darker than usual. This was why discrimination against her arose. Alverez writes, “But in the aesthetic arena-the ones to which we girls we regulated as females-lighter was better. Lank hair and pale skin and small, fine features were better. All I had to do was stay out of the sun and behave myself, and I could pass as a pretty white girl” (Alverez, 6). Society will always have a certain image of what women should look like, and anything that looks slightly different from it will make the people around you judge you simply because society says that it’s not acceptable. This discriminates people who don’t necessarily look the way this specific image looks like, and Alverez, along with her family, experiences this kind of oppression while living in the Dominican Republic.

            In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, we see the female character being oppressed in the form of silence by her husband, John. The female character in this story, who is the narrator, believes that she has an illness. John, who is also a physician, belittles her and her illness, and reassures her and her family that there is nothing wrong with her. During this time, John keeps her wife in a room with yellow wallpaper, which she despises, and doesn’t let her do any type of activity what-so-ever, even though the women believes being active would make her feel better. John is very controlling of his wife, and he silences her and her illness because he believes that’s what’s best, when it’s really not. The narrator says, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do” (Gillman 648)? She feels there is nothing she could say or do because no one would believe her if a man in power with experience is saying something completely different from what she is trying to say, but no one understands her and her illness as much as she does. The narrator says, “But these nervous trembles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there’s no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gillman 649). If no one listens to her and tries to understand why she is truly suffering, how will she get better? It brings up the argument that women had a less say in their own life simply because they were women, and men always knew better. Silence is a very powerful and awful form of oppression because it makes the oppressed feel unimportant and unworthy of change, and in this short story, the narrator might never get the help she needs to change and get better because she is being silenced and is forced to hide away.

            Oppression has affected many different people in many different situations across the globe. Though the oppressed experience it is several different ways, oppression connects a lot of them together because at the end of the day, it makes them feel a lot of the same things, and they still have to fight these endless wars between the oppressed and society. In today’s society, we see many movements, organizations and campaigns, as well as movies, songs and books that focus on the specific oppression society faces, for example, the Me-Too movement, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+, and many more. In cinema, we see various types of oppression from back in the day to now put on the big screen, to make sure people never forget about what certain groups of people have been put through, and to spark change, seeing as not many things have changed throughout history. In the music industry, artists use their music as a platform to talk about oppression, and the different struggles people go through through-out their lives. Specifically, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis created a song called “Same love” which focus’s on how everyone, no matter what you look like, who you love, your background, your gender, deserves equality and basic human rights. Macklemore sings, “It's the same hate that's caused wars from religion.
Gender to skin color the complexion of your pigment. The same fight that lead people to walk-outs and sit-ins, it's human rights for everybody, there is no difference” (Genius). This specific line relates to the theme of oppression in “A White Women of Color” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” because it talks about how no matter your skin color or gender, you deserve to be treated equally, and that’s not what the two women in these short stories experienced, unfortunately. When people use their fame or creativity as an outlet to talk about the oppression that goes on in today’s society, they spark change and inspiration throughout society, and hopefully one day that will be enough to end oppression throughout the world.

            Julia Alverez and Charlotte Perkins Gillman addressed specific forms of oppression that many people deal with today. Whether it was in the form of discrimination and racism or silence, they depicted a picture of what it feels like to be oppressed in those ways, and to show that it could is detrimental to one’s mental health and life. Oppression makes people feel small and unimportant, and it is a common theme not just throughout these works of literature and many more, but also throughout history.

Work Cited

Alverez, Julia. “A White Women of Color.” 1998.

“Genius.com.” Genius.com, Genius Media Group, 18 July 2012, genius.com/Macklemore-and-     ryan-lewis-same-love-lyrics.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, and Dale M. Bauer. The Yellow Wallpaper. Bedford Books, 1998.