Intersectionality

Abstract Intersectionality theory has emerged over the past thirty years as a way to think about the avenues by which inequalities (most often dealing with, but not limited to, race, gender, class, and sexuality) are produced. Rather than seeing such categories as signaling distinct identities that can be adopted, imposed, or rejected, intersectionality theory considers the logic by which each of these categories is socially constructed as well as how they operate within the diffusion of power relations. In other words, social power and political power are conferred through categories of identity, and these identities bear vastly material effects. Rather than look at inequalities as a relationship between…