Matrix of Domination

Lauren Kessler
4-16-08
WMST250 Sec. 0108



The matrix of domination is a representation of those group classifications which simultaneously privilege and oppress us. Society perpetuates these marked and unmarked categories of race, ethnicity, class, age, sexual orientation, religion and the like, which intersect with the lives of others. Created are dominant and subordinate groups which instill in us both greater and lesser degrees of power, and it is from my personal stand-point that I analyze this in my life and in the interconnected lives of others.
I am a white, middle-class, heterosexual, agnostic, twenty-year old, able-bodied female from suburban Maryland. I am classified through the matrix of domination according to that which advances and hinders me. I am generally unmarked in that I am white, middle-class, heterosexual, young, and able-bodied; I am marked because I am not a Christian and am female. Whether these characteristics are marked or unmarked refers of course to the society in which I live, so that is what I will speak of. In certain other geographic areas or certain other life circumstances, the markedness of the characteristic will be subject to change, because it is society that builds and accentuates the matrix.
In general in the United States, a white person is considered unmarked, and therefore privileged, while a minority race would be less so and considered subordinate in terms of the power they hold in society. This is seen in many avenues of life, from the political to the occupational to those prejudices which have been ingrained in us since we were young. The vast majority of people holding positions of political power, such as in Congress or as governors, are white. There is a large disparity in the wealth of a white person to that of any minority race. The percentage of minorities in the prison system, in relation to total national representation, is much greater than that of whites and it's not because they commit more crimes. Rather, it is because they are marked by those with privilege and are treated as such.
In varying degrees in most of the world, men easily hold more power than women, and women are considered subordinate to men on multiple levels. As with other social characteristics, the disparity between genders has bettered with time, but it originates as far back as we have history in times when men hunted and gathered while women stayed home and raised children, cooked and cleaned. Men are the 'default' people, and they are considered stronger and dominant while women are weaker, quieter, and more submissive. In the United States women hold quite equal power to men in comparison to other countries, but they still make less money and are discriminated against now and then. Women are a marked category in groups of men, such as in jobs considered to be for men only and in other circumstances.
The United States suffers a huge disparity in the wealth and socio-economic status of its citizens, yet we pride ourselves on being a 'class-less' society. A tiny, unmarked minority of the population holds the majority of the wealth, and thus the power, and this is true also in the world. The majority of people claim to lie in the 'middle' in politics and in other avenues, and most claim to be 'middle-class'. This is the unmarked category of class because, of course, it lies on neither extreme and is therefore the unnoticed default class. However, the middle class is disappearing as the disparity increases, and the lower class is left oppressed, powerless, and marked as somehow less-than by the rest of society. Compared to other areas of the world, the United States is superfluously affluent. Our lower class represents the highest of other societies, and we struggle to comprehend the poverty in areas such as in sub-Saharan Africa where people go days without eating and die before they are thirty-years old. We abandon these people completely, we forget them, we mark them in our misunderstanding of the way the world works, and we underestimate the ability of the powerful to alleviate their situation.
Christianity is the most followed religion in the world at around 30% of the total population, and it is vastly predominant in the United States. People in our society learn at a young age or from birth that there is one God, and he is a Christian god; we celebrate holidays based on these ideologies, children learn to pledge allegience to the country under Him, and His name is on all of our money. Because of its prevalence it is considered the unmarked religion, as Hinduism would be considered unmarked in India. Other minority religions such as Islam are therefore naturally misunderstood by the majority of people, and this creates prejudice. Too many American citizens think being a Muslim or even being of Arab descent means being a terrorist or supporting terrorism, and there are countless other unfounded conclusions formed about other minority religions or spiritualities. Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Atheism, Agnosticism, Wiccan and Buddhism are strange and intimidating, but our unmarked Christianity is comfortable.
Our perceptions of age as a marked or unmarked category are conflicting because there are times when being young is both favored and disfavored by society, as is being older. It depends upon the time and circumstance. Young adults are considered an unmarked category in that they are a new, hopeful generation of able-bodied, eager people. They graduate from college ready to enter the workforce and make changes and better the world, and therefore they have all the power. The marked older generations fade into privacy and security and eventually develop disabilities or pass away, and they are therefore the submissive category. On the other hand, youth is at times not a positive trait; older generations like to comment on how different it was when they were kids, how they respected their parents and followed the rules and so forth, as if today's youth were really not the same. This reversal of markedness was particularly evident in the 60s with the rise of a free-spirited hippie generation which generated fear and misunderstanding in the older population.
Given that the United States is essentially a nation founded under Christian beliefs and is still predominately Christian, the issue of homosexuality in regard to its religious and moral implications has been a passionate topic of discussion historically, and even more so recently. Of course, the unmarked sexual orientation would be heterosexual, as the traditional, unmarked family dynamic is that of a wife and a husband of opposite sexes who come together to raise children. People of homosexual orientation are generally accepted as equals by the majority of society, though they are often not understood, as they are still not allowed to marry as a man and woman may marry. Prejudices and misconceptions about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people abound, as does violence against them with the frequency of that against another race, religion or the like, and thus the problem of its markedness is readily apparent.
In general, I am considered an unmarked category for being white, heterosexual, middle-class, young, and able-bodied, and this grants me privilege and power over marked others. I am rarely discriminated against because of my race or sexual orientation. Assumptions are rarely made about me because I am white and even more rarely because I am heterosexual. I am not looked down upon for being of a low class, and I am not considered pompous or spoiled for being of a high class. I am a young adult with ample opportunity for growth and success in my life, and I am given the power to earn a college degree and work in an admirable occupation. I am mentally, emotionally and socially able and am subordinate to few people based on those abilities.
Though privileged to be unmarked, I am also considered a marked category because I am female and because I am not a Christian, among other traits that arise in various situations. As a female I am viewed as being physically weaker than males in that some strenuous occupations would not suit me and I would not be asked to complete certain tasks more suitable for men. I am viewed as emotionally weaker as well in that I more readily display my feelings and less able to perceive situations with objective reason. Because I consider myself agnostic, or otherwise not a Christian, I am perceived as being less moral than someone with strong religious beliefs though being religious certainly does not imply being ethical.
Throughout my childhood, my father had substantially more influence on me than did my mother. I also grew up with two step-brothers who were close to me in age and with whom I spent a lot of time. I had always noticed that I was different simply because I was the female child, which made me uncomfortable, and I desired to be like my father and brothers. Life seemed simpler and happier for them. I noticed that they treated me differently than they treated eachother. They couldn't joke around with me, couldn't pick fights, couldn't tease, and when we would throw a football or baseball around they didn't expect me to throw it right or catch it. They marked me because of my gender as being weaker and more vulnerable. Similarly, when I was younger I played on a soccer team that was all male except for one other girl and myself. I was a decent soccer player and could certainly match up to most of them in skill and speed and the like, but I noticed I was treated differently anyway. They weren't as rough with me as they were with eachother though I was rough with them, and I didn't get put into games as much as they did. They would become frustrated when I would make a mistake more so than when each other would, as if I shouldn't be playing in the first place so if I play I should be perfect. They deemed themselves dominant to me because I was a female in a circumstance in which I did not belong.
Another instance in which I noticed my markedness within the matrix occurred while attending a conference at my friend's very strict, very exclusive, reformed Presbyterian church. This church does not have many followers on the national level, it denies that humans have free will, and it asserts that you can not choose to follow Christ but that God chooses whether you go to Heaven by randomly predetermining your life path. At the time I believed in a higher power and I was and am a spiritual person, but I was not a Christian. The church members considered me to be sinful, immoral, and arrogant, and they tried to teach me the right path and desired to convert me to their church. I was uncomfortable when they looked at and talked to me and I felt I was castigated by them as a whole for having differing, or rather, uncertain religious beliefs, however open I actually was to receiving their input and learning from them. The pastor seemed to exhibit an extraordinary amount of power and control on the level of a cult leader by representing his group of believers, and he alone made me feel as if I were subordinate and condemned while listening to his sermon. By entering this social group I became a marked category as a non-Christian in which I was a minority in a group of unmarked, oppressive and militant Christians.
Within this church, it was also clear that traditional gender roles were strictly enforced, like in many cults, and the women were powerless over and subordinate to the men. Women were not encouraged to continue schooling past high school, and they were to marry another member of the church and produce children while maintaining the home. Fathers have indefinate authority over their daughters until they are married, and then it is the husband who has indefinate authority over his wife. In this circumstance, the markedness of females as the oppressed gender is seemingly as apparent as that in the Old Testament of the Bible.
There are circumstances in which the marked and unmarked categories perpetuated by society are subject to change or reversed completely based on the situation or location in which one finds himself or herself. A white person becomes a marked minority in a group of another race, as does a man in a group of women. There are several instances in which it has occurred to me that general unmarked characteristics I possess have been reversed by circumstance and put me in a place of subordination and powerlessness.
My boyfriend, his friends and I frequently drive to West Baltimore because they like to collect antiques and the old, abandoned houses on the west end are good for digging bottles and other collectibles. The city, specifically this community, is predominately black and lower-class, and drug distribution and prostitution are visible on many streets in the middle of the day. In West Baltimore I am a brightly-marked category due to my gender, race, and age. When people see a young, white female walking around the streets with a few men they assume I am a prostitute or that we are looking for drugs, and on several occasions people have tried to sell us drugs or have yelled to us to try and get our attention. One man followed us a few blocks asking us if we 'needed anything' though we said we didn't multiple times, and made comments to me about my physical appearance. In this circumstance I am a marked category and assumptions are naturally formed about me by the unmarked, and thus I am put in a position of oppression. Although I may be more privileged than them from the standpoint of the general population as an unmarked category, here I am a minority and am treated accordingly.
Each Christmas I attend a party held by my grandfather in an affluent area of northwest D.C. The vast majority of the attendees are friends of the family member and are wealthy, well-to-do socialites and businessmen and women. This situation always brings forth issues of class difference and socio-economic status. My family is middle-class and my father has a blue-collar job as an electrician; my stepmother manages a chain of grocery stores. We dress up nicely and present ourselves well but always feel out of place there as people chat over wine about yachts and stocks and the like. We usually enjoy ourselves but that is because we are associating within the family, and when talking politely with other attendees we feel a bit awkward despite the forced decency. It seems as if most of the people around us at the party had marked us as a lower class and they do not associate with us as much as they associate with each other. At one time, my stepmother walked up to greet a woman and her daughter and they ignored her completely, the mother said, "Come on, let's go over here", and they walked away, though it was obvious to anyone that my stepmother was speaking to them. Perhaps this is merely my perception, but the fact remains that prejudices and misconceptions naturally exist between people that live in different worlds. I personally felt as if these people deemed themselves more powerful and more privileged than I because of their reputations as such, and treated me as if I were subordinate to them.
When in Baltimore I also notice my privilege of being of an unmarked middle-class. There are many homeless, drug-addicted and mentally-ill people living on the streets whose only control in society is that of their own livelihood. Obviously I exhibit power over them simply because I have a home and a little bit of money. Many people do not empathize with the plight of the homeless that beg for money on the streets; they are strikingly unsympathetic and blaming. They assume that since they find it easy to get a job, everyone finds it easy, so they should stop being lazy and show some initiative and get a job. Again, many of them are mentally-ill and are not capable of getting a job, or are in the grips of an all-consuming drug or alcohol addiction and they have no one pleading for them to get better. If they did apply for a job, many employers would not want to hire a person with a disability or who looks disheveled and has no contact information for their application.
As much as we deny our prejudices and tendencies to judge based on race, class, gender and the like, society and the individual has been long ingrained with the marked and unmarked categories that imply power or submission in our lives. It is through thoughtful evaluation of my life experiences that I understand the matrix of domination and how it effects the ways I am perceived by the world.