Intersectionality

Several passages in the Bible illustrate stories of oppression and violence against females. Eve is blamed for the fall of humanity, and in return all women are deceitful. Tamar, Dinah, and the Levite’s concubine were all forcefully raped. The disciples discredit Mary Magdalene because she is a woman, yet Jesus loves her more than them. Women are told to remain silent in church and are not ordained in many denominations, which is supported with Biblical evidence. This oppression and…

I chose to write about the queer theologians, Jo Hirschmann and Elizabeth Wilson, because I appreciate their emphasis on the importance of intersectionality and moving beyond “identity politics.” As someone who was raised in a Christian household, I find their perspective from the viewpoint of Jewish theologians very interesting, but I think their main ideas can be applied to any religion or faith. Their piece from Queer Jews, “Next Year in Freedom! Taking Our Seder to the Streets”, aligned with…

lived realities of women of colour; instead, the oppressions of Third World Women have been moulded under the guise of Western feminisms, as if the struggles of white, middle class women universally apply to all women (Mohanty 2). The concept of intersectionality, coined by black scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, aims to depose this exclusionary feminist philosophy. Indeed, it is a framework that analyzes the interlocking and structural nature of oppressions and privileges that a specific…

Power, oppression, and privilege are all complex ideologies. Throughout the semester, we have examined many forms of media including books, films, and scholarly articles that discuss these three ideologies. In particular, we watched Taiye Selasi’s Ted Talk called “Don’t Ask Where I’m From, Ask Where I’m a Local”. The main point of this ted talk was to learn something about yourself. She discusses the three R’s that shape her life: Rituals, Relationships, and Restrictions. I have learned so much…

Casey Stangel Final Paper COM 498 February 26, 2017 Forming a Statement The music video “Formation”, by Beyoncé, illustrates many representations of blackness due to its focus on black feminism and black culture. It exposes the feelings centered around the issues that the black community has endured in the past as well as current issues faced today. It represents the identity of black women and unapologetically represents Beyoncé’s pride in being black and a woman. As I work to unpack this…

thought I had a decent understanding of the basics, and that the novels and information presented in this course would simply expand upon that. After the first few days of classes, I realized how little I had already known. I’d learned about intersectionality, and the male gaze, and invisible privilege, but that was probably as complex as my gender theory understanding went. The first few days of class challenged that completely. I went from thinking I had a leg up in discussion to being in way…

Feminist Epistemology: The Form that will Break the Matrix of Domination Knowledge is the source for meaningful change and is paramount in liberating oppressed groups. I will use Patricia Collins’ theory that knowledge produces change that will not fall into the matrix of domination and illustrations from her writing to support this idea (251). The current validation process of knowledge is oppressive: Eurocentric epistemology. Collins highlights it’s oppressive effects on Black women in…

Within Hosseini’s ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ and Atwood’s ‘The Year of the Flood’, each modern novel’s societies present their central women characters as being enslaved. Arguably, this applies to both the central women characters Toby from ‘The Year of the Flood’ and Mariam from ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. The main focus of ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ is how the changing political situation across the twentieth and twenty first century affects women. On the other hand, ‘The Year of the Flood’…

Entry 1-New York University Institute for the Humanities conference Lorde agreed to attend New York University Institute for the Humanities conference, and I would say that she had high expectancy to make some form of a difference in regards to race, sexuality, class, and age. As she walked me through the forum of how the conference was going, I was a little upset. I was almost certain that a platform such as this would have been astonishing for Lorde. How was she able to stand as a confident…

A Chicana is defined as a woman either born in Mexico or of Mexican descent. Most people would just leave it at that but a Chicana is so much more than that. Elizabeth Martinez is a feminist author who wants to change how “La Chicana” and women everywhere are treated. One of her famous works La Chicana shows the struggle Mexican-American women have endured and are currently going through. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how Mexican-American women have been oppressed and how their…