Intersectional Feminism: What It Is, Types, Books And Phrases

Since the beginning of the 60s, within the feminist movement there began to be question systematically the universality of a single female subject (white Western, heterosexual and bourgeois woman) as representative of the reality of all women and the category “woman”. This universal subject omitted and ignored the differences of race, class and sexuality, so it was questioned whether the knowledge produced from feminism was universal and could be generalized to the experience of all women.

This is why, since the 1960s, black feminism has criticized the fact that the discourse of white middle-class women is central within the hegemonic feminist movement. This criticism focuses, therefore, on liberal feminism, whose feminism is individualistic and reflects only the values ​​of a part of women, in this case, privileged white women without including those of the rest of the women.

Thus, the activist Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 coin the term intersectionality which refers to the approach by which each subject suffers oppression or discrimination based on their membership in different social categories, among which we find gender, race, class, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, etc.

These oppressions interact with each other and are intertwined. Thus, they must be analyzed simultaneously and merged, and not as separate and independent categories, to fully address and understand one’s own identity. The latter implies not analyzing the experience as “woman” and “immigrant” separately, but as “immigrant woman.”

What is intersectionality

Intersectionality in feminism reveals that the experience of a white middle-class woman is not the same as that of a black woman from the black class due to the breed component just as it is not that of a middle-class black woman who practices as a doctor and that of a poor immigrant black woman due to the class component Intersectionality defends that the more a subject deviates from the norm, in this case a rich heterosexual white man, the more discrimination or oppression he will experience, intertwined with each other.

However, before the appearance of the term “intersectional”, this denunciation of feminism as a movement that is not representative of the reality and oppression of all women was already made to the suffrage movement, at the beginning of the 20th century, among others by Sojourner Truth and Flora Tristán . Sojourner was a black slave who spoke of the double oppression of being a woman and a black woman, while Flora highlights the double oppression of being a woman and a worker.

Intersectionality is a theoretical framework used to analyze and understand how different forms of oppression, discrimination and inequality intertwine. If you want to know more about this proposal, we recommend reading the book “Intersectionality”, which puts on the table existing debates at the international level about this concept and proposes its own approach. Do not miss it!

The definition of intersectional feminism is one that recognizes that there is no single axis of oppression, gender, that has to be taken into account in the theory and practice of the feminist movement, which would be transversal feminism which omits oppression and defends the category of woman as unitary and abstract.

Rather, intersectional feminism recognizes and defends that there are multiple intersecting axes of discrimination. This feminism is what breaks with the universality of women’s experience and is built by the diversity of women and their experiences and struggles. Therefore, intersectional feminism is not based on the premise of unifying identity and seeking the interests shared by all women, but rather arises from recognize different needs and experiences of all women, and defends alliances as the basis of the collective organization of the movement.

With this decentering of the political subject of feminism and as a result of intersectional feminism, different feminisms that already exist and previous to the concept of intersectional feminism are included, as well as new ones emerge. The different feminisms are born from the need to complete feminist theory. They are a reflection of the different concerns and discriminations of women.

• Black feminism: Regarding the category of “race”, it is during the movement to defend black identity in the 60s when black feminism criticizes the representation made of black women from the predominant hegemonic discourse. They defended the existence of the intersectionality of race, gender and class.
• Lesbian feminism: It became popular between 1970 and 1980, arose from the union of the feminist and homosexual movements, and analyzed the discrimination of women from the axis of compulsory heterosexuality as a system and institution. Likewise, she criticizes the discrimination of lesbian women within the hegemonic feminist movement.
• Chicano feminism: movement initiated by Hispanic women that lays the foundations of border thinking and reflects the being and coming of a border. They demand their right to recognize themselves with more than one identity not recognized until now by prevailing feminism.
• Indigenous feminism: movement in which women have a double militancy or struggle: the gender struggle and the fight for the autonomy of their roots and peoples, as well as the defense of their culture.
• Arab feminism: feminism of the Arab world at the end of the 20th century that defended women’s rights, secular identity and independence from European colonialist domination.
• Gypsy feminism: seeks real gender equality between women and men, but they also criticize and point out ethnic-racial and socioeconomic privileges as a source of oppression of Gypsy women.
• Socialist feminism: This movement places the oppression of women not only in the patriarchal system, but in the capitalist one, defending that women’s liberation will only be a reality when both systems are put to an end.
• Transfeminism: Apart from the fight for women’s liberation, it conceptualizes gender as an oppressive system that seeks to control, limit and adapt those bodies that do not conform to socially normative ones.

These are some of the feminist movements that can be identified today, however, the reality is changing and voices of women and activists continually arise who denounce the oppressions experienced by the group to which they belong, such as disabled women, prostitutes, neurodivergents. , etc. It is necessary to listen to all of them and carry out an exercise of critical reflection on our own ideas, attitudes and practices within feminism.

Below, we show you a list with a selection of books on intersectional feminism so you can learn more and train yourself in the movement:

• Women and madness. Phyllis Chesler (1972).
• The lesbian body. Monique Witting (1973).
• Women, race and class. Angela Davis (1981).
• The sister, the foreigner. Audre Lourde (1984).
• Half the sky. Claude Broyelle (1987).
• The new mestiza. The border. Gloria Anzaldúa (1987).
• Encounters with strangers: Feminism and disability. Jenny Morris (1997).
• Feminism is for everyone. Bell Hooks (2000).
• The harem in the West. Fatema Mernissi (2001).
• Fires in the dark. Louise Doughty (2003).
• Letter from an indignant woman, from the Maghreb to Europe. Wassyla Tamzali (2011).
• Transfeminisms: epistemes, frictions and flows. Mariam Solá (2013).
• Women and class struggle. Alexandra Kollontai (2016 year of edition in Spanish).
• Indigenous women in defense of the land. Aimé Tapia González (2018).
• Dissidence in the body: feminist perspectives. VV.AA. (2019).
• Difficult women. Roxanne Gay (2019)

Next, we will see different phrases of intersectional feminism from different promoters of the intersectional movement:

• “What is the objective of bourgeois feminists? To achieve the same advantages, the same power, the same rights in capitalist society that their husbands, fathers and brothers now possess. What is the objective of socialist workers? To abolish all types of privileges derived from birth or wealth.” Alexandra Kollontai.
• “I am a feminist, so I know the contradictions that exist. I believe in making contradictions productive, not in having to choose one side or the other. As opposed to choosing one or the other, I will choose both.” Angela Davis.
• “I will not be a free woman as long as there are still women subjected.” Audre Lourde.
• “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences.” Audre Lourde.
• “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression.” Bell Hooks.
• “Feminist politics seeks to end domination so that we can be free, to be who we are, to live lives in which we embrace justice, in which we can live in peace.” Bell Hooks.
• “The feminist movement has to dream of something more than the elimination of women’s oppression, it has to dream of the elimination of sexualities and obligatory sexual roles.” Gayle Rubin.
• “Being an intersectional feminist is giving rights to other women and the opportunity to choose things that we wouldn’t necessarily choose for ourselves.” Georgina Orellano.
• “Feminism is a political thought, a social movement and a way of life. Being so many things, it is normal that there are many interpretations, many ways of being it. In fact, it is such a critical, transformative and constantly evolving thought that there are a lot of open debates.” Irantzu Varela
• “Continue learning to defend each other. To generate spaces of collective security and joy. To minimize the immense harm we receive when we respond to their violence. Not to question each other and empathize politically. “To not reproach ourselves for the alliances we choose or those we do not choose.” Itziar Ziga.
• “You don’t necessarily have to do something once you accept your privilege. You don’t need to apologize for him. “You have to understand the extent of your privilege, the consequences of your privilege, and remember that there are people who are different from how you move and experience the world, in ways that you may never know.” Roxanne Gay.

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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