Intersectionality

What is intersectionality? What does Kimberlee Crenshaw offer us?

Intersectionality is a framework for understanding how various forms of social identities, such as race, gender, and class, interact and overlap to create unique experiences of oppression and privilege. Kimberee Crenshaw introduced this concept to highlight problems like racism and sexism are not separate. They combine and create multiple levels of social injustice.

• Black woman experience racism and sexism

What is race?

Is a social construct grouping people based on shared physical characteristics like culture, skin color, hair, facial features and so on.

What is racism?

a system of advantages based on race that benefits a dominant group (white privilege) while disadvantaging others.

How are black woman affected by racism?

they are often seen as invisible, less media attraction in police violence and issues they encounter are often ignored

How are black men affected by racism?

They are more visible in discussions of violence but often stereotyped as dangerous or criminal

How are asian men and woman affected by racism?

Groups are stereotyped through binary oppositions and cultural narratives. Asian women are often stereotyped as submissive. Asian men are stereotyped as weak and unmasculine. Both are seen as not fitting with the western “norms”

What “strategies” must black woman and and men take to offset/compensate for the stereotypes out there?

must recognize systems of power and navigate spaces where they are judged unfairly, manage identity interactions, overperform counter stereotypes, advocate for visibility and recognition, figure out ways to navigate through systems built with bias

What is heteronormativity?

the assumption that being heterosexual is the “normal” or default

what is heterosexism?

the active discrimination of LGBTQ+ individuals based on the belief that heterosexual relationships are superior

what is compulsory heterosexuality?

the pressure or expectation that everyone should be heterosexual

how do westerners “other” people?

by treating outsiders of Western culture as fundamentally different.

what is orientalism?

Western habit of misrepresenting Eastern cultures in ways that make them seem exotic or irrational to reinforce Western superiority.

what is primitivism?

is the idea that non-Western or Indigenous people are savage, less developed, less civilized, or closer to nature (not as modern) than Western societies

what is interpretive or symbolic interactionist of sex and gender?

The interpretive theory of sex and gender focuses on how gender is created through everyday interactions, rather than being purely biological or fixed.

what is conflict theory?

It’s about how different groups compete for power. Society is shaped by groups with power and those without it. Inequality happens because the powerful groups control money, resources, and the rules.

what is critical theory?

a sociological framework that uncovers power dynamics, challenges oppression, exposes inequality and changes systems

how do conflict and critical theory relate?

critical theory comes from conflict theory

• conflict theory: the diagnosis

• critical theory: the critique + solution

how do conflict and critical theory help us understand intersectionality?

• conflict theory helps us understand intersectionality by showing that society is multiple systems of power and inequality, such as race and gender.

• critical theory builds on this by analyzing how these systems are interconnected-allowing us to see oppression in these systems.