The Critical Scope of our Minds: Gender and More

Politically invested social critique of systems of oppression.

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In George Orwell’s masterpiece 1984, he wrote: “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”

The inner monologue that we all refrain from showing to the world at some point or another, and even sometimes to ourselves, is perhaps the most beautiful thing we have in this life other than life itself: the flow of free and pure consciousness.

Leave it to ourselves to be the ones who can truly destruct and reconstruct our lives and the lives of others. From the timeless scatter of our dreams�"somehow we understand the grave meaning of looking down the spiral staircase�"to these dreams being carried ever so swiftly into our incandescent realities. Starting with the rising sun and a light blow to the steam over our tea, whatever comes next, is completely up to us.

Today’s society likes the familiar, the comfort zone, the conservative, the perception of normal, and most importantly, control, and power. What most people do not know however, is that we are all uniquely different and cannot thrive in a society that oppresses some individuals more than others.

Adherence to labels�"such as black, s**t, socialist, homosexual, transgender�"are just socially constructed words that lead to oppression, impenetrable beliefs, limitations, ignorance, illusions, and stupidity.

The outsider status oppressed individuals carry enables them to see what others cannot. This has generated politically invested social critiques of the flaws of the state. We have seen countless uprisings, revolutions, movements, speeches, rebellions against the status quo, advances in human rights, changes in history, and consciousness brought to the unconscious. However, the circulation of power and gender dynamics have no easy resolution. This goes for racism, classism, heterosexism, and other systems of oppression.

Refusing a fixed identity is morally complex. And binary opposition makes it impossible for us to see how things function. All people on this earth are equal no matter what society has constructed or told us to believe. People are so much against each other. They have been conditioned for this antagonism for so long that they have forgotten completely that we are all human beings, that we belong to the same earth, to the same planet.

I am a white young woman, and I have been blindly accepting the fact that many of my opportunities, negative consequences, interactions, and relationships, are influenced by the fact I am a woman. I should “do this” or “act like this” because I am a woman. Who told you this and why are you dictating what I can and cannot do? I should take care of my family, have children, act feminine, cry at a romantic movie, not be in a high position of power, etcetera. I, for one, will not do what society tells me to do based on social constructions, but rather I will revel in my freedom of thought and freedom of speech. No matter what ‘gender’, race, class, or sexuality one holds, society should not dictate these as limitations, or concepts that invite societal consequences and oppression.

What is most sickening of all is that we see these systems of oppression and stereotypes absolutely everywhere. In movies, television, mass-media; and, more complex, these systems are penetrated deep in institutions such as family, marriage, religion, and education.

Somehow, oppression goes on a lot of the time without an average person even noticing its severity, or even if they do notice, they do not question why they may hold a certain belief and just accept things ‘as is’. Did you come to that conclusion on your own? Or was it influenced through external factors listed above? It is harder to induce change in an apathetic generation with both fleeting individuality and lack of critical thinking. The dangers of ignorance result in violence, oppression, and misconstrued thinking and beliefs, to name a few. Take pride in original thinking and make sure that your thoughts and beliefs originated from your own beautiful mind.

However, more and more people are gaining their own voice, are questioning the system, and are rising up with a solid, “No! I will not accept this!” At this point in time, a “Revolution of Understanding”�"coined by me�"would be the catalyst and the change we need to dissolve roles, labels, norms, categories and identities in gender relations and systems of oppression. It is all the same, we are all connected. An end to these would be an end to oppression. A just future is a future without gender.

Do not let society control your thinking.

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As Oscar Wilde once said, “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion. […]

But it is almost incredible to me how a man whose life is marred and made hideous by such laws can possibly acquiesce in their continuance.”