Holistic Framework Of Identity Essay

Improved Essays
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. “In saying that identities are multiple, feminists recognize that each of us can appreciate multiple aspects of our identity. Identities include the many social categories we use to define ourselves and others such as lesbian,
…show more content…
“Hierarchies of privilege order society based on ensuring that advantages flow to the dominant group in society: those who make the rules and hold power over others” (Bromley, 2012, p. 52) In North America, educated, white and heterosexual men are considered a dominant group. This clearly defined line creates a situation of us versus them; where power is not only concentrated among a particular gender but also with a particular race. As mentioned earlier, categorizing people into a group or two can overshadow personal experiences. Homogenizing process, in other words, developing a thesis that all women share similar experiences is misleading. I submitted a resume to the same company with two different names and slight changes. One name being my own meanwhile the other displaying whiteness. Ironically, I was called for an interview with the white sounding name even though both resumes incorporated slight changes. We can either consider it as a deliberate act or simply invisible advantage given to a certain group; an advantage that is unspoken and is based on factors such as gender, race, sexuality or even

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    As we have learned throughout the course, intersectionality affects our experiences within our social category. Intersectionality can either give us privilege or reduce privilege depending on which categories we fall into. Each individual’s personal experience in a situation will differ due to intersectionality. In Heather Kuttai’s “Maternity Rolls”, we see how her experience with disability is shaped by her gender, and vice-versa.…

    • 1009 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In reading Kimberlé Crenshaw’s article, she passionately writes about intersectionality, a call for racial injustice awareness, and a vision for social equality that is inclusive of all overlapping identities. Intersectionality is a label that is being used to define an individual’s layered identity in society. Subsequently, this term exists because intersectionality should “highlight the multiple avenues through which racial and gender oppression were experienced.” (Crenshaw, 2015 para. 4) As a law professor, Ms. Crenshaw encompasses the word “intersectionality” to address anti-discrimination problems affecting black women.…

    • 300 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Is It Possible to Change Who Someone Is? Changing or altering one’s identity will be something that takes time but is not impossible. Identity is composed of many things, but some things make up a majority of your identity. Most people do not recognize their insecurities alone, majority have insecurities pointed out to them. Once insecurities are pointed out, a lot of people look to improve on the characteristics that they are insecure about.…

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Intersectionality Analysis

    • 1897 Words
    • 8 Pages

    In light of the uniqueness of being a black woman in America Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “Intersectionality” in the late 1980s. Recently, as the keynote speaker at WOW – Women of the World festival 2016, Professor Crenshaw gave a brief summary of Intersectionality; it’s inception and definition. WOW’s, “mission is to champion gender equality, celebrating the achievements of women and girls everywhere and examining the obstacles that keep them from fulfilling their potential.” With this in mind it is easy to see how the concept of Intersectionality fits within the framework. In 1989 Professor Crenshaw published what is now a foundational article about the study of Intersectionality with the University of Chicago Legal Forum,…

    • 1897 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Kathy Davis defines intersectionality as “the interaction of multiple identities and experiences of exclusion and subordination” (2008). According to the researcher, the concept created by Crenshew constitutes one of the most important terms in the feminist thought that is often referred to as “cutting edge” theory (2008). Contemporary journals dealing with discrimination of women, as Davis states: “are likely to reject articles that have not given sufficient attention to ‘race’, class, and heteronormativity, along with gender” (2008: 3). It stems from that fact that intersectionality acknowledges differences among women, and as a result, it shows the heterogeneity of the problem by means of “a handy catchall phrase that aims to make visible…

    • 147 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Privilege and oppression provides a framework for understanding how institutional structures and ideologies shapes individual experiences. Privilege and oppression also explains “how power operates in society” which led to the formation of “a dominant group and a marginalized group” (Launius and Hassel, Threshold Concepts, 72-73). “Oppression can be defined as prejudice and discrimination directed toward a group and perpetuated by the ideologies and practices of multiple social institutions” (Launius and Hassel, Threshold Concepts, 73). While, privilege refer to the “benefits, advantages, and power that accrue to members of a dominant group as a result of the oppression of marginalized group”, whether or not those with privilege recognized…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In her essay, titled "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women's Studies," Peggy McIntosh discusses her observations about the ‘invisible' privileges that white people take for granted on a regular basis. As a result of this, the author coins the term ‘white privilege,' which she compares to a "weightless knapsack" containing advantages and benefits that white people enjoy without realizing that they are the only ones who experience them. To validate her argument that white privilege exists and to show the various scenarios in which people of color are often mistreated and discriminated against, the author compiles a list of 46 situations and conditions that illustrate that…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Identity is who you are, the way you consider yourself, the way you are viewed by the world, and attributes that characterize you. A person’s identity is what makes them unique and sets them apart from other individuals. Privilege is constructed and standardized by the established frameworks of society and it grants privilege to people due to certain aspects of their identity. All through life, privileges will change each day contingent upon your location, the society you are surrounded by, and your current social status. Realizing that benefits are for the most part based on identities, despite we still continue to move on and improve ourselves.…

    • 1727 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    However, in recognizing multiple social identities or the confines of investigating gender while excluding other social identities, limits consideration of intersectional individuals’ life lessons as they amass disadvantages, which is the response from Black feminists and their view of intersectionality as a theoretical framework (Crenshaw,…

    • 46 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How someone identifies is a complicated matter to dissect. There are an innumerable amount of factors that play into identity, both internally and externally to an individual. The fact that culture is an integral part only adds more complexity, as many cultures are becoming increasingly integrated and globalized with other unique groups. Generally speaking, identity is usually determined, often simultaneously, on three different levels: the national level, in one’s community, and at the personal level of self.…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Racial Intersectionality

    • 175 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Intersectionality, first defined by civil rights advocate Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, describes how experiences of oppression vary from person to person, as people are an amalgamation of different factors and belongings including race, religion, sexuality, gender and so on. Primarily, it acknowledges the challenges faced by people who experience multiple layers of structural oppression. For instance, rural Indigenous women experiencing family violence not only endure abuses that are sometimes gendered in nature, but also deal with the broader injustices facing Indigenous people as a whole in Australia. Likewise, the challenges for rural people within the LGBTIQ community experiencing family violence, will be very different to rural people of…

    • 175 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An individual’s identity consists of various components or identity markers, such as race, class, sexuality, and more. All of these components play a critical role in how a woman is affected by sexism and gender-based discrimination, and this is summarized by the concept of intersectionality. For instance, race is a significant factor that cannot be excluded from the discussion of women’s lives and the oppression that they face. Through an insightful discussion of multiple identities, relations of power and privilege, and intersections of oppression, Hunter College Women’s and Gender Studies Collective and Simalchik (2016) argue that intersectionality provides us with a more accurate lens through which we must view gender.…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    During studying about religion, sexuality and right, everyone in class was asked to discuss an article written by Jelie Lucass-MA, “what is your tribe? Women’s struggles and the construction of Muslimness.” Suddenly, I came up with a question to my professor, Dr. Coeli Barry, “are all Muslim women facing the same oppression?” She answered, “No! Or maybe!”…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    People have always been interested in the idea of finding out about personal identity, what makes you the same person as you were when you were five and what will make you the same person when you are eighty. Derek Parfit summed up this idea by saying “Whatever happens between now and any future time, either I shall still exist, or I shall not. Any future experience will either be my experience, or it will not.” (Parfit- 186), which is what personal identity looks into. This essay will discuss whether personal identity is a matter of physical or psychological continuity, taking into account the famous ideas of philosophers such as John Locke, Derek Parfit and Bernard Williams.…

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Feminism consisted primarily of the views of white, middle class women and it didn’t consider other forms of oppression. This theory was intended to show the struggles and experiences of black women who experience gender and race inequality (Davis, 2008). Intersectionality argues that forms of inequality (such as race, class, gender, and disability) cannot be understood individually and that they all intersect with each other and create different power relationships and experiences for people that come under these categories (Collins & Chepp, 2013).Intersectionality also consider identities: it looks at the micro or individual level to see how people’s identities are shaped by forms of oppression such as gender. It also explores the macro or societal level of how different types of inequality manifest in social…

    • 1590 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays

Related Topics