March 15, 2013

Revisiting Intersectionality and Reconstructive Feminism

Not to beat a dead horse, but I would like to revise my take on William's stance regarding intersectionality.

     In class today we reviewed her claims and where they originated from. I realized that my take on intersectionality came from a very different perspective - based on a manipulation of the original model. My experience with the concept of intersectionality began during a training on privilege. It was the first time that I had been made explicitly and consciously aware of my privilege as a white person in the United States over my oppression as a woman. Consequently, when I think of intersectionality, I think of challenging racism, sexism, heterosexism, and all the other "-isms" that we navigate daily.

     Due to my own background with the idea, I reacted viscerally and dramatically to Williams' claim that intersectionality might have "outlived its usefulness." Though I still disagree with that statement, I now have a much better understanding of where Williams is coming from. Intersectionality was a term originally coined by Kimberlé W. Crenshaw to describe the double-oppression of black women in the US. She compared their situation to an intersection of two roads of discrimination, racism and sexism. It is from this definition that Williams draws her claim that "intersectionality as a metaphor itself reinforces white privilege ... by erasing the fact that women of color are no more and no less at the intersection of race and gender than are white women." Because the model of an intersection deals only with oppression and not with privilege, it does ignore white people's race and men's gender.

     This history allows me to more generously engage with Williams' take on intersectionality. In the context of an intersection of oppressive forces, the tool has lost some of its worth - especially because multiple forms of oppression do not simply add up to a measurable sum.  However, the aim of the tool is still profoundly important in the attainment of equality of representation.  For this reason, the tool needs to be revised, re-imagined, and revitalized.

     When I conceptualize intersectionality, I imagine a system of overlapping spheres of influence.  In the drawing to the right, these spheres of influence appear like a Venn Diagram - do not be deceived!  The overlap is not to represent shared characteristics, but pluralistic influence.  Additionally, I chose the wording with great care. Rather than saying "Race," "Gender," "Age," and "Socio-economic Status," I chose to identify my own positions within those categories.  Thus, avoiding the fallacy that men are not implicated in gender, or that I am not implicated in race, etc.  In my position at the convergence of all of these categories (to which I could add many more) I experience the privilege and the oppression of each.

With this adapted model of intersectionality, I think Joan Williams might be more willing and able to accept that it has not "outlived its usefulness" but outlived its first manifestation.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the clarification of the model and your understanding of it. You make a good point. Perhaps she could have examined how the metaphor of intersectionality has morphed and explored the contexts in which it remains useful. A broader view of intersectionality would strengthen her claim that the study of the racialization of gender bias will be the distinct, new approach that she envisions.

    ReplyDelete