North Country

1 1 Keith Benson Diversity and Oppression Professor Tamara Thompson Reaction Paper North Country, a movie inspired by the lawsuit of Lois E. Jenson against her employer Eleventh Taconite, depicts the sexual harassment endured by Jenson and her female co-workers at the male dominated coal mining company in northern Minnesota. The lawsuit was the first class action sexual harassment lawsuit pursued in American History. While the abuse depicted in the movie was awful and disturbing, equally disturbing was the willingness of others to either participate in such oppression or their willingness to observe in silence; neglecting to offer repudiation of male workers’ offensive behavior or offer encouragement to the female workers. This movie, similar to the film Blue Eyes, featured an oppressed group of people being demeaned and degraded by a dominant group. While the focus of the last movie was the highlighting of vertical oppression and institutional oppression, North Country focused much more on societal gender roles, collusion, and internal subordination. Dana Dunn in “Women: The Fifty-One Percent Minority” explains that while numerically, women are America’s majority, women are still minorities. She writes, “Women share several characteristics with racial and ethnic minorities: they are discriminated against; they are more likely than their male peers to perform menial, monotonous work for little reward both at home and in the workplace; they are stereotyped on the basis of ascribed attributes; and they occupy a marginal status in society” (Dunn, 417). In the movie, all of Dunn’s observations were realized. The very first task we see the women assigned was the thankless task of cleaning the “powder

2 2 room.” The mother of the main character is rarely seen doing anything outside the domestic confines of the housewife role. She is routinely seen tending to domestic chores like washing dishes, tending to laundry, folding clothes, preparing meals, and even serving rice crispy treats at a local get-together. Inside the mines, women were stereotyped as either “Butch” for being too “un-feminine”, or treated as whores for being “womanly.” For the duration of the movie, both in the workplace and in the home, women were marginalized and discounted as being equal to men, or worthy of respect. The theme of collusion was paramount in North Country. As a member of the audience, I grew increasingly un-nerved each instance someone in the mine, man or woman, neglected to take a stand against the oppression oozing throughout that environment. In “Teaching about Being an Oppressor”, Steven P. Schacht explains how oppressive, sexist behavior can be sustained by direct actions from individuals, and by inactivity from observers. Schacht comments, “Negative types of advantages are ones that, because of certain people’s blind acceptance and/or willingness to reject them, further reinforce the realities of our society” (Ferber, 164). In the movie, the society to which Schacht would be referring, were the coal mines of Northern Minnesota. As uncomfortable as I became watching many people in Josie’s life refuse to stand up for her, I am not naïve to the fact that speaking out against oppression, and being an ally to a target group, is extremely difficult. But what have seen so often in historical instances like the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda and the current genocide in Darfur, is that evil thrives when good people do nothing. In North Country, this fact was very visible. Finally the themes of internal subordination and acceptance were major themes in the movie. It can be assumed that prior to Josie’s lawsuit, the women in the coal mine had

3 3 been oppressed for years. Bobbie Harro explains in the third Lens of Socialization, after long periods of abuse, people often begin to internalize the oppression by believing they deserve the treatment they are receiving. We see the internal subordination theme arise explicitly when one of the women finds a “dildo” in their lunch pail, and the women in turn, make light of the situation by telling jokes about the offense; and when the foreman leaves the room after telling Josie the “Doc says you looked real nice under that robe”, the woman again made light of a clearly oppressive offense. Unfortunately, what usually occurs after internalized subordination, Harro explains, is acceptance. The women of the factory because of long-endured abuse adopted the attitude of “that’s just the way things are” and even worse, “why should we defend ourselves.” Breaking the Cycle of Socialization is difficult for targets to do, especially once the process of victimizing themselves and accepting oppression has taken place. North Country made that point perfectly clear. In conclusion, we’d all like to say, “I wouldn’t have stood for that”, or “I would have done something to help”, but often never take into account how we acquiesce in the face of oppression in our daily lives. Do we speak up when we hear offensive comments, do we watch offensive media programming, do we respond to forum boards that post offensive commentary? Or do we sit idle in the face of oppression that is overtly and covertly around us at all times? Personally, I’d like to think that I am a force in stopping oppressive behavior, but if I tape recorded comments I make while driving, or about some of my neighbors, I would realize I am in too many instances, unfortunately, a conductor through which oppressions spreads.

4 4 Works Cited Schacht, Steven P., “Teaching about Being an Oppressor: Some Personal and Political Considerations.” Privilege: A Reader, pp. 161-171. Westview Press. Cambridge, Ma. Dunn, Dana, “Fifty-One Percent Minority.” Rutgers University. Electronic Reserve