Essays on Intersectionality

Kindred, by Octavia Butler, explores slavery through a time-traveling experience. The main character, Dana, is thrown into the antebellum south during the height of slavery. Dana is a modern-day African American woman living in Los Angeles. While celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her husband, Kevin, Dana is abruptly forced to time travel from the year 1976 to a Maryland plantation from 1815. After repeated time travel, it becomes evident that Dana’s time travels are related to her ancestor, Rufus Weylin,…...

1. What is feminism? What stereotypes surround the word feminist? What is patriarchy? How might someone internalize patriarchal or sexist thinking? How can everyone benefit from feminism? How can we break down the single story of feminism? My definition of feminism always included that it is a fight for women’s rights and equality, but as Bell Hooks stated, a feminist should care about not only feminist theory, but how it relates to race, culture, and class as well (19). To…...

In Gendering the state: Performativity and protection in international security, Jonathan D. Wadley (2009), speaks of the state as being thought to be largely ungendered by International Relations scholars. Within the article, Wadley mentions that feminists argue that when an entity is considered ‘genderless,’ it is often masculinized, its masculinity made universal, and its theories made partial (while masquerading as impartial). According to Wadley, this ‘genderlessness’ in international relations ignores how key actors are defined and differentiated by gender norms.…...

In the light of Sofia’s statement above, I intend to centre my discussion on the plight of women, (the usual targets of male violence) by means of physical violence or violence in a domesticated sphere and the economic constraints of the doubly oppressed black women that depend on men, taking into account the feminist theory notions and feminists’ viewpoints. Also how Alice Walker defies the stereotypical notions of male dominance and shows the liberation of women by the end. Focusing…...

In her book Women Without Class: Girls, Race, and Identity Julie Bettie delves into the aspect of girls in high school. Specifically focusing on groups of Hispanic and Caucasian girls in a high school in California. She emphasizes harsh social and discursive hierarchies between different peer groups in the high school. She shows how race and gender are nothing more than a performance, not an identity. Bettie discusses the ideas of intersectionality, gender performance, and the margininalization of working-class students…...

Intersectionality Assignment The definition of intersectionality states that it is the social theory suggesting various socially and culturally constructed categories of discrimination interact on multiple and often simultaneous levels, contributing to systematic social inequality. Intersectionality holds that the classical models of oppression within society, such as those based on race/ethnicity, gender, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, class, or disability do not act independently of one another; instead, these forms of oppression interrelate creating a system of oppression that reflects the "intersection"…...