Frye’s Fundamentals of Oppression

Frye defines oppression by using three main conditions: 1) experiencing the double bind phenomenon, 2) experiencing a feeling of being “caged in,” 3) experiences of inconvenience, unpleasantness, pain, or frustration do not qualify as oppression unless they are enforced by an outside structure. I think it’s important to recognize that the word oppression is used frequently to describe unfortunate scenarios that may or may not be deserved. I thin k I am guilty of labeling superficial scenarios as “oppressive”—I think this was one of my favorite things I used to tell my parents, that they were oppressing me by not letting me stay out past midnight or borrow the car for the weekend, or some other frivolous thing. It’s critical to understand that oppression is immobilizing and restrictive and out of your control. It’s something I’d like to take out of my vocabulary unless used in the right way, the same way I don’t use the words like gay or retarded to describe scenarios that are “stupid.”