Young and MacKinnon's Discussion of Opression and Sex Equality (Post #2)

In “Difference and Dominance: On Sex Discrimination,” Catherine MacKinnon’s criticizes the foundations of the term “sex equality” while examining why women have continued to be identified as “the other.” MacKinnon articulates, “Under the sameness standard, women are measured according to our correspondence with man, our equality judged by our proximity to his measure. Under the difference standard, we are measured according to our lack of correspondence with him, our womanhood judged by our difference from his measure. Gender neutrality is this simply the male standard…” (82). Consequently, rather than sex being a continuum, society has transformed sex into a “bipolarity,” where women have to fight for the same privilege as men while being silenced and deprived of recognition. (90). MacKinnon argues that for this season, sex equality will never been achieved.

Reflecting on “Five Faces of Oppression,” MacKinnon’s discussion of sex equality complements Iris Young’s rubric. In her piece, Young identified oppression as taking five forms—exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence. Young recognizes that in order to impose oppression, there must be the creation of a social group. Though social groups can be created by people who share similar history and culture, Young writes, “For our identities are defined in relation to how others identify us, and they do so in terms of groups which are always associated with specific attributes, stereotypes and norms” (46). Similar to MacKinnon, this “othering” allows women to be measured by male standards, resulting in a sense of powerlessness. Additionally, Young’s discussion of marginalization and exploitation supplements MacKinnon’s discussion male dominance. While women yearn to be seen and treated equally as men in terms of work and equal pay, their work in the domestic sphere remains unnoticed and unacknowledged, continuing the cycle of exploitation and marginalization.