Oppression by Choice- Cudd- Parts 1 and 2

Part One
The paper seeks to address several questions about oppression.

1) Can a structure be oppressive if the "oppressed" are oppressed because of their own choices
2) Why do the "oppressed" sometimes seem to help in their own oppression

To answer the first question, Cudd points out that it is not that people don't have choices- it's that they don't have any GOOD choices. Her example is this: you're being robbed. You have two choices- give up and losing your property, or fight back and maybe die or being harmed. You have a choice. Your oppression will result from your choice. But you don't have a GOOD, non-oppressive choice. You're coerced into this.

Marxism also follows with this idea- "the working class is exploited or oppressed through its limited choices".

The second question of why the oppressed seem to help in their own oppression might be answered by the fact that, in the example of women, they "are shaped by society to see their situation as natural, inevitable, and some times even preferable." When one doesn't see any better choices, the options all seem to reinforce one's own oppression. There's no real out.

Part Two
Criteria of Oppression
1) needs to have physical or psychological harm, although the oppressed don't need to recognize it as harm
2) oppressed group identifiable independent of oppression- one suffers oppression just by being a part of this group- it's a part of self image
3) some group benefits from oppression- there is a group who suffers and a group who benefits from oppression
4) oppression must involve some coercion or force- it can, however, be subtle and not recognized