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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
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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 in-

activity 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
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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.
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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