In “Intersectional Resistance and Law Reform,” Dean Spade proposes that the United States was founded through “racialization…(which) continues to operate under new guises… that produce, manage, and deploy gender categories and sexuality and family norms” (16). More over, these laws and norms tend to maintain the “status quo,” and employ an inherently flawed justice system that is only equipped to address single-axis discrimination issues (5). Thus, the intersectionality movement is largely dismissed by the social and justice systems, as it utilizes “critical intersectional tools… that are often (too) difficult for legal scholars to comprehend” (17). Interstionality’s progress is also impeded by advocates leaving to support single-axis issues. However, Spade warns that this approach is ineffective, as it fails to protect the most marginalized members of society.
In “Applying Intersectionality & Complexity Theory to Address the Social Determinants of Women’s Health,” McGibbon & McPherson detail studies on social determinants on health to explain how feminist intersectionality theory can be used in addition to complexity theory in public health. In “The Problem with the Phrase Women and Minorities: Intersectionality- an Important Theoretical Framework for Public Health,” Bowleg problematizes rhetoric and practices in the public health field. She draws upon similarities between intersectionality and critical race theory to argue that intersectionality is a natural fit for the public health realm. Both Bowleg and McGibbon & McPherson explore the need to include intersectionality in the field of public
The predominant ideas put forth in the piece from the Combahee River Collective were those that addressed the shortcomings of the feminist movement to include all women and to address the full range of issues that oppress individuals and groups of people in our patriarchal society. This greatly furthered my ongoing development and understanding of what intersectionality is, what its goals are, and how it can help everyone instead of the predominately white, cisgendered, heterosexual, upper middle class women that composed and continue to compose a large portion of the feminist movement.
Privilege gives power that accrue members of a dominant group, oppressing the marginalized group. It pushes the dominant people up, while oppressing the minors. Oppression can be prejudicing and/or discriminating a certain group who are below the privilege people. Additionally, intersectionality can play a role between privilege and oppression. Intersectionality privileges a certain race, identity, or sex, but belittles the opposite of race, identity, or sex. It also analyzes how privilege and oppression operate at a particular intersection. With that said, I have had observe privilege and oppression and intersectionality at near by stores.
In “Coalitions as a Model for Intersectionality: From Practice to Theory,” Elizabeth Cole addresses how the intersectional approach should be utilized to form coalitions that seek to advance marginalized populations (1). However, unlike the feminist movement, that narrowly defined its goals and constituency, these newly formed coalitions should be broad based, incorporating diverse populations and directives. Moreover, the alliances can even be formed by seemingly unlike populations, which when analyzed through the intersectional lens, may share similar experiences and goals. In addition, by examining the numerous axis of gender, race, and other intersectional components, one can identify other similarities not previously recognized. Such
The Combahee River Collective was a black lesbian organization movement which strived to end the racial, sexual, and class oppressions that all women of color face. While trying to dismantle the interlocking system of oppression, these women faced obstacles brought upon by the systems of capitalism and imperialism. The term outsider within was introduced in Sabrina Alimahomed’s article, “ Thinking Outside The Rainbow: Women of Color Redefining Queer Politics and Identity.” Outsider within means being part of a community, organization, but being marginalized for reasons like race, gender, sexuality. For example, race creates outsiders within’s in the feminist movement, thus women of color experience multiple oppressions at once, unlike white
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.
Collin further explains how she does not deny that any certain groups did not face oppression that is worse than another, as “lynching is certainly objectively worse than being held up as a sex object” (p. 455, Collins). She is simply arguing that we need to reconstruct our views on oppression, and focus on replacing judgements with new ways of thinking and acting. In the case of North Carolina and Mississippi and these laws which disregard gender identity and focus on sex, a new way of thinking about transgendered individuals is imperative to furthering understanding and lessening discriminatory practices and legislations. “Intersectionality” by Irene Browne and Joya Misra, is about the topic of intersectionality in our society and how it stands as a crucial concept when
Discrimination based on sex, which clearly existed in the past still has its lingering effects in the present day. Female pilots were required to disclose the lengths and times of their menstrual cycles during the Second World War. They had to submit their gynaecological records [18]. Unsurprisingly, this requirement could have made the aviation industry seem daunting to females that had to disclose such personal information. However, this is no longer an obligation since menstruation does not play any part in flight performance. The U.S. Civil Airmen Statistics, which contain information on active civil Airmen, and were later updated in 2015 shows a big gender discrepancy in the Aviation Industry. Including categories such as student, private,
Intersectionality, was first introduced by Kimberle Crenshaw. The word had to do with the laws involvement on matters of judgement on sex, gender, and race. She mentions in her video “Kimberlé Crenshaw - On Intersectionality - keynote - WOW 2016”, how African American women along with other women of color, both have been victims of many forms of discrimination and the law does nothing about it. Below, you will read about how intersectionality is spread all throughout the book “The Beast of Times”.
According to the article Intersectionality, intersectionality is “a theoretical framework that posits that multiple social categories intersect at the micro level of individual experience to reflect multiple interlocking systems of privilege and oppression at the macro, social-structural level.” In other words, this means that intersectionality means that a person can be multifaceted, in that they have multiple aspects of themselves which can them to experience things differently. An example of intersectionality is given by Kimberlé Crenshaw, she wrote about the court case in which several African American women sued General Motors because they were segregated by their race and gender. These women faced discrimination because they could not
In 1990, feminist and sociologist Patricia Hill Collins developed her theory of intersectionality. Intersection theory proposes that the effects of gender, race, class, and sexual orientation, among other characteristics, can not be separated in order to be fully understood (OpenStax College 239). African-American women especially have had difficulty in addressing the social problems they faced, having been left disenfranchised or outright excluded from both a patriarchal civil rights movement and overlooked by mainstream feminist movements. While the black feminist movement, and later womanism, gained traction in the second half of the twentieth century and continues to this day, issues related to intersectionality have been a key issue for
Intersectionality is a very important part of identity. It changes the way people see and interact with each other and the bias people have, whether they are aware of it or not. Intersectionality is using the combination of layers of identity such as race, gender, sexuality, or ability, and looking at them together rather than individual pieces.
The theory of intersectionality has been growing and developing for hundreds of years. This theory suggests that women are more than just their gender; that they have all of these different underlying identities, oppressions, and privileges that have influenced who they are as an individual. While the concept may still be new to many individuals, Black feminist thinkers everywhere for years, have been struggling to have their voices and opinions heard about how their lives are more than just their gender, that they are more than simply one single issue. By tracing back throughout history and looking at how these black feminists thinkers developed their theories and ideas, only then can one fully try to understand the whole concept and importance
I define intersectionality as having different life experiences and multiple identities that intersect. For example, the EOP program here on campus helps students who are first generation college students. They often have specific needs and obstacles. These students are sometimes below the poverty line. These two identities intersect because having family members who have never been to college often results in making less money which limits the chances of their children going to school. EOP helps with financial resources and provides a safe community of students who have had similar experiences with being first to go college within their