Intersectionality - a useful or useless concept?

submitted by oatcake from self.GenderCritical

I'm very interested in any academic critiques of the concept, so please share if you know any. But I also just want to hear your thoughts.

Intersectionality. It seems that every time I see this word it's being used in an argument which just makes me want to gouge my own eyes out. But is it the concept itself which is useless? Or is it just that the TRAs turned it into a buzzword in service of their own ideology?

No-one ever used this concept back when I was studying. And from the little I've heard about it, it seems to be more or less the idea that certain people can be discriminated against in multiple ways - which, quite honestly, doesn't seem to be that interesting or revolutionary an idea. I could be wrong, and I trust people on this sub to advise me on that. But is 'intersectional' really a word that anyone needs to be using when we're talking about feminism?

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[–]kwallio 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The original concept was coined so that black women or other POC women (but black women specifically) could have the words to talk about overlapping oppression, like both black and female, or black, female, and lesbian. But it quickly was taken by the wokerati and turned into the oppression olympics (which TIMs won, apparently). Its lost all meaning and nowdays means "including men" in everything. Personally I think its lost whatever it once had as a concept and should basically be thrown out.

[–]MarkTwainiac 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Here's the 1989 paper in which Kimberle Crenshaw coined the term and explains what she meant:

https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf

After reading it, I suggest looking up what it has come mean more recently, and what Crenshaw says about it today.

[–]xandit 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It was supposed to refer to black women in regards to the law, then it became about the oppression olympics.

[–]eiyukabe 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's a slightly useful concept in certain areas that has exploded by over-eager zealots into a new age religion.

[–]GenderCriticalCF 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm repelled by anything 'intersectional' now as it never means that. It just means prioritising the trans issue. That is my impression from the 'intersectional' feminists I have heard. Other issues like racism, poverty or homophobia are just swept under the rug. It should have lead to some interesting analyses of our society, but it hasn't.

[–]ausernamee 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Because most people don't understand what intersectionality is and mistake it for the opression Olympics, whenever intersectionality is being discussed I think it's important to mention that intersectionality is the concept that because black women are at the bottom of the totem pole, a society that is equitable to black women will by definition be equitable to all, question where they got their notion of what intersectionality is, and scoff at them for their (racist) ignorance.