Intersectionality attempts to link the openings between the several axes through which an individual may experience oppression. Crenshaw explains intersectionality as a way to observe the numerous self-categories through which women—especially Black women and women of color—experience violence and oppression, ways that cannot simply be explained by their gender or their race (Crenshaw). Crenshaw uses an intersectional lens to analyze violence against women and how women form against it and disputes that this lens is predominantly important when analyzing violence against women because “the violence that many women experience is often shaped by other dimensions of their identities, such as race and class” (Crenshaw). She directly criticizes…
Others perspective can negatively impact an individual's identity if they chose to be affected. Children are impressionable and the opinion of others can affect them into adulthood. Heather Havrilesky’s story, “Bobos” and Lucy Grealy’s, “Masks” examines how different experiences helped shaped how two women turn out in life. Identity is shaped by personal choices and how someone deals with what happens to them on a daily basis.…
These identities can be harmful as they can limit our freedoms and individuality. They can also have more serious implications and can limit one’s ability to lead a normal life as well as threaten their own safety. Kwame Anthony Appiah discusses the struggles of living as an African American in some of his writing, including being defined as and by his race. In his excerpt “Racial Identities”, Kwame Anthony Appiah describes the struggles of living under modern racial stereotypes, suggesting that racially charged social identities can have detrimental effects on one’s individuality and one’s ability to be a functioning member of society. African Americans do not all share the same identity.…
Feminism constantly works to eliminate oppression, inequality and discrimination. A highly important tool used by feminists to do this that assesses differences among individuals in society which the author of “Feminisms Matters”, Victoria Bromley critiques is called intersectionality. Intersectionality enables one’s critical thinking about a person’s interconnected multiple identities and also goes into a deep investigation about how these identities are interwoven into society’s power structures as to discover the roots of inequality. This is accomplished by embarking into an in-depth analysis of the concepts of power, such as zero-sum, empowerment and hierarchies of privilege. As Bromley has thoroughly supported and emphasized, intersectionality…
Crenshaw emphasizes the salience of recognizing race and gender as factors of identity that intersect to shape women of color's (WOC) experiences of violence. Outlining this concept via discussions of social structure, politics, and representation, she also points to the manner in which WOC commonly become marginalized within both anti-racist and feminist activism. Crenshaw states that WOC endure "subordination based on both race and gender" (1270). As targets of racism and sexism, they are immersed in a reality of oppression, and are frequently excluded as "primary beneficiaries" of the movements working to end these injustices (1269).…
Australians are a proud country and research supports that we are also a Christian nation. Whilst those identifying as Christians is reducing, at the same time that other religions and those who identify as non-religious increases, the citizens of this nation have not lost their spirituality and in particular the Christian values and characteristics that underpin the Australian identity and our way of life. This report will outline the characteristics of a typical Australian; if there is in indeed a ‘typical Australian’ and then analyse the role religious beliefs and practices have played in shaping the Australian identity in terms of values and social perspectives and finally assess whether our identity at risk. Australia drew on its British…
Personal Identity Challenges in African American Males Most African American families has felt the wrath of African American males past and present suffering from chronic stress of living in a racist and oppressive society. In 1999, Authors by the name of D. Elligan and S. Utsey wrote “this condition has historical roots dating back to enslavement and deportation from Africa.” African American Males struggle with unfair treatment, issues with identity, also attempting to fit in a European America (White). The history of abuse and unfair treatment has caused most African American males to express anger publicly and also in the private of one’s home.…
Eminent feminists have fused various theoretical concepts with real life experiences to construct a holistic framework that explores complex systems of oppression and social exclusion. Intersectionality, an analytical framework, enables people to inspect individual experiences based on identity markers and social categories. This paper will focus on multiple identities, power and hierarchies of privilege to inspect elements that create and define individual identities. Multiple identities can be recognized as factors that shape identity.…
While each course throughout this academic program touches on social justice and anti-oppressive practice, this current course in particular forced me to examine my own identity in a way that I had not done before. Primarily, this course emphasized the importance of recognizing the impact of our own identities on the people that we work with and asked us to deeply examine our roles in oppression and social justice issues. Admittedly, I had not explored my own identity as a White, heterosexual female in previous courses to this extent and lacked some self-awareness. Now that I have started to explore what my identity means in my personal and professional life, I am overwhelmed with how I can apply this to my work.…
Hardiman and Jackson provide the reader with, “a definition of social oppression, a matrix of the interlocking levels and types, a description of the roles and relationship among agents and targets, and a developmental model of the social identity process” (Hardiman & Jackson, 2007, 29). Although this is an extreme amount of information to cover, they do so in an articulate, focused, and organized manner, providing both written word and visual aid to help the reader process their work. Their use of subtitles provides a distinction between topics, their use of italics provides emphasis between key terms and their use of concluding examples provides clarity of content. Furthermore, Hardiman and Jackson are extremely aware of the limitations of…
Female Leadership Traits in Young Adult Literature: Literature Review The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, a young adult novel published in 2008 and closely followed by its sequels, Catching Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2009), swept a generation of adolescent girls off their feet. Raised on the Hermione Granger’s (almost a protagonist of the Harry Potter series written by J.K. Rowling in 1997-2007) example, millions of girls were longing to have a true hero of their own. As children, the gen-X girls once admired clever and helpful Hermione; as adolescents, they are ready to lead on their own. By 2008, a strong female leader protagonist was overdue.…
Matthew Desmond explains the concept of intersectionality and how being a white female is different than being a black female. Intersectionality is overlapping social identity, race, age, income, gender, and related systems and looking at it as one. As a woman, I can say that I have different privileges than males. As a white, middle-class, college-aged, women, I experience life differently than that of a black, working-class, middle-aged, woman. “What is racial domination” gives credit to Kimberle Crenshaw for the term intersectionality.…
Human beings, as individuals, place a substantial amount of importance on and extensively value the consideration that we are unique. This is foundational aspect of human nature, interaction, and being. But what does this uniqueness mean, and what does it mean to us? The concept of the self or having a personal identity leads to questions of what one is really addressing when making statements about the self; such as, how is the concept of the self created or formed? Does the self persist through time, and how can we know that this identity is the same as we flow through time?…
Identity can be defined as the composition of traits or conditions that establish one being from another. This concept of identity is prevalent in Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I just met a girl named Maria.” In it, Cofer recounts personal experiences of systemic racism, hypersexualization of the Latin woman, and casual misogyny. She then uses them to show how her identity was ultimately created despite and because of these forms of oppression. What makes this work especially impactful is that it manages to be both a manual for successful self-discovery and a manual for those who need to learn how to respect non-male people of color.…
People spend their whole life trying to find their true identity, but what if this identity they have been trying to obtain isn’t actually their own? Issues with identity appear at birth when society labels children as either male or female. Before even beginning to learn how to walk or talk half of their life has been planned out based off of their gender. It is from this point that society begins to shape these children in order to fit a certain identity. Issues with identity stem from society, and beliefs that the people are programmed to follow.…