Oppression olympics
The Oppression Olympics are an one-upmanship dynamic that can arise within debates amongst people who adhere to the ideological values of identity politics, intersectionality and social privilege.[1][2] They have been described as "verbal banter between different, possibly marginalized, groups who are trying to determine the weight of their many intersectionalities of oppression (race, gender, socioeconomic status, disability) to determine who has it the worst.[3]
Dynamics[edit]
| “ | "What I received this past conference was new and as surprising as loan forgiveness. I saw people who looked like me, spoke like me, who I shared oppression with, excluding me from shared space. I felt my sisters separating me as a "cis"-ter and naming me and the rest of our black and brown family as oppressors and conspirators. The Oppression Olympics had started". — Stoyan Francis, "Sexual assault, domestic assault and LGBT of color advocate".[3] | ” |
The Oppression olympics have been described as a contest within a group, to "assert who is more authentic, more oppressed, and thus more correct".[1][2] This may be on the basis of one's race, gender, sexuality, among other stated identities.[1][2]
People's stated identity "become fetishised" within the group, with the person's stated identity being judged in preconceived essentialist terms.[1] There is a dynamic "of agreeing with the most marginalized in the room".[1]
Stoyan Francis described "The gold medal of the Oppression Olympics is seen as the commanding spot for demanding change, for visibility and allocation of resources".[3]
Criticism[edit]
The dynamics of the Oppression Olympics have been criticised as being "intellectually lazy, lacking political depth", and "leads towards tokenization".[1] These dynamics surrounding identity politics have been criticised within anarchist thought for their social hierarchy building, with anarchists fundamentally being against notions of hierarchy.[1]
Usage[edit]
The origins of the phrase are unclear. It was the title of an Everyday Feminism article[4] in 2012, and in an article by Holly Combe in UK Webzine The F Word in 2010,[5] but it was sighted before that on "social media".
Scholarly Work on Oppression Olympics[edit]
In her work Dialogical Epistemology - An Intersectional Resistance To The "Oppression Olympics",[6] Nira Yuval-Davis addresses the issue of Oppression Olympics and argues that categorical intersectionality provides a solution to this problem.
In her work Solidarity Politics for Millenials: A Guide to Ending the Oppression Olympics,[7] Ange-Marie Hancock argues that the core causes for Oppression Olympics are the desire to one-up other professional victims, and blindness to the plights and disadvantages of other groups.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "Queering Anarchism: Addressing and Undressing Power and Desire", edited by C. B. Daring, J. Rogue, Deric Shannon, Abbey Volcano, Oakland, California, AK press, 2012, page 3.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Considerations on mainstream intersectionality", Dhamoon, Rita Kaur, Political Research Quarterly, 64(1), March 2011, pages 230-243.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Oppression Olympics: The Dark Side of the Rainbow", Stoyan Francis, Pride Source, 1/28/2016.
- ↑ "Oppression Olympics: The Games We Shouldn't Be Playing". Everyday Feminism. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
- ↑ "Oppression olympics: the privilege paradox? - The F-Word". www.thefword.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
- ↑ Yuval-Davis, Nira (2012-02-01). "Dialogical Epistemology—An Intersectional Resistance to the "Oppression Olympics"". Gender & Society. 26 (1): 46–54. doi:10.1177/0891243211427701. ISSN 0891-2432.
- ↑ Hancock, A. (2011-08-29). Solidarity Politics for Millennials: A Guide to Ending the Oppression Olympics. Springer. ISBN 9780230120136. Search this book on
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