What is intersectionality?

By Kien-Ling Liem, Editor, Trinity College Student

Coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, the term intersectionality is a fairly new concept to some and the face of every feminist and human rights movement.

Image via AAUP

Who is Kimberlé Crenshaw?

Crenshaw is a 60-year-old Ohio professor at both Columbia and the University of California Los Angeles. She spent over 30 years studying civil rights, race, and racism. Graduating from Cornell University, Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin, Crenshaw focused her studies on the concept of the critical race theory. What she found particularly interesting in her research was that race, gender, sexuality, etc., all impact the way a person lives their life, and consequently how people see them. This theory, and its solutions, is essentially the beginning of intersectionality.

What is intersectionality?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines intersectionality as the “the complex, cumulative manner in which the effects of different forms of discrimination combine, overlap, or intersect”. In simple terms, and at the very root of it, intersectionality is when race, gender, class, sexuality and other factors such as education, age and disability, well, intersect. For example, women of colour can experience both sexism and racism, and the sexism they experience may be very different to that of a white woman. In order to achieve feminism, intersectionality must first be attained. Discrimination doesn’t exist in a single form – our experiences are overlapped within each other, and it’s never just a black and white type of situation. There are different types of discrimination, and how they intertwine is what makes every person unique. Another example of this is, through intersectionality, one could say that a white woman and a black man are essentially, more or less, at the same level, or are similar in their terms of prejudice experienced against them. A white woman could experience sexism in her life, whereas a black man could experience racism. However, they would generally not be discriminated for being white or for being a man. In this sense, the levels of discrimination they face are similar, but not exactly the same. Sexuality as an intersectional concept differs from race and gender, because by looking at a person, you cannot tell what their sexuality may be. But if you were to see a person of colour, you would be able to see straight away that they are a person of colour.

Image via Medium

It is also an issue of framing particular experiences: what we choose to see vs what the media shows us. This is also depicted through media representation, as the media and what the narrative they choose to show us really shapes our minds and what we think of concepts such as race and gender. If a show is made about a black man experiencing racism, that depiction of his experiences will frame many people’s minds. When they think about a black person experiencing discrimination, this show is what they will refer to, so it’s important that the media has an accurate representation of this.

Why is intersectionality important?

Intersectionality helps us frame our experiences and better help understand what others are going through in terms of the discrimination they face. It is a more accurate representation of the layers in society and how they work together. It not only identifies categories but also does not define individuals by these categories – because there are so many types of people, everyone’s experience with the world regarding intersectionality is different. It does not highlight oppression or label people; it helps us understand the many layers embedded in us by society. Whether we choose to act upon it is up to the individual.

Intersectionality also helps feminism in a way that we can now understand the different layers of discrimination. To help women, we must understand that not everyone faces the same type of prejudice.

Intersectionality as a concept has no bias. It is merely fact: because we are all different, we experience different things, and all of these factors simply overlap to create new, more unique stories that need to be heard.