Oppression by Marilyn Frye

“If she is heterosexually active, a woman is open to censure and punishment for being loose, unprincipled or a whore…. On the other hand, if she refrains from heterosexual activity, she is fairly constantly harassed by men who try to persuade her into it and pressure her to “relax” and “let her hair down.””

In this quote, Frye is showing that no matter how sexually active or inactive a girl is, they can’t win in the eyes of society.  I watched Mean Girls this week and realized that it is a perfect example of this.  If a girl were not sexually active, in the “Burn Book”, the girls would call them virgins, in a derogatory way.  Whereas if any of them were sexually active, they are referred to as a slut or a whore.

“It is the experience of being caged in: all avenues, in every direction, are blocked or booby-trapped.”

This quote is essentially the whole idea of the article in one sentence.  Frye is showing that women in our society are basically caged by the ideals of our society.  It is as she says, girls cannot be sexually active without being seen as a whore, nor can they be sexually inactive without being seen as a prude.  Just like if a woman uses “strong language” (as Frye puts it) she would be seen as a whore or a bitch and if she doesn’t use that kind of language she is seen as weak and not capable of handling such language.

“Finally, these gestures imitate the behavior of servants toward masters and thus mock women, who are in most respects the servants and caretakers of men.”

This quote is talking about the everyday act of a man holding a door for a woman.  Frye says that it is a needless act because women are not helpless and therefore the door will be opened whether or not a man opens it for her, especially when the man has his hands full and is making a spectacle of himself trying to open the door in the first place.  Although I can see where Frye is coming from, this is one point that I don’t entirely agree with.  Growing up I was always taught that holding the door open for someone is just polite no matter what gender they are.

I chose this video because it shows how I feel about holding doors open for other people.  It doesn't matter if a guy opens a door for a girl, or a girl opens a door for a guy, etc.  If you open the door for everyone, it is just polite.