Here's an Example

There are little things — whether in writing, visual media, or social interactions — that systematically undermine particular classes of people, and those people know an example of such when they see it. People who are not part of that particular class are apt to not see those things as undermining.

This is a very simplistic way of describing one way that oppression operates. I saw a tiny glimpse of it today, an example from an old trade publication in the printing business. It had this inviting cover, so I opened it, completely unsuspecting:


While leafing through, looking over the pages of writing and illustration about the alphabet, I came across this sidebar:


Note the second "deftnotion" on the list, which reads:

Woman's Vocabulary: Small, but think of the turnover.

While it's not as though the rest of the text is as clever as its writer thinks it is, that one stands out (at least to me, part of the class it applies to) as more than just something to roll your eyes at. It assumes the reader is male, first of all. Second it's completely incorrect, because women have larger vocabularies than men, even back when this pablum was written. And finally, it's just spiteful and insulting as it speaks to its assumed insider audience of men, punching down with its so-called humor.

It told me this text was not meant for me and warned me there would be other little bombs of insult throughout. So I set it back on the table and moved on.