Oppression

The root of the word "oppression" is the element "press". The press of the crowd; pressed into military service; to press a pair of pants; printing press; press the button. Presses are used to mold things or flatten them or reduce them in bulk, sometimes to reduce them by squeezing out the gasses or liquids in them. Something pressed is something caught between or among forces and barriers which are so related to each other that jointly they restrain, restrict, or prevent the thing's motion or mobility. Mold. Immobilize. Reduce.
Frye, 2000:11



- Frye, M. (2000). Oppression. In A. Minas (ed.) Gender Basics: Feminist Perspectives on Women and Men (10-16). Wadsworth.
- photograph (woman selling balloons on a Chicago South Side street corner at Sox Park Baseball Field, June 1973) via