Quick to Judge: Oppression Makes us Cynical

I showed my friend a feminism-related message from a guy. She looked at it with a metaphorically raised eyebrow, sceptical that a boy could show meaningful levels of unproblematicness, then finally conceding "this guy seems good." I considered rolling my eyes at her unwarranted cynicism, before realising that I myself have the same reaction on a daily basis; I find it difficult to assume men will be good allies or educated feminists until I have proof beyond reasonable doubt. I had a moment of crisis, "Does this automatic anti-man attitude make us awful people? Jaded cynics at the ripe age of 17?" After a few seconds of deep thought, the answer became apparent: Not at all.

Oppressed people are constantly criticised for their "unhelpful" attitudes towards power majorities - feelings of anger, frustration and cynicism are always dismissed by privileged groups when dealing with activism. However those feelings are extremely valid for a number of reasons.

Firstly, we have to revisit our old friend "systemic oppression". For a thorough greeting, click here. But for a quick reacquaintance, we mostly have to understand that if society is a woven blanket, oppression is the thread that weaves the whole way through. A man raping a woman as an isolated incident is a tragic reflection of one man's immorality. A worldwide pandemic of sexual abuse committed predominantly by men is a signifier of the age-old social mentality that women's bodies are men's property; weak and devoid of autonomy. Oppression isn't individual acts of violence or discrimination, its an enormous invisible machine that works to empower those with privilege, and exploit those without.

Once we accept this, it is only a small jump to realise that whether or not we ourselves as lone actors discriminate against other people, our mere existence implicitly aids oppression. Everyday, I walk into a classroom taught by a white teacher where I am one of the only white girls. Even though I do not make racist comments or jump around yelling "all lives matter!", the fact remains that when multiple people put up their hand to answer a question, it is far more likely that the white teacher will pick me. Although I actively try to aid anti-racism movements, I still hand in assignments with my white name on it, knowing that since my essay says "Blount" instead of "Ling", I might sneak an extra mark. I'm not a bad person, but I do walk and talk and breathe oppression, simply because that is the world we live in.

So when I'm listening to a podcast where a woman who went to a newly desegregated school in 1960's America talks about how she hates white people, I can understand that. Her daughter explains how she grew up watching her mother roll her eyes at white people on the street, discourage her from dating white guys, and just avoid white people altogether because she cynically assumes they're all racist. What we need to realise is that "white people" in this context aren't the individual people with backgrounds and personalities, but rather representative of the wider system that ruined this woman's life while making their own better.

Above all, it is normal to react to oppression. You can't expect millions of people over generations to stay perpetually silent when mistreated; it's human nature to fight back. When we're talking about entire genders, cultures, and communities of people, it is impossible to characterise each individual person as broken and beat to the point where they cannot resist. Feelings of anger and cynicism are not only warranted, they are necessary for sparking revolutions and instigating change, for want of better cliché.

Automatically reverting to "negative" feelings towards your oppressor isn't exactly a horrible, "negative" act. You can remain full of positive energy whilst simultaneously acknowledging that we live in a society which is geared towards enforcing a strict hierarchy. It is reasonable for a woman's jerk reaction to be wary and cynical of men, since the overwhelming social conditioning demands that they will invariably exploit her, even without realising it. Perhaps being an educated feminist exacerbates this cynicism, making it a daily occurrence as we leave Plato's Cave and start seeing oppression everywhere we go. But shaming anger and scepticism for being "mean" is pretty counterproductive to the larger picture of slowly whittling away at an oppressive society.

Comment below xx

Hannah