Intersectionality: A Feminist Sociological Theory

Intersectionality is a framework designed to acknowledge and investigate the dynamic between various identities and their connected systems of oppression. As someone who struggles to understand the purpose of labels, as they give name to their co-existing stigma and predispositions, it intrigued me when I first began the paper, writing: “As a white male…”. In a society where identities are necessary to express oneself, everyone is susceptible to the oppression and benefits of these systems, and the goal of this paper is to simply explore how I, Nolan Cobb, was, and am affected by the stigma attached to the various labels of which I choose to identify. It is, however, noteworthy to mention that I will be greatly condensing my experiences throughout

Intersectionality illustrates how people face a multitude of experience based on their social identities. In Mapping the Margins, Crenshaw explores how race and gender detriments violence against women of color. She spoke about how spousal violence differ for women of color compared to white women. In 1990, Congress made the Immigration and Nationality Act to protect immigrant women who were abused by their American husbands. The act also stated an immigrant had to be married to a United States citizen for two years before gaining permanent resident status. Thus, “…many immigrant women were reluctant to leave even the most abusive of partners for fear of being deported” (Crenshaw, p. 201). Congress tried to fix the situation by including an

Intersectionality is defined by social categories, such as race and gender that have interconnected to apply to individuals and groups, causing an overlap, which has consequently created a system of discrimination and disadvantages

1.The theory/concept of intersectionality is a theory centered around oppression, domination and discrimination through various mediums from the social and cultural elements of society.

Crenshaw’s Mapping the Margins: The Marginalization of Women of Color Analyzed Through Generalization and A Feminist Lens

As a human being you are not bound nor placed into one single group or category. You yourself do not identify solely by gender or race. There are multiple aspects to you that make you who you are; it consists on how you see yourself and how the world perceives you. Intersectionality is the interwoven identities that make up who you are: race, class, gender, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, etc. They are interdependent and can be shaped by one’s own personal experiences. It also refers to “the various forms of oppression that are interrelated and cause intersections between systems of domination that result in unique practices of discrimination” (Brown, 4). As a woman, I myself also identify as being of Mexican heritage but of American nationality. I am in college and in the working class poor. I am a moderate conservative, Catholic, and straight. I am not one without the others, life’s experiences have made me who I am.

Fostering this, both Black women’s empowerment and conditions of social justice within the academy can align with the movement that adequately addresses intersectionality of race, gender, class, and sexuality. The black feminist framework seeks to reconfigure being Black and a female in white misogynistic society were the cross of race, class, and gender are theorized as everyday realities. The intersectional analysis of race, class, gender, and sexuality is termed as intersectionality. A term created by Kimberlé Crenshaw, intersectionality explores the systematic structures of dominance of race, class, gender and sexuality that affect those who are neither White nor male (Mirza, 2015).

Intersectionality introduced to me to misogynoir -- what I now know fueled the earlier self hatred in my life.

In the text “Feminisms Matters”, Bromley uses intersectionality to pin point and discourse how people are not just classified by one identity but by various, complex and interconnected ones which unified, define a person. “We are likely to identify with a particular gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age group and ability” (Bromley 47). These are some of the social groups used in terms of intersectionality to analyze how components of our identity fall under these categories which are influenced by a numerous amount of factors such as our experiences and positionality (Bromley 47). Evidently an individual would relate to all of these categories but in different ways, making distinguishable identities. “For example, you might be living

Intersectionality is a theory which illustrates various types of discrimination an individual face when their identities imbricate with a number of minority classes such as race, gender, age, ethnicity, and other characteristics. Intersectionality is defined as looking at the intersections of people's identities. It examines how women of different background experience oppression. The phrase intersectionality was first developed by Kimberle Crenshaw to explain the methods in which social identities overlap and how that influences into experiences of oppression. Crenshaw began using the term to understand how African American women encounter both racism and sexism in multifaceted ways. Understanding intersectionality is important for disassembling

Intersectionality is a concept used to describe the ways in which identities are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another. Dhingra and Rodriguez stated that “how race is experienced, then, is often through sexual dynamics” (Dhingra& Rodriguez ,24). They offer an example that if a woman is afraid of Black man, she does so not only due to the men are black, but also because Black men are stereotypically seemed as sexually aggressive. I’d further argue that the reason why she is afraid is that race is also seem through class. Because the media always portray Black people as poor people live in the inner city, there is a false assumption that all Black people are poor and lazy. Hence, they are more likely to be commit

After reading the articles for this week, I could not help to come to a conclusion on how important identity is for the youth of America as well as the youth around the world and what it truly represents. There is power in understanding “who you are” and “what makes you “special” as an individual? Qualities of our individual identities make themselves present when we stimulate and practice the natural gifts we have come to inherit from birth. Whether it is physicality, intelligence, creativeness, or perseverance, we all have unique qualities that make us special. It is because we have the need to feel special about our identities that many educators our testing the intersections of identity and individuality within schools. In the article we read called Queer students of color and antiracist, antiheterosexist education: Paradoxes of identity and activism, by Kevin K. Kumashiro, we learn process of analyzing “intersections” can definitely come with new issues and challenges of its own.

While intersectionality is, arguably, one of the founding blocks of feminist analysis, it is widely debated if intersectionality is, in fact, a theory or if it would have stronger practical application being labeled as a concept, or reading strategy (K. Davis, 2009). K. Davis (2009) defines intersectionality as “the interaction between gender, race, and other categories of difference in individual lives, social practices, institutional arrangements, and cultural ideologies and the outcomes of these interactions in terms of power,” (p. 68). While different fields of research use intersectionality in different ways, gender studies tends to use intersectionality as a theory with practical application and makes the argument that any person working in the field of research must acknowledge the differences among the population or they “run the risk of having her worked view as theoretically misguided, politically irrelevant, or simply fantastical,” (K. Davis, 2009, p.

The historical evolution of Black Feminism in the US not only developed out of Black women 's antagonistic and dialectical engagement with white women but also out of their own need to ameliorate conditions for empowerment on their own terms.