Crenshaw-feminism

What is the central thesis of Crenshaw's essay?

Intersectionality must be central to understanding how violence, identity, and legal systems affect women of color, who face compounded oppression.

What is intersectionality according to Crenshaw?

A framework for analyzing how race, gender, class, and other identities intersect to create layered systems of disadvantage.

How does Crenshaw structure her argument?

She divides it into three parts: structural intersectionality, political intersectionality, and representational intersectionality.

What is structural intersectionality?

The way social structures (e.g., immigration laws, housing, employment) interact with identity to shape women of color’s vulnerability to violence.

What is political intersectionality?

The marginalization women of color face within both feminist and antiracist politics, which often prioritize the experiences of white women or men of color.

What is representational intersectionality?

The ways women of color are stereotyped or erased in media and cultural narratives, reinforcing their marginalization.

What literary strategy does Crenshaw use to support her claims?

Case studies, legal analysis, personal anecdotes, and references to feminist and critical race theory scholarship.

Why is Crenshaw critical of identity politics?

Because it often treats categories like race or gender as isolated, ignoring the complex identities of people who experience multiple forms of oppression.

What rhetorical effect does naming intersectionality have?

It provides a lens to articulate otherwise invisible or ignored experiences, giving voice to women of color.

How does Crenshaw use legal discourse in her analysis?

She critiques how antidiscrimination law fails to account for claims involving both race and gender discrimination.

What is the significance of the immigrant women's case in the text?

It illustrates how immigration law can trap women in abusive relationships when structural and legal support is inaccessible.

Why does Crenshaw reference Shahrazad Ali and Alice Walker?

To show how cultural texts can either reinforce or challenge silencing of Black women's experiences of violence.

What is the role of silence in Crenshaw’s analysis?

Silence is a tool of suppression within both communities of color and dominant institutions that renders violence against women of color invisible.

How does Crenshaw critique mainstream feminism?

She argues that it often centers white women’s experiences and ignores how race modifies the experience of gender-based violence.

How does Crenshaw critique mainstream antiracism?

She shows how it often centers male experiences and resists addressing gender violence to avoid reinforcing negative racial stereotypes.

Why is The Color Purple used as an example?

To explore the backlash against exposing domestic violence in Black communities and how cultural works can illuminate or silence these realities.

What theoretical traditions does Crenshaw draw from?

Feminist theory, critical race theory, Black feminism, and postmodern theory.

What does Crenshaw mean by “single-axis analysis”?

An approach that considers only one axis of identity (like race or gender), failing to capture the complex reality of intersecting oppressions.

How is intersectionality a “provisional concept”?

It's a flexible, evolving framework intended to challenge and refine dominant ways of understanding identity and power.

What is the broader implication of Crenshaw’s essay?

That legal, political, and cultural systems must be restructured to recognize and address intersectional forms of oppression.