Intersectionalism is the worst thing to happen to feminism.

submitted by medium_tomato from self.GenderCritical

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[–]endthewoo 44 insightful - 1 fun44 insightful - 0 fun45 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The original concept (Kimberle Crenshaw) was fine and made sense in context. The problem is it being twisted beyond recognition such that it has lost any useful meaning at all. It was originally about material realities (workplace discrimination and recourse under law) but is now all about identity-oppression-olympics IOW complete bullshit.

[–][deleted] 16 insightful - 1 fun16 insightful - 0 fun17 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I'm cynical enough to think that pretty much everything that describes the situations of a vulnerable minority will either be hijacked or ignored because the average person wants theory to include them or they ignore it. Anything else requires a lot of empathy.

I'm disabled, and remember when non-disabled people were being told not to use spoon theory for situations where a good night's sleep would fix it – does anyone even talk about spoon theory anymore?

[–]Lemonade_Masquerade 21 insightful - 1 fun21 insightful - 0 fun22 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Woke circles use oppression points like currency. It's no wonder they want to try to cheat the system as much as possible.

Definitely could use some more empathy. The ability to say "your situation and my situation are different and we have different needs" is missing from so many of these people's mindsets. It's like they think their feelings and experiences are universal. Spoon theory was also my first thought. I had only heard it from people who use it when talking about mental health for so long before I found out that it was a concept for disabled people. "Trigger" has gone through a similar process as it was specifically a PTSD term before it became a word for "generic thing that makes me uncomfortable."

I am so uncomfortable with how much those circles promote self-diagnosis for mental disorders, for this very reason. Many mental illnesses are normal thought processes taken to the extreme. That's why so many people can read a list of vague symptoms and think "Oh, that's me!" in the same way you can read any random horoscope and feel the same way.

It seems very related to how they don't appreciate the need for clear language. They only use language to express their subjective experience. If men can be women, then "spoons" can apply to any mental illness you want. If penises are female, then getting bored sometimes can be ADHD.

[–]Complicated-Spirit 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I can’t count the number of times I’ve had white males tell me that white male privilege applied to them, but not really, because of X, Y and/or Z.

“White male privilege doesn’t really apply to me because I’m on the spectrum. No, I’ve never gotten a formal diagnosis, but that’s just evidence of how disadvantaged I am.”

“White male privilege doesn’t really apply to me because while I look like a regular Western European white male and my name seemingly reflects that, I’m actually more Eastern European, with a strong Romani and Syro-Turkish background. My family denies it, but that’s just because of their shame due to internalized racism.”

“White male privilege doesn’t really apply to me, because while I am a white male, I am also queer. If you don’t know what ‘queer’ means to me, I’m under no obligation to define it to your bigoted ass. It can mean whatever I want. The fact that you seem to think that I’m bullshitting that white male privilege doesn’t really apply to me because I’m queer due to some ‘demand’ on your part that ‘queer’ meet some predetermined definition of your own choosing only goes to show how disadvantaged I really am.”