@snood,
The question of cognition is interesting. Cognition is the process by which we arrive at an understanding. Obviously this process involved emotions such fear, respect, resentment, and pride. There has been a lot of research, with numerous studies, showing that humans arrive at an understanding based on many emotional factors often in spite of facts.
Recently there was a study where students were shown pictures of situations with no description or caption. In one a standing student was holding an object, the other student was stooping to pick up similar object.
They showed the same picture twice, with one change. In one case the student standing up had skin that looked African-American (they were drawings with racially undetermined features other than skin color). In the other picture he had Caucasian skin color.
Of course kids interpreted the pictures based on bias. White kids interpreted the first picture as an act of aggression. The "Black" kid was thought to have pushed the other kid. In the other picture it was was a scene of kindness. One kid had fallen and the "White" kid was offering to help. Interestingly, Black kids interpreted the pictures in the opposite way.
Cognition is not often a process of rational thought based on facts. It is based on ideology, and your emotions... and often humans hold beliefs even when they are contradicted by fact, and people are good at explaining away facts.
Notice how Glitterbag explains so much with a single narrative.... when someone questions her, instead of a discussion based on facts she sees it as "men dismissing women".
Disagreement with women is not oppression, at least not in a factual or analytical way. But apparently to some people, it
feels that way.