Why is that Thing Gendered, or: The Sociology and Psychology of Feminism and the Feminist Theory

Feminism, as Rebecca West once said, is the radical notion that women are people. Put into smaller terms, feminism is the belief that all genders should be equal: men, women, and non-binary people.

The Feminist Theory is one of the major contemporary sociological theories, which analyzes the status of women and men, and recently, race, class, and ethnicity in society, with the intention of bettering people’s lives.

TYPES OF FEMINIST THEORY

There are four main types of feminist theory- gender differences, gender identity, gender oppression, and structural oppression. Each of these theories try to explain the way women (and men) are viewed in the past and today’s society. The gender difference theory looks at the position of women in social situations, and how they differ from a man’s position. The gender identity theory also examines a woman’s position in social situations, but how it is unequal to a male position. Gender oppression goes into a further examination of both gender difference and gender identity by explaining how women are actively oppressed. Finally, the structural

Hutchinson 2 oppression theory explains how women’s inequality and oppression are an effect of capitalism, patriarchy, and racism.

HOW DOES OPPRESSION HAPPEN

To begin talking about how oppression happens, it would be wise to define what oppression is. Oppression is the unjust use of power to enforce an unequal relationship and deny another’s rights or value. Some forces that makes up a system of oppression are how people or society will develop a negative attitude and heightened violence towards the group of people that are being oppressed, and how an oppressed group’s identity is reduced to stereotypes.

To get back to the topic of how oppression ha...

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...f oppression isn’t as bad as I have written about it, think of the last time you were taught the symptoms of a heart attack. One of the symptoms would undoubtedly be chest pain, but this symptom is usually what men experience. Women are more likely to have jaw or back pain before they have a heart attack. And because of the erasure of women, girls don’t usually know when they’re having a heart attack because they have been taught what men experience.

Works Cited

(Crossman, Ashley. “Feminist Theory.” About.com Sociology 2014. May 13, 2014. )

(Green, Laci. “How Oppression Works.” lacigreen.tv 2012. May 14, 2014 )

Heart Attack Symptoms. “Heart Attack Symptoms in Women.” heart.org American Heart Association. April 17, 2014.