Powerarchy, Melanie Joy
Powerarchy, Melanie Joy
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Powerarchy
Understanding the Psychology of Oppression for Social Transformation

Author: Melanie Joy

Narrator: Anna Crowe

Unabridged: 5 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 09/03/2019


Synopsis

Harvard-educated psychologist and bestselling author Melanie Joy exposes the psychology that underlies all forms of oppression and abuse and the belief system that gives rise to this psychology-which she calls powerarchy.

As a prominent vegan activist, Dr. Melanie Joy had long been puzzled that people would become aware of one or more forms of oppression only to stay mired in many others, never seeing the similarities. In this book she identifies, for the first time, the psychological dynamics underlying all oppressive systems, such as racism, sexism, speciesism, and more, which she terms powerarchy. Powerarchy is organized around the belief in a hierarchy of moral worth, which sees some individuals as more worthy of being treated with integrity than others. It reflects and reinforces power dynamics that harm dignity and create power imbalances among social groups and between individuals.

Joy says we've targeted the outward manifestations of oppression while leaving its core intact, like weeding a garden without pulling out the roots. She describes the three pillars of powerarchy-psychological defense mechanisms, narratives, and privileges-and shows how to apply this new frame to work more fully toward transformation for ourselves, others, and our world.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Peacegal on March 19, 2021

Ms. Joy has a talent for creating new words for various social phenomena, and in this book she presents a new one for the destructive power-over that causes so many problems, from the wide view of all sorts of societal injustice to the microcosm of our own relationships with others. It should be not......more

Goodreads review by 美音 on January 04, 2021

I continue my Melanie Joy binge reading. This book actually took basically three whole entire days of just reading for me, because the material felt very dense, and I had to pause so many times to sort out my thoughts on what was written. This is one of those books that I wish everyone would read, bu......more

Goodreads review by Beth on March 31, 2020

Melanie Joy’s unpacking of the psychology that drives oppressive relationships in society, in interpersonal relationships, and even within ourselves, is something that every human would benefit to read and understand! She coins the title of the book, Powerarchy, as the word to describe how some peop......more

Goodreads review by Anthony on October 07, 2020

I appreciate the effort to invent words to help us consider our world from different perspectives. I'm not certain how well this exploration forces us to abstractly consider these ideas however, without simply getting caught up in repeating new terminology. Overall I enjoyed the work, and found the......more

Goodreads review by Meredith on July 27, 2020

I wish this book was required reading for everyone. It is an impressive analysis/framework of the importance of intersectionality when fighting oppression. She starts by talking about how her vegan friends often end up being accidentally racist or ableist in their arguments for veganism. And her soc......more