Intersectionality

Philosophy →Go uptown The JC looks deep into the well. Or abyss. Click ᐅ to expand: Philosophy Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

Intersectionality
(n.)

(from the OED):The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.

Intersectionality is an analytical framework within critical theory for understanding how aspects of a person’s social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. The term was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw.

Now far be it from the JC to wade into the roiling waters of this debate: he’s seen his 23andme profile, and he’s basically irredeemable — but, being a contrarian, he did want to play around with Excel a little bit and think about Venn diagrams. The thing about intersecting dimensions is that there’s an in group, and an out group, and how they shake out mathematically depends on how your sections intersect. It might be a little western intellectual tradition to say so, but you should treat intersections consistently.

This being an intellectual argument rather than a political one, let’s say our population os squirrels has four relevant, overlapping classifications: fur colour (which can be red or grey); nut preference (acorns or chestnuts); tail fluffiness (bouffant or ratty) and age (senior or junior).