In March of my freshman year at the University of South Carolina (UofSC), I attended my first feminist conference. Despite it only being my second semester in college, I was the newly elected vice president of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA) and was more than eager for the eight-hour trip up to Washington, D.C. packed in a 15-passenger van. I had just left my final class of the week and rushed to the Visitor’s Center parking lot, duffel bag in tow. Once the others trickled in, we all packed up the van and started our trek to D.C. to learn and network at the National Young Feminist Leadership Conference (NYFLC) hosted by FMLA’s mother organization, the Feminist Majority Foundation. That weekend at NYFLC was a transformative experience for me: I cemented bonds with the other members in FMLA, connected with other young feminists in D.C. and nationwide, and came back to South Carolina with new ideas for our organization and a renewed confidence in my leadership abilities.
Shortly thereafter, I was elected president of FMLA, now the Feminist Collective (FemCo), and returned to NYFLC in 2015 with a new group of FemCo members. That year saw the beginnings of a continued relationship with the Feminist Majority Foundation outside of my leadership in FemCo. I was invited to speak on a panel called “Skill Building 101: Getting Off the Ground; Launching and Re-Launching,” where I spoke about my experience rebranding UofSC’s FMLA as FemCo and gave advice to other feminist groups in similar situations. Coincidentally enough, at that weekend’s conference, Kimberlé Crenshaw, scholar, and coiner of the term “intersectionality,” gave a keynote speech about the importance of incorporating intersectionality within the feminist movement. The concept of intersectionality asserts that social categories (gender, race, class, sexuality, etc.) and systems of oppression and discrimination intersect and overlap one another.
For example, I personally face varying levels of discrimination and privilege in the space I occupy as a white, cisgender, queer woman living in the South. Coming from an upper-middle class background, I possess privileges that have shaped my life in fundamentally different ways from others. Receiving a college education was always an expectation of me, not an option, and I was able to attend high school and participate in extracurricular and enrichment activities without having to worry about a job. Numerous factors have allowed me to get where I am today, and my experiences learning about and interacting with intersectionality have engrained the importance of critically examining identity and privilege, not just as a theory in a textbook, but within every aspect of life.
It is easy and shortsighted to isolate feminism as a “women’s issue” and entirely independent from other movements. While the feminist movement has many valid criticisms of lacking inclusivity in the past, modern feminist theory and practice necessitate an intersectional framework, and this is becoming more and more evident in the changing sociopolitical world. As president of FemCo, I latched onto the idea of furthering the mission of the organization through promoting the importance of intersectionality. Through my work as president, as well as a member of many other progressive organizations, I pushed to include FemCo within the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) because of intersectional feminism’s focus on social justice, marginalized populations, and one’s identity, all areas that fall within OMSA’s scope. With the addition of UofSC’s only feminist organization to the OMSA community, FemCo has grown relationships with other OMSA organizations, gained insight, and interacted with a variety of other communities at UofSC.
Admittedly, the majority of what I have learned about feminism has been through interactions with others, independent readings, and a lot of time spent on the internet. Much of my knowledge of modern feminist theory stems from closely following the work of a variety of academics on Twitter and regular discussions with peers (often in FemCo) about teachings in their Women and Gender Studies, Sociology, and African American Studies classes. However, the spring semester of my first year at UofSC, I enrolled in a psychology course that touched on some of the things I was already beginning to be exposed to through my co-curricular activities. In this class, Psychology 310: Psychology of Women, we began with two readings: an opinion piece from The Guardian titled “You’re not a feminist, but … what?” and the article “The Pros and Cons of Abandoning the Word 'Feminist'” published by The Atlantic. Each piece argued for a different take on the term “feminism” and its importance, and it was the first time I had been able to openly discuss feminism in a classroom setting. That semester, we touched on a few other issues that skimmed the surface of intersectional theory: race, sexuality, gender, age, and ability were all mentioned in readings here and there, but the term “intersectionality” was never actually mentioned during the course. Elements of identity were sometimes used to diversify perspectives or widen our understanding of the topic’s scope, like in one reading that tackled the overarching issue of women’s representation in media but also compared the differing portrayals and stereotypes of white, east Asian, and Black women. However, by the end of each class discussion, the topic ultimately circled back to boiling down as a “woman’s issue,” without the complexity or nuance that intersectionality necessitates.
It was not until the fall of 2016, my seventh semester at UofSC, that I took the first of my college courses that truly emphasized intersectionality and integrated it fully into the curriculum. Psychology 589: Men & Masculinity, as the title indicates, focused on men, male persons, and masculine presentations, but it was not limited to these topics. In class, we discussed sexuality, gender identity and expression, sex, race, class, socioeconomic status, education level, ability, and religion, among other topics, as well as the many intersections that these identities occupy. In lieu of a final exam, we were instructed to create a “social marketing project,” in which we researched a topic relating to the coursework, educated others about it in a way of our choosing, and presented on our experience. I created a presentation on LGBTQ+ interpersonal violence that incorporated two videos and gave the presentation at one of FemCo’s monthly documentary screening events. Through this project, I spoke with a group of others about the intersections of gender, sexuality, sex, race, religion, immigration status, and interpersonal violence, and was reminded that intersectionality is multi-faceted, complex, and affects every individual in a different way, given their various identities, backgrounds, and current situations. I, nor anyone else, can ever know the entirety of another person’s life experience, but I will certainly never get closer to a fuller understanding if I choose to not only ignore aspects of a person’s identity but also how those identities operate within institutional structures and systems of oppression.
After graduation, I plan to devote my work to progressive advocacy, incorporating intersectional frameworks into everyday life as well as activism. While concepts like this are usually neglected except within the spaces from which they originate, society must require full integration of intersectionality into daily life as continuous practice – not merely isolated within academia or diversity initiatives. So often, social justice is watered down to an issue of “identity politics” and pushed aside, where it can be relegated to a single department (i.e. an Office of Diversity and Inclusion). Compartmentalized in this manner, other departments or institutions are given the freedom to ignore matters of identity, permitting the continuation of bigotry. If we hope to dismantle oppressive systems and institutions that block progress and prevent everyone in our communities from flourishing to the fullest extent, we cannot ignore those who live at the margins or at the complicated intersections that make up those margins. Scrutinizing the spaces we individually occupy, the privileges and powers those spaces provide us, and the many diverse impacts these spaces have on others is vital to promoting social justice. Now more than ever, intersectionally-focused social justice must be championed in all of these spaces, not only the spaces carved out for minority and marginalized communities.
Within the Classroom Artifacts: PSYC 310 polyamory paper, PSYC 589 social marketing project
Beyond the Classroom Artifacts: NYFLC 2015 Panel, FemCo presentation (LGBTQ+ interpersonal violence) |