WHY DO YOU OPPRESS YOURSELF? Social Norms, Subordination, and the Duty to Resist

Abstract

In this thesis, I argue that there is no duty to resist one's own oppression. Victims have no self- or other regarding duty to resist the oppressive norms imposed upon them. We should not reproach those who fail to, or do not want to resist their own oppression. Approached from both a self-regarding adaptive preferences-angle as well as an other-regarding consequential angle, there turns out to be no justifiable way of dutifying victim's resistance.