Forms of Oppression and Stereotypes

Forms of Oppression

• Oppression stems from unequal power distribution, creating powerful and powerless groups. These groups have socially constructed realities of their relationships.
• Social construction of reality suggests our actions are shaped by past interactions. Our views depend on involvement and relationship with those involved and our beliefs, values, and experiences.
• Power is the ability to get one's way despite opposition. It allows labeling, stereotyping, and discrimination against weaker groups, whether weakness is real or perceived.

Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

• Stereotypes are simplified mental representations applied to groups (positive or negative). They are overgeneralizations based on limited information, often imposed by powerful groups on powerless ones. They're easy to use because we don’t need critical thought. Examples include stereotypes of metal music fans or senior citizens.
• Prejudice involves judging someone based on preconceived ideas, often negative, about a group.
• Ethnocentrism assumes one's own culture is superior and normal.
• Discrimination is unequal treatment based on characteristics.

Types of Discrimination

• Direct discrimination is deliberate exclusion or unequal treatment based on characteristics like race or ethnicity.
• Systemic Discrimination comprises institutions' policies and behaviors harming minority groups; it can be unintentional.

Oppression

• Oppression involves policies, practices, norms, traditions that exploit one group for another's benefit, supported by prejudice and institutional power. Examples include the suffrage movement.
• Exploitation involves unfair use of time, labor, and lack of fair compensation (e.g., sweatshops).
• Marginalization excludes minority groups to the fringes of society, most often based on race (e.g., indigenous people).
• Powerlessness occurs when the dominant group denies rights and privileges to the subordinate group, leading to a perceived deservingness of the unfair treatment.
• Cultural imperialism establishes dominant group beliefs and values as societal norms (e.g., heterosexuality, Christianity).
• Violence is the most severe form of oppression, instilling fear in certain groups (e.g., LGBTQ+ individuals, Black people).

The "-Isms"

• Ableism: inferior status of individuals with disabilities.
• Ageism: prejudice based on age.
• Classism: systemic oppression of subordinate classes by dominant groups for advantage.
• Heterosexism: belief in heterosexuality's superiority, leading to oppression of non-heterosexual identities.
• Racism: assertion of one group's superiority over others based on biological/cultural traits, used to oppress or privilege groups.
• Sexism: belief in one gender's superiority, leading to gender-based discrimination.
• Sizeism: discrimination against people based on body size, height, or weight.

Agents of Socialization

• Primary Agent: Family, responsible for basic needs and teaching right/wrong from birth.
• Secondary Agent:
  • School: teaches curriculum and hidden curriculum (behavior modeling).
  • Peer Groups: influential during adolescence, teaching communication, collaboration, and social relationships.
  • Workplace: becomes important in adulthood, teaching adult roles and responsibilities.
  • Media: exposure to diverse cultures and ideas, but excessive media can negatively impact social skills.
  • Religion: provides moral codes, responsibility, and charity.

Sociologists and Their Contributions

• Auguste Comte: Positivism – applying the scientific method to understand society.
• Emile Durkheim: Structural functionalism – society functions logically and protects members during diversification for productivity.
• Talcott Parsons: Society's necessary purpose and importance of shared values for stability.
• Karl Marx: Exploitation of workers by factory owners and class struggles driving societal change.
• Dorothy Smith: Women's systematic exclusion in male-dominated societies.
• Max Weber: Rationalization’s importance in capitalist systems and bureaucracy; equal treatment and specialized tasks in large organizations.
• Charles Cooley: Relationship between individual and society; importance of primary groups (family/friends) in developing social identity and the "looking-glass self."
• George Herbert Mead: Importance of symbols, language, and communication in human relationships; “looking-glass self” and social roles; symbolic interactionism.
• Wright Mills: Sociological imagination – connecting individual experiences to social realities.

Explore the concepts of oppression, stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination in this quiz. Understand how power dynamics shape societal interactions and the implications of labeling and stereotyping groups. Test your knowledge on the social construction of reality and its effects on relationships.