"Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how a person's various social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege."
Intersectional feminism is a framework that examines how various social identities, including gender, race, and class, intersect and influence the experiences of women, especially those from marginalized backgrounds, in relation to power dynamics and social inequality in media.
Intersectionality: The understanding that various social identities (such as race, gender, sexuality, class) intersect and interact with each other to create multiple forms of oppression and marginalization.
Privilege: The unearned advantages and opportunities that certain identity groups have due to systemic oppression and bias.
Oppression: The systemic and institutional mistreatment and discrimination towards marginalized groups based on their social identities.
Patriarchy: The social system that has historically favored men and masculinity, resulting in unequal power dynamics between men and women.
Racism: The systemic and institutional mistreatment and discrimination towards people of color based on their race.
Sexism: The systemic and institutional mistreatment and discrimination towards women based on their gender.
LGBTQ+ rights: The social, economic, and political equality of all individuals regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.
Media representation: How the media portrays and reinforces harmful stereotypes and biases towards marginalized groups.
Cultural appropriation: The adoption or use of the elements and symbols of a culture by members of another culture, often leading to disrespect and exploitation of the original culture.
White supremacy: The belief that white people are superior to other races, leading to systemic oppression towards people of color.
Ableism: The systemic and institutional discrimination towards individuals with disabilities based on their physical or mental abilities.
Body positivity: The movement towards accepting and celebrating all body types and sizes, regardless of societal beauty standards.
Environmental justice: The intersection of social and environmental issues, recognizing that marginalized communities are often disproportionately impacted by environmental abuse and degradation.
Postcolonialism: The study of the impact of colonialism and imperialism on societies, culture, and identity.
Decolonization: The process of deconstructing and undoing colonialism and imperialism, including examining and addressing the ongoing impact on marginalized communities.
Neoliberalism: The economic and political ideology that emphasizes free market capitalism and individualism, often leading to the increasing concentration of wealth and resources in the hands of a few, and the systemic oppression of marginalized groups as a result.
Disability justice: The intersectional approach to addressing and dismantling ableism, recognizing that disability intersects with other forms of oppression and that a collective fight for justice includes disabled individuals.
Colorism: The systemic and institutional preference for individuals with lighter skin tones within a racial group, leading to discrimination towards those with darker skin tones.
Trans rights: The social, economic, and political equality of all individuals regardless of their gender identity or expression.
Fat phobia: The systemic and institutional discrimination and mistreatment towards people who are overweight or obese.
"Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, weight, and physical appearance."
"These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing."
"Intersectional feminism aims to separate itself from white feminism by acknowledging women's differing experiences and identities."
"The term intersectionality was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989."
"Intersectionality opposes analytical systems that treat each axis of oppression in isolation."
"In this framework, for instance, discrimination against black women cannot be explained as a simple combination of misogyny and racism, but as something more complicated."
"Intersectionality engages in similar themes as triple oppression, which is the oppression associated with being a poor or immigrant woman of color."
"Criticism includes the framework's tendency to reduce individuals to specific demographic factors, and its use as an ideological tool against other feminist theories."
"Critics have characterized the framework as ambiguous and lacking defined goals."
"As it is based in standpoint theory, critics say the focus on subjective experiences can lead to contradictions and the inability to identify common causes of oppression."
"However, little good-quality quantitative research has been done to support or undermine the theory of intersectionality."
"An analysis of academic articles published through December 2019 found that there are no widely adopted quantitative methods to investigate research questions informed by intersectionality."
"The analysis ... provided recommendations on analytic best practices for future research."
"An analysis of academic articles published through May 2020 found that intersectionality is frequently misunderstood when bridging theory into quantitative methodology."
"In 2022, a quantitative approach to intersectionality was proposed based on information theory, specifically synergistic information."
"In this framing, intersectionality is identified with the information about some outcome (e.g. income, etc.) that can only be learned when multiple identities (e.g. race and sex) are known together."
"Intersectionality is identified with the information about some outcome [...] that can [...] not [be] extractable from analysis of the individual identities considered separately."
"Critics [argue] the inability to identify common causes of oppression."
"Intersectionality broadens the scope of the first and second waves of feminism, [...] to include the different experiences of women of color, poor women, immigrant women, and other groups."