One indication of the existence of oppression is the reduction of a group to a collective identity with definite desires or ways of being. In the oppressed situation, all subjects become reducible to a consistent symbolic identity. Identity overwhelms subjectivity in the oppressive viewpoint, which is why people tend to identify those in an oppressed position in a collective way, with statements such as “They smell bad” or “They are lazy” or even “They are destroying our nation.”
The characterization can even be a positive one, such as “All mothers love their children.” It might be difficult to recognize this statement as a sexist one since it makes an unqualified positive statement about women who have children, but its sexism consists in the attribution of an undivided symbolic identity to all childbearing women. According to the logic of this statement, women are not subjects but substantial beings. If mothers were subjects, some would love their children, but some would not. And even those who did would have times when they didn’t. The alienated subject is not identical with itself but desires in contradictory ways.
Embracing Alienation: Why We Shouldnt Try to Find Ourselves by Todd McGowan
