Age, Class And Sex: Women Redefining Difference Summary

If not met to the status quo, our sex,gender, ethnicity, able-sim, and class can cause us to be seen as less in society, thus effecting our multiple identities, the amount of power we have, and empowerment we feel or give; which ultimately excludes or includes our privileges. In conclusion, intersectionality is a growing problem in our society today; it continues to enforce oppression and enable people to truly define

Intersectionality is defined as “a way to describe and recognize the ways in which race, class, gender, and sexuality work together to shape our life chances, experiences, and positions within society” (Lecture, Barnes). It is the impact that one’s characteristics, including but not limited to race, gender, economic status, age, health and sexuality, has on their experiences and positions within life. The intersection of one’s characteristics impacts the life chances given to an individual. If one’s characteristics fall into a minority group within society, they tend to be marginalized and face more discrimination, than say a white, heterosexual, upper class, man in present day American society. This can also be seen within the Social Construct

With these mediums of oppression, her first theory, referred to as the Matrix of Domination is brought up. Previous models of oppression were considered additive, or hierarchal, meaning that they must be ranked. Collins uses the experiences of black women to explain that all these modes of oppression, gender, race and class are interlocking and equally important when viewing domination. This bleeds mores into Part II, but the essentials are discussed in this section.

She challenges both antiracist and feminist theories since they fail and neglect to focus on the issue of intersection of gender and race. The theories are inadequate and cannot address the oppression experienced by the black women. White women, especially from the middle class are treated as emotional and delicate compared to men with special need for protection according to the feminist theorists. However, the situation is worse among the black women since they are subjected to racist abuses that are common in the society (Beauvoir 2). This implies they are more delicate than the white women with a need for more protection. On the contrary, black women are seen as “mules” and are expected to perform heavy cleaning chores of the fact that they are fragile and passive. Crenshaw argues that black women are forced to look for jobs instead of taking care for their children. They are pressured to use depo provera, norplant and other family planning drugs that are common with white women. This is an illustration of intersectionality of race, gender and

Kimberle Crenshaw’s “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex”, where Crenshaw discusses the role of intersectionality from a judicial point of view. Crenshaw states “focus on the most privileged group members marginalizes those who are multiply-burdened and obscures claims that cannot be understood as resulting from discrete sources of discrimination” (Crenshaw 140). Crenshaw adds that the struggles of Women of Color are usually individualized and not seen as a systematic attack on them as a group.

From our text, Race, Class, and Gender, we read Unit III E: The Structure of Social Institutions; The State and Violence: Policing the National Body: Sex, Race, and Criminalization; The Color of Justice; Rape, racism, and the Law; and Interpreting and Experiencing Anti-Queer Violence : Race, Class, and Gender Differences among LGBT Hate Crime Victims. We also encountered and excerpt from Social Work Practice With a Difference; The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman. The first four reading from our text explore the association of the manner in which state power organizes race, class, and gender. We also get a view of how the intersectional approach of race, class, and gender may help us to understand some forms

Oppression starts in the home. Despite its omnipresence, we don’t even notice its influence. And how could we? It is normal. It is all we know. We were raised, quite literally, in the domestic lair of oppression. People of color, in particular, face a particularly insidious type of oppression, one that is rationalized, one that forces households to strive endlessly to reach an ideal that is unattainable. Queer of color theory and intersectionality serve as frameworks through which to discuss the relationship between domesticity and gender, race, and sexuality for people of color.

Intersectionality expands beyond multiple locations of oppression, to explore how people both occupy positions of oppression and privilege simultaneously, and that these identities are also mutually constructive.The term “social location” refers not just to the way that these multiple idenitiies interact with the larger

Crenshaw uses the term structural intersectionality “to refer to the way in which women of color are situated within overlapping structures of subordination. Any particular disadvantage or disability is sometimes compounded by yet another disadvantage emanating from or reflecting the dynamics of a separate system of subordination.” (Crenshaw 1997, 552). What this means is that back women are going to experience discrimination and be perceived as subordinate based on a socio-economic system. Often cases of structural intersectionality include class as well as race and gender as the basis of

In 1989 Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality”. It can be defined as the way multiple oppressions of race and gender are experienced in a person’s life. Kimberle’ explains that the experience of being a black woman cannot be defined by just race or gender alone but by the joined forces of both. She argues that Black women are discriminated against in ways that often do not fit into the systematic categories of oppression of either “racism” or “sexism” but as a combination of both.

This essay will critically analyze the various forms of oppression that are set out through Audrey Lorde’s concept of the “mythical norm” as discussed by Barbara Perry. Through the “mythical norm”, it can be seen that oppressions exists through the forms of racism and sexism which are exhibited through many scholarly texts and articles. Racism can be seen as a means of privilege and power that is given to individuals who coincide with the criteria of societies norm. In this case, these individuals consist of white, heterosexual, male beings who unknowingly oppress their racialized counterparts. Oppression can also be seen through the form of sexism. Sexism looks at the injustice and inequality of male dominance over female, which results to men being more privileged and advantaged in society over women who are disadvantaged. Therefore, privilege and power is obtained by those who coincide with the concept of the “mythical norm”, leaving minority groups who do not coincide with this conception oppressed through the forms of racism and sexism.

For centuries and even today, gender inequality and racial prejudice continue to exist. Throughout time these concepts have overlapped and intertwined, each other creating complex interactions and a negative influence upon society. In the 1980s, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw through her article, named Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color, introduced the term “Intersectionality.” Intersectionality, is the theory of how different types of discriminations interact thus, goes hand in hand with Judith Butler, in her article titled “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” which expresses the term “gender acts” and helps decipher a probable cause of the many discriminations faced in contemporary society. Since both gender inequality and racial inequality share a common thread, I believe that what intersectionality represents will help understand Judith Butler’s view on gender classification and the dynamic it’s caused on our social and political formation.

America’s history illuminates an exploitation of racial hierarchy. From 1492 to the present moment, white elite have worked to establish and support an undisguised system of privilege on the basis of race. In her essay “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” Audre Lorde describes the lions of this food chain:

During my time as an undergraduate, I majored in philosophy but intentionally selected courses that would further my knowledge on my range of interests in social justice and law. As I started to engage and learn about theories of intersectionality, social and structural inequalities and constructs, I grew angry at the world we have created for ourselves to live in. I understood that the injustices imposed on people at the dangerous intersections of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, race, and ability are frequent and widespread. The oppressive forces that have allowed for the creation of such injustices have not only routinely excluded and silenced the voices of many groups of people, but have destroyed countless lives.

Nature vs. Nurture? The debate has obsessed the minds of psychologists and philosophers for many years, each arguing their idea is the right way. ABC aired a TV documentary "Boys and Girls are Different" hosted by John Stossel to show some of the leading feminists ideas and their opponents thoughts.