The Importance of Multiple Narratives: Intersectionality

Picture Source: T Calendar

I lately got to know about Intersectionality, when my friend who's in the field of public policy introduced this term to me. It was not difficult to understand, and Vitamin Stree's rendition of it on YouTube was quite helpful.

The Oxford dictionary defines Intersectionality as
"The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage; a theoretical approach based on such a premise."

It reflects on how identity is a culmination of various denominations and in turn how it leads to discrimination on the basis of layers to someone's identity.

Intersectional Feminism identifies with the idea of Intersectionality. The use of this term was first made by Kimberlé Crenshaw, law professor and social theorist, in her 1989 paper “Demarginalizing The Intersection Of Race And Sex: A Black Feminist Critique Of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory And Antiracist Politics.”

The focus of which was the illumination of black women's unique struggles and experiences, who were not able to relate to the white Feminist's demands, which was not highlighting their issues. Intersectional Feminism is important because it focuses on the struggle of an individual versus the collective- it permeates deep within the imbrications of identity, and who in the society will be most unlikely to have their rights addressed and their demands heard.

Where feminism focusses on a group such as white women and Hindu savarna women in India. Intersectionality takes in consideration- race, gender, age, ethnicity, class, caste, religion, sex, sexual orientation, physiology and now even social capital, which is, the number of social media following one has, and the oppression faced by each person matters. The issues faced by only the privileged upper caste women shall not qualify for the sole aim of resolution by Feminism as a social justice advocacy movement. In its place it is justified as and must be addressed, but the struggles of a woman from a minority community is also powerfully valid and should be acknowledged in the unique way it deserves to be understood, expressed and helped with.

Intersectional Feminism gives a platform to each and everyone, and expects those with bigger reach, to amplify the voices of those who need expression, and ultimately hand the mic to them, because only the person facing a problem can voice the struggle  in a way which helps them the most and ask for their specific needs to be fulfilled.
It helps in the countering of a 'single story', as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warned us about, in her lecture on the 'Danger of a Single Story',  by illumination of narratives of each individual involved- even those with lesser agency than us.

I firmly believe that Feminism cannot be an equitable social justice advocacy system if it doesn't incorporate intersectionality. 

To those who are against intersectionality and find it too complicated to acknowledge, I want to ask- how privileged are you? We have seen the effects of his-story on her-story, and their stories on one's narrative- apparently there are many more layers which must be unearthed to offer an understanding and support to as colourful a world as ours, because oranges are not the only fruit.