Five Faces of Oppression

According to Iris Marion Young who wrote the “Five Face of Oppression,” the five faces are exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. These five faces of oppression have a very strong connotation of conquest and domination. Young tries to explain these five and how we face them in our everyday lives. Young does this by breaking each one down and pointing out their issues and injustices and identifies what it is to be oppressed and how. Exploitation is when something is put on display or seen a certain way, marginalization is how we are and what sets us apart, powerlessness means having no control, cultural imperialism is when a culture or country is dominated by another culture or country by law, and violence is just destruction and physicality.
            I particularly identify myself with exploitation. I have held this face of oppression almost all of my life. My secrets, desires, life, and needs have all been exploited throughout my life. I believe this oppression is something that everyone has experienced in their lifetime. It is very hard to go through life without something of yours being exploited. It can be as little as letting people know how much you make, to something very big like letting people know your sexual orientation. It makes me feel very powerless to stop it because usually you can’t control what other people exploit. That can later lead to violence which can lead to marginalization and then it’s just this big cycle of constantly changing faces of oppression. It is hard to overcome an oppression such as exploitation because once something is exploited, it’s there for the whole world to see. I believe that in order to conquer it, you have to deal with the hardships that come with it. Nothing is easy in this world and everything comes with a price. Therefore, to conquer this oppression, be vigilant, wary, and smart.