Don't bother reading this blog read this and definitely this oh and this oh and this is about why Christianity needs to be intersectional.
I just have two things to say about intersectionality, which I can't spell and to a certain degree don't understand.
1.) I am so grateful for the concept of intersectionality because as a privately educated, white, middle class oxbridge educated woman, who has never experienced violence at the hands of a man I have to honestly say that a lot of times the sort oppression I read about in feminist literature I have no experience of. I am still passionate about feminism. Intersectionality gives me the ability to say - yes I experience oppression as a woman - but I also experience huge levels of privilege, unfair privilege. I don't want to spread my privalege I want to understand how to give it up. How do I change the way I live so that the accident of my birth is no longer oppressive to others. I cannot look to people like me to give me answers.
I'm currently reading 'In Search of Our Mothers Gardens' by Alice Walker. I picked it up at a second hand bookshop cause it looked interesting not because I felt the need to read it (my privilege). What I didn't expect was to find it so emotional a read or so revolutionary. I expected it to be well written and interesting. I didn't expect it to explain to me what it means to be white. The truth is I don't think a white woman could write a book about what it means to be white. Privilege is blind (or often chooses to be). We must not reject criticism of those with less privilege we desperately need to seek it out if we our to find true humanity.
2.) It is nonsense to say that only 'academic' people can understand intersectionality. We all come acros new words all the time. First time I read it I hadn't heard it so I looked it up witch does not take an MA in gender studies.
I ran a participative workshop recently with some of the most marginalised women in the country. I wanted to explore intersectionality with them as I wanted their perspective - they got it 100% and taught me loads and loads. The workshop wasn't really about explaining intersectionality of oppressions - they understood that in a way no MA or doctorate could ever teach. What it did do was give the problem a name and last time I checked that was a big part of what feminism was about - naming things.
We mustn't shy away from new words, we should be the ones creating them.
