What Feminism gets wrong about Intersectionality

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This photo was shared by Upworthy, and while I completely agree with the text in the photo I agreed even more with the first comment on their facebook page about this photo.

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The comment was this:  “I used to be a supporter of gay rights, but I’m finally getting to a point where I am no longer a supporter of that, and I think society is too. Now I am to the point where I’m just a supporter of human rights and feel no need to make a distinction. Hopefully soon we can all live in a world where we can both open our eyes up and yet be beautifully blind.”–by Micheal Havens.

That comment was so beautiful because highlights something that is deeply flawed with feminism and the intersectionality concept. The goal of intersectionality is to help solve social issues to highlight the areas where certain groups benefit and others do not but to me it is the new racism, the new sexism and doesnt end racism but rather it perpetuates it.

We need to be beautifully blind. A lot of liberal minded and feminists minded people claim that ignoring race and sex and privilege only benefits the dominant/already benefiting class but honestly that is bullshit. Ending racism means ignoring race.. that is literally the definition of no racism existing. Ending sexism and any form of class division means IGNORING sectionality. It means we STOP classifying people as men, women, rich, poor, gay, straight, cis, black, latino, white etc. Yes we can still use these words as adjectives when needed but we need to STOP defining people by these words and attaching more meaning to these words than adjective properties.

White or male should NOT translate to privileged because that IS RACISM and SEXISM. It is not different from what was done in the past, just because it is a new group being discriminated against doesnt make it okay, it doesnt make it not racism. The words feminists use to end racism and sexism are words and ideas that literally perpetuate it. End racism by not creating ideas of oppressed blacks and white oppressors, end racism by understanding that there is no race. It does NOT exist, we are all the fucking same, race is a myth and privilege being attached to race is unfair to the people that do not fit that stereotype. End sexism not by preaching about male privilege but by understanding that sex is a myth and that we dont need to define ourselves by genetilia.

I know this post sounds very liberal/hippy and out there and honestly I have no issues with race or gender labels but I DO have issues with attaching baggage to those labels, with using them as more than an adjective to describe the color of your skin or whether you have a vagina or not. Because to me the BAGGAGE is the definition of racism and sexism, the baggage is you generalizing a group and judging them rather than the individual and THAT is and always was the issue so your intersectionality concept helps no one, it is in fact just the new racism/sexism/discrimination.

  1. Intersectionality (or intersectionalism) is the study of intersections between forms or systems of oppression, domination or discrimination.
    intersectionality
    ɪntəsɛkʃəˈnalɪti/
    noun
    1. 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.
      “through an awareness of intersectionality, we can better acknowledge and ground the differences among us”
intersectionality
ɪntəsɛkʃəˈnalɪti/
noun
  1. 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.
    “through an awareness of intersectionality, we can better acknowledge and ground the differences among us”

This article was written the Secular Traditionalist.

18 Comments on “What Feminism gets wrong about Intersectionality”

  1. you are so, so stupid. you cannot be racist towards white people because they are in a position of dominance and have never been subjected to racial discrimination in any way at all relatable to the scale that people of colour have been in the last 300 years. Please, just fuck off and stop pretending to be academics and stop pretending to have theoretical premises for your ignorant and prejudiced views. Do yourself a favour and read something that DOESN’T confirm the bias you already have.

    Sincerely, fuck you

      • I know it’s not typical fashion for individuals with reductionist arguments such as yourself, so elaborate please

      • ya racism and sexism don’t exist, good message:

        435 serve in the U.S. House of Representatives:

        108 (record number) are women (roughly 1/4)

        46 African Americans (roughly 10%)

        hmmmmm?

      • From google:

        [Racism]
        “the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.”

        This proves that the all too common “you can’t be racist towards those in power” theme is in fact racist.

        After all, by claiming that white people can’t be oppressed, you are stripping white people of the foundation of what it means to be a race, and ultimately a human being. Yes, you are in fact degrading white people, and therefore you are racist.

        You in fact are thinking no differently than some of the racist slave owners of the past!

        It’s the same with assuming that all black people are criminals – that’s an absurd assumption, and there is proof against it. However, they do commit a fair amount of crime. This is not racist, it is just a fact. Even though I’m white, it’s not a fact that I am proud of either. It’s sad to see people living in poverty. But in order for them to get out of poverty, THEY ultimately are the ones who have to help themselves.
        (Similar to teaching children – if you clean up after them all the time, they won’t learn to clean up after themselves – at least not as well as they could.)

        It is imperative that we be careful not to rely on morality instead of rationality. Rather ironically, that is exactly how people come to misjudge things.
        It is also important that we realize that none of us are perfect. Sure, I may be against racism, but it doesn’t mean that I haven’t been racist. Everyone has at least once in their life. But it doesn’t mean they are a bad person as a whole!
        (Trump is a good example of this. He may say that illegals are bad, but does he truly mean this, in every sense? We can’t just expect him to be perfect. He is only human, just like the rest of us!)

        Spread the love, support, and wisdom, not the hate.

        Thank you,
        – “Uneducated” (yet) White Male

    • (Jesus Was Gay), ironically what you just said sounds far more prejudiced and racist, and you end by swearing and ranting. I only hope that those words speak for themselves. When people curse and swear, all they are really doing is showing that they are making noise, and don’t have anything to say.

  2. also being “beautifully blind” means ignoring history .. both oppressive history and those that gave their lives to improve conditions for minorities and oppressed groups.

    • i dont think it means ignoring history. it means making an effort not to repeat history. You are trying to correct for history. But there is no reason to. Pretend for a second that race and sex did not exist.. that we were all one race and one sex. if we were all the same race .. some of us would have been slaves of the past, oppressed in the past and that would have been our history. Making the decision to not oppress others is all that would have been needed. And so society would be fine. Now throw race into that equation and you will see that once oppression is removed the next logical step is to remove the boxes. Stop treating people as white or minority or privileged or underprivileged and just treat us as people. No one chose their race or sex.. NO one.. that includes white people.. they did not choose their color and those alive today have not oppressed anyone. Have they benefitted from the history of their forefathers? Yes but that’s nature we have all benefited in that sense. I am arguing with you to treat all people the same and you are telling me no.. you want to give certain people preferences based on something they did not contribute to and had no choice over (the history of their race and sex) how do you not see that you are the racist??

  3. We are not the same and we are not equal. Women are not the same as men. It just ISN’T true. It’s just not. Gravity on earth exists… it just does. We have huge biological differences supported by scientific fact. We aren’t even close to the same. Female brains and male brains are differently wired, the hemispheres interact differently. Centers for different activities are larger or smaller on average in men vs women and vice versa. It means that women on average will be better at some things then men and men will on average be better at some things than women. There are also many things they will on average be equally good at. Hormonal profiles are different, parts are different, and brains are different.
    People of color have equal rights according to law but they have unequal status in a historically white dominated society and will have to face challenges that whites will not. These are facts. It is ignorant thinking that needs to change, color-blindness and gender-blindness are a few of these things.

    • How do you think that could play out in a practical or positive way? I think that’s what we are all looking for here. How do we all move forward in a positive way? In a way that doesn’t become oppressive or hypocritical down the line?

  4. I think If people want equality then everyone should be considered equal and treated as such, including white men. Otherwise, as it said in Animal Farm, ‘some people are more equal than others’.

    A side note: if you use intersectionality there are such people as poor white, anf white working class people. Including poor white men. I’m not so sure that they inherit much privilege, since they weren’t slave owners in the past for, obvious reasons, they got the vote AFTER middle class women (at least in the u.k.) and very recently their bodies were piling up in unmarked graves in France, and in coal mines. But it seems all white men are considered oppressive now. And I just don’t buy it.

  5. “The goal of intersectionality is to help solve social issues and to highlight the areas where certain groups benefit and others do not, but to me, it is the new racism and the new sexism, and doesnt end racism but rather it perpetuates it”

    Oh, instead of highlighting discrimination, we should ignore it!!!!! We should pray that it goes away!!!!!! And if you try to say that discrimination still exists, you’re hurting the abusers :(( !!!!!! Poor things, YOU are the one being racist for pointing out the racist habits of racist people !!!!!

  6. The “playing field” is equal. There are women that can bench, squat and deadlift far more than I can. There are women that are smarter and are better conversationalists than me. There are women that are richer and have more money than me. There are women that are faster than me. There are women that are tougher than me. As one woman told me not long ago…

    “You are a sad and pathetic man. I guarantee you these women have more of every positive human quality than you.”

    Honestly it’s easy to find women that are better than me at just about everything in life. But I haven’t met many kind, good natured and compassionate women. There is a shortage of that. I can accept that women are basically better than men at everything.. but having a severe shortage of kind and compassionate women makes me want to be alone.

    Women these days seem bent on being just as shitty as men have been over the millennia. I’m clocking out. Power under women doesn’t seem like it will be any better than what it has been under men.

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