To exist is to resist: Reclaiming Intersectionality
Citation
Marcus, G. (2017) To exist is to resist: Reclaiming Intersectionality. In: Black Feminism, Womanism and the Politics of Women of Colour in Europe, Binnenpret, Amsterdam, 7th October 2017.
Abstract
In this paper, I explore how intersectionality as a theoretical and analytical
framework has been used and abused since it was first formally introduced as
a concept (Crenshaw, 1989, 1991). Intersectionality challenges mainstream
feminism by displacing essentialised notions of women and the
universalisation of white middle class women’s experiences. It centres the
experiences of women of colour, and Black women in feminist theory and
emancipatory practice. Intersectionality is also a political challenge to white
supremacy in feminist politics and feminist social science (Mirza, 2009; Bilge,
2014). However, today the term is often misappropriated, its function
misused, and its history misrepresented, unacknowledged or simply erased.
This paper offers a fresh look at the history of intersectionality, its roots
embedded in the pernicious subjugation of Black women in the United
States, and how it has been operationalised to address and support
European Black feminist politics