This paper will provide a profile of the key concept of Intersectionality. It will begin by providing a definition of the concept, and subsequently proceed to consider how Intersectionality challenges the normative understanding of gender. It will then discuss the necessity for Intersectionality to intervene into current debates about gender, more specifically, within the debate of gender-based violence.
Intersectionality can be defined as the various axes of discrimination, such as racism and class oppression, which intersect to result in additional marginalisation of individuals who fall within such junctures (Crenshaw 2015; Gleeson 2017; Schuster 2016). Although Intersectionality was initially articulated to describe the overlapping marginalisation …show more content…
This is particularly apparent in regards to gender-based violence; a current debate which has prominently appeared via the #MeToo social media movement. This movement, despite being created in 2007 by Tarana Burke, a black activist seeking to emphasise the omnipresence of sexual assault amongst women of colour, has recently been dominated by upper class, white cis-women in Hollywood in relative positions of power (Scott 2017). This is despite the fact that women who suffer more intersectional discrimination often experience higher rates of gender-based violence, and face further barriers when seeking help and support (Australian Human Rights Commission 2017). For example, the Indigenous women victimisation rate for sexual violence was 3.4 and 3.7 times higher in New South Wales and Queensland, respectively, than the rate of non-Indigenous women (Australian Institute of Criminology 2007). In America, multiracial women experienced 1.6 times higher rates of rape, and 1.4 times higher rates of other sexual violence in comparison to non-Hispanic white women (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention 2014). Marginalised women evidently have a different lived experience than white women in regards to gender-based violence. The importance of this distinction is emphasised by Behrendt (1992). However, the lack of diverse representation in the #MeToo movement highlights the perpetuating notion of Western, white feminism which contends universality. Moreover, it reflects the essentialist discourse, wherein the movement against gender-based violence is represented as being fought between ‘males’, as the perpetrators, and ‘females’ as the victims, without the consideration of fundamental complexities, such as race, class and sexuality (Behrendt 1992, p. 43). Thus, the #MeToo movement, and other feminist campaigns, primarily
Intersectionality can be defined as the various axes of discrimination, such as racism and class oppression, which intersect to result in additional marginalisation of individuals who fall within such junctures (Crenshaw 2015; Gleeson 2017; Schuster 2016). Although Intersectionality was initially articulated to describe the overlapping marginalisation …show more content…
This is particularly apparent in regards to gender-based violence; a current debate which has prominently appeared via the #MeToo social media movement. This movement, despite being created in 2007 by Tarana Burke, a black activist seeking to emphasise the omnipresence of sexual assault amongst women of colour, has recently been dominated by upper class, white cis-women in Hollywood in relative positions of power (Scott 2017). This is despite the fact that women who suffer more intersectional discrimination often experience higher rates of gender-based violence, and face further barriers when seeking help and support (Australian Human Rights Commission 2017). For example, the Indigenous women victimisation rate for sexual violence was 3.4 and 3.7 times higher in New South Wales and Queensland, respectively, than the rate of non-Indigenous women (Australian Institute of Criminology 2007). In America, multiracial women experienced 1.6 times higher rates of rape, and 1.4 times higher rates of other sexual violence in comparison to non-Hispanic white women (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention 2014). Marginalised women evidently have a different lived experience than white women in regards to gender-based violence. The importance of this distinction is emphasised by Behrendt (1992). However, the lack of diverse representation in the #MeToo movement highlights the perpetuating notion of Western, white feminism which contends universality. Moreover, it reflects the essentialist discourse, wherein the movement against gender-based violence is represented as being fought between ‘males’, as the perpetrators, and ‘females’ as the victims, without the consideration of fundamental complexities, such as race, class and sexuality (Behrendt 1992, p. 43). Thus, the #MeToo movement, and other feminist campaigns, primarily