Q For next week, please read: 1. Audre Lorde: Age, Race, Class, and Sex [232 - 240] 2. Iris Marion Young: “Five Faces of Oppression” [PDF] Questions for Consideration: 1. Iris Young, “Five Faces of Oppression,” pp.39 – 65. • What is Young’s stated goal for this chapter? • What is the old model of oppression that Young aims to overcome? • Young draws a tripartite distinction between aggregates, attributes, and social groups. What is the significance of this distinction? Do you agree with Young in her final assessment? • What does Young mean by referring to a structuralsense of oppression? Can you give any examples of this? • How does Young define a social group? Does this seem adequate or flawed in any way? What are some of the relations between social groups and oppression that Young references? • What are some of the connections between the five faces of oppression? What are some of the points of divergence among them? How do you find IMY's reasoning for proposing these five? • What is marginalization? Does IMY's analysis stand the test of time (i.e., in ref. to ageism laws)? Can you think of any additional examples that support or counter her analysis? What are the non-economic, social consequences that marginalized subjects are likely to suffer? • How is powerlessness its own type (or 'face') of oppression? How does IMY go about defining it? Why do you think she does this? Is it effective as a conceptual, analytical, writing strategy? • What are the defining dynamics of cultural imperialism? How does this relate to the temporality of norms and normativity? • How can and should we understand violence as a type of systemic phenomenon? • What does Young say in the conclusion of this chapter? 1. Audre Lorde • Lorde says ““Much of western European history conditions us to see human differences in human opposition to each other: dominant/ subordinate, good/bad, up/down, superior/inferior.” What do you make of this? How can we understand history as conditioning us ? • How do you think Lorde’s theory of oppression relates to Young’s ? Are the two compatible ? Divergent ? Conflictual ? • What do you make of Lord’s reflections on art and politics? What does she say ? do you think that makes sense? How? • What is “the mythical norm” ? What do you make of that analysis ? • What does Lorde say about oppression?

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