So the
other day when we were talking about stories of when we've been oppressed and
then we ran out of time so I figured I would share my story here. The time
where I was struck the hardest with this sense of division based on something
about me as a person was actually freshmen year at slu. I had just joined the
theater department and was basically the only technical theater person. This means
that I don't act or perform in any sense; I just work on the technical aspects
of theater. Now my whole incoming class was all performance and so they formed
this little clique called Midas because one of the professors made the mistake
of calling them the golden age of theater. So they made this group and it was
ridiculous, but we let them have their moment. So the next day we had a
transfer student join us and one of the girls from Midas and myself were
talking to her. So were all talking and then the girl from Midas goes oh so and
so you should join Midas and then she turns to me and goes "Oh, Katie, you
can't join its for performance majors only." Now this might have been fine
if there had been any other technical theater majors that I could have made my
own clique with them. However, there was not and I was the ONLY technical
theater major so naturally I was upset and I just didn't understand. I mean
what I had done to these people that I was being ostracized. Theater is a
collaborative art and they need me as much as I need them so what had I done
and what could fix it. In the end it ended up working out though because that
transfer student ended up becoming my best friend and we made friends with the
upper classmen. Those children have grown up some and started respecting other
people and are now much chiller. But that moment where I was being treated as
though I didn’t even deserve to be there because of what my job was, it was one
of the worst feelings I have ever experienced and not something I would with on
anyone.
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ReplyDeleteOppression doesn't only happen on a binary platform (oppressor vs oppressed). sometimes the oppressed oppress each other. It sucks to be in the dirty clothes. Since I feel powerless, I'll make the best of my conditions. I'd rather be the dirty sock on the top of the stinky pile than on the bottom. Whether that translates to making someone, that you even share more similarities with than differences, feel like they aren't worthy of preforming a theater piece because of their major or whatelse. It's unhealthy and unproductive to the cause. I'm glad the nonsense worked out in your favor in the end.
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