I learned more about this complex topic recently, listening to a talk by K. Tempest Bradford who explained that the origin of this idea was the lawyer and feminist scholar Kimberle Crenshaw’s 1989 essay, Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex.
Crenshaw's argument is theorized and complex, but the main point, for me, is that social markers such as race, gender, sexual orientation, dis/ability, class, education, nationality, and religion inflect each other. In thinking about identity, and the way these markers affect people's lives, they cannot be considered separately. For example, as scientific studies have shown, a chronic pain sufferer (that is, someone with a disability) who identifies as Black may have a harder time obtaining good medical care and pain meds than someone who is white.
I’ve been thinking about intersectionality more these days, and the way my fictional characters' traits and social markers inflect each other and shape their actions and reactions in my stories.
Crenshaw's argument is theorized and complex, but the main point, for me, is that social markers such as race, gender, sexual orientation, dis/ability, class, education, nationality, and religion inflect each other. In thinking about identity, and the way these markers affect people's lives, they cannot be considered separately. For example, as scientific studies have shown, a chronic pain sufferer (that is, someone with a disability) who identifies as Black may have a harder time obtaining good medical care and pain meds than someone who is white.
I’ve been thinking about intersectionality more these days, and the way my fictional characters' traits and social markers inflect each other and shape their actions and reactions in my stories.
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