The definition and origin of INTERSECTIONALITY
Kimberlé Crenshaw is given credit for the origin of the word intersectionality from her chapter in the 1989 Chicago Law Forum that is titled Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. In it, Crenshaw goes on to say, "I will center Black women in this analysis in order to contrast the multi-dimensionality of Black women's experience with the single-axis analysis that distorts this experiences. Not only will this juxtaposition reveal how Black women are theoretically erased, it will also illustrate how this framework imports its own theoretical limitations that undermine efforts to broaden feminist and antiracist analyses. With Black women as the starting point, it becomes more apparent how dominant conceptions of discrimination condition us to think about subordination as disadvantages occurring along a single categorical axis" (Crenshaw, 57). The definition of what intersectionality is has gone on to be expanded from what was originally race, and gender to include items such as class, sexuality, ability, age, ethnicity, etc. Many feminists have continued researching and writing about intersectional theory and expanding the idea. Women such as Patricia Hill Collins and Sandra Harding have gone on to write about intersectional ideas such as standpoint theory. "Feminist standpoint epistemology is a unique philosophy of knowledge building that challenges us to (1) see and understand the world through the eyes and experience of oppressed women and (2) apply the vision and knowledge of oppressed women to social activism and social change" (Brooks, 55).
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wHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO WGS?
"The problem with identity politics is not that it fails to transcend difference, as some critics say, but rather the opposite--that it frequently conflates or ignores intragroup differences...And so, when the practices expound identity as woman or person of color as an either/or proposition, they relegate the identity of women of color to a location that resists telling" (Crenshaw, 1242). This is to say that we cannot just say that their identity is one thing only, but rather that all aspects of their identity have been affected by one another.
Sojourner Truth: National Park Service
Even as early as May 29, 1851, when Sojourner Truth's speech "Ain't I a Woman?" was read at the women's convention, we had cries for the importance of intersectionality of what it means to be a black women in society. No person in society will ever be just a man, a women, black, or white. It is the whole of their identity that will affect their entire life.
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Reference
Brooks, Abigail. "Feminist Standpoint Epistemology." Trans. Array Feminist Research Practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2007. 53-82. Print.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics." Trans. Array University of Chicago Legal Forum. Chicago: 1989. 57-80. Print. <http://www-polisci.tamu.edu/upload_images/4/Crenshaw-Demarginalizing.pdf>.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color." Stanford Law Review. 43.6 (1991): 1241-1299. Print.
"Sojourner Truth." National Parks Service. National Parks Service, 14 Apr. 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.
Sojourner Truth. N.d. Photograph. National Park Service. Web. 28 Apr 2013. <http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/images/sojourner_truth.jpg>.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics." Trans. Array University of Chicago Legal Forum. Chicago: 1989. 57-80. Print. <http://www-polisci.tamu.edu/upload_images/4/Crenshaw-Demarginalizing.pdf>.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color." Stanford Law Review. 43.6 (1991): 1241-1299. Print.
"Sojourner Truth." National Parks Service. National Parks Service, 14 Apr. 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.
Sojourner Truth. N.d. Photograph. National Park Service. Web. 28 Apr 2013. <http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/images/sojourner_truth.jpg>.