After reading the Five Faces of Oppression by Iris Young, I have discovered that there is still some of these oppressions that still exist today. The one that I will be focusing on in this post is powerlessness. This one still happens, but it does not have the same coverage as some of the others discussed in that article. My example that I researched was child marriages in America. Child marriages happen a lot and the people do not have much of a say. I do not think that people count this as oppression because the kids are powerless in this situation.
When children, mainly girls, are forced into marriage with a much older man they do not have authority or power over the relationship or the other person. If the girl does not want to do something that the man wants to do, then the man can persuade her into doing the act. Children are taught from an early age to respect their elders and superiors. Most of the time the man does not let the girl talk to other people unless spoken to, and this does not allow for proper social development. Since the girls do not interact with other people, they are not developing like the other girls their age.
Stories and articles are coming up now and these things are coming to light. More people are reading about these issues and are bringing awareness to this as well. One recent article that I read was about women becoming powerless and what to do to give those women their power back. I do not think that people consider powerlessness as oppression because oppression is usually tied to people of color and nothing else. The media usually focuses on people of color oppression because that is usually talked about the most and is the most serious.
