Oppressed Majority

Oppressed Majority

                A common theme in our class has been identity and how it is created. We know now that our identities are not merely a makeup of biological properties manifested in our personalities and perceptions. We are affected mentally and behaviorally by the way people respond to us. We read that Sara Palin found it necessary to convince her party’s base that she was both motherly and strong in order to fulfill the gender expectations of her target electorate. While ascribed and prescribed identity definitions are a way we make sense of the world they can become pernicious weapons to marginalize and discriminate. I recently watched a short film by Eleonore Pourriat, which reverses gender role expectations. The film’s name is ‘Oppressed Majority’, here, and opens with what appears to be a simple story about a man going about his day. What is quickly realized is he lives in a society dominated by women, each of whom exhibit stereotypical ‘male dominant’ behavior. At first the role reversal comes off light, almost comical, as women act in cliché male behavior. However, there is something much more sinister at work here as the man’s life spirals downward, out of control by the way women constantly barrage him with insults and intimidation. None of the women in this film are sympathetic toward this man’s feelings, and while this is obviously an exaggeration, it is a necessary one, used to convey how piercingly debilitating gender norms may become. The film is a quick journey through the subtle stereotypes which weaken positive self-identity, eventually metastasizing into the highly toxic ones which destroy it.