oppressor is that or that which imposes force on the weakest, which causes oppression. It is an adjective for what has the capacity to oppress and a noun for the individual who acts with tyranny.
Between the synonyms for oppressor there are the words overbearing, dominating, despotic, tyrant, dictatorial, oppressive.
oppressive people they form a social group that does not allow for free expression, which has the power to oppress and many sometimes humiliate and diminish those who oppose the behavior or way of thinking. current. Like an oppressive father who doesn't allow his daughter to leave the house alone until adulthood, but that he has no reasonable arguments for it, just exercising his power as an authority in the house.
O chauvinism it is an example of oppressive behavior, in which it wants to determine the behavior deemed appropriate for women, who are historically considered weaker than the male gender.
It is in this asymmetry of powers and forces that the oppressor manages to exert his influence. Among egalitarian societies oppression does not guarantee the same dominance.
oppressor and oppressed
The concept of the oppressor and the oppressed is explained through the class struggle, as defended by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the Communist Party Manifesto.
The oppressor would be the figure of the bourgeois, a member of the class of modern capitalists who use the means of production and labor of the proletariat to conquer their wealth. While the oppressed are the workers, who, without their own means of production, sell their labor as a means of survival.
The determination of oppressor and oppressed takes place through the asymmetry of the forces of power. Since the political perception of the left, defended by Marx and Engels, workers are oppressed because their workforce is exploited by employers, the oppressors. These would be stronger figures, with economic power, and with intentions to reduce any attempt at equality and better distribution of resources obtained through work.
This would generate an oppressive society, based on modern capitalism, and which does not allow the proletariat to realize its work value and fight for equal conditions.
Other leftist authors also use the concepts of the oppressor and the oppressed, such as Simone de Beauvoir in relation to machismo, and Paulo Freire in relation to education and the political system.
Learn more about the meaning of overwhelmed.