Week Five Blog
Things such as age, race, class, and sexuality are all limitations as Lorde would say. She brings up this belief of â€śnormsâ€? in society, limitations similar to Johnsonâ€™s plus five system, that â€śthe norm is usually defined as white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secureâ€? (Lorde 116). With these standards in mind, anything less of them is the root for the oppression in society today. She also states that yes, there are differences between us such as age, race, sex etc. but she believes that â€śit is not those differences between us that are separating us. It is rather our refusal to recognize those differences, and to examine the distortions which result from our misnaming them and their effects upon human behavior and expectationâ€? (Lorde 115).
Due to these beliefs I do not believe that Lorde would think that patriarchy is the primary form of oppression. She explains that many of these differences are part of what causes oppression, and that we should look at the distortions around difference and not every aspect by itself. Lorde also states that â€śin a patriarchal power system where whiteskin privilege is a major prop, the entrapments used to neutralize Black women and white women are not the sameâ€? (Lorde 118). This being said, she is making the point that the oppressed do not feel oppressed in the same way that others do. Because of their differences they are still oppressed differently.
She states immediately at the beginning of the reading that she is a Black lesbian woman. This seems to of course be a big part of her identity due to her status. However, it is with these differences that she states she wants her identity to be known. She wants to be looked at by all of her differences as she stressed before about learning and benefiting from difference, not by picking every aspect apart and possibly classifying herself by only one aspect.