[Brillopad]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

The thing is, I think perhaps more weight is put on this than is actually needed or necessary... There's been a lot of social research done that shows pretty conclusively that out experiences of life / what we have in common are far more liked to "class / wealth" than ANY other factor. So for example... A working class woman has FAR more in common, both in terms of interest and experience, with a working class man than she does with an upper-middle class woman.

This extends all the way to the top and what is all too often overlooked in feminism and causes a lot of the confusion. There's a lot of feminist rhetoric about "the patriarchy"; that women have been historically oppressed by men. Well, no. Women have been oppressed by WEALTHY, POWERFUL men and the oppression is far more linked to the wealth than the gender of the oppressor. Generalising it out even more; it basically comes down to the fact that everyone has been oppressed by a very small number of powerful, privileged individuals who happen to mostly have been white men. This message has gotten confused somewhere, and now there's this idea that "all men are oppressors", "all white people are oppressors". It's just a totally inaccurate view of society. The vast majority of men, and white folks, past and present, have never had a sniff of that sort of power or wealth.

But then, that's what all of these squabbles are still about. Socially engineered "battles" because in the wake of the last recession, people started looking around, and noticed those people, and got angry about it, and we ALMOST managed to focus briefly on where the real oppression is and always has been... But, they have the means and ability to distract us back to ground level petty squabbles and so that's what happened. Black Lives Matter happened, the celebrity nudes leak happened, Brexit, Trump, school shootings, historic sex scandals were outed, men and women went to war, feminist movements and trans movements went to war... We forgot about "the 0.01%", that's yesterday's news... And the real oppressors rubbed their hands together and walked away.

With respect TS I don’t think that is exactly the case. We know those men with money and power at the top, a small minority, are pulling the strings over all aspects of our lives, men and women alike - but for a man to suggest that women are not generally oppressed by ordinary working-class men and only by men in power and that they are not even aware of it is quite patronising. Many women are oppressed by men they are in relationships with, men they work with and other areas of their ordinary everyday lives - what about the huge impact domestic abuse has within working-class families - how many women are killed by their partners every werk in this country and live in fear.

No-one has said all men are oppressors but the evidence is there that most women have experienced oppression and assault at the hands of working-class men at some time or other. For example Women have to be cautious and fearful about walking home on their own late at night - and it isn’t generally men in power they have to worry about just some low-life scumbag hiding in the shadows. If this isn’t oppression controlling what women can and can’t do I don’t know what is. Women have been made to feel for years that they have to watch what they wear for fear of sexual assault and being accused of asking for it - what is that if not oppression. Women from time in memorial have often been belittled, put in their place and their opinions dismissecd by ordinary working-class men around them.

There are many examples of how womens’ lives are oppressed by your average Joe and I bet most women know exactly what I’m talking about so for you to imply womens’ experiences of oppression are somehow misplaced or misunderstood is lacking experience of what it is like to be a woman out there in the real world.