Lead Post 4.11

Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color

Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

Crenshaw discusses how women of color are prone to social marginalization because of their multiple converging identities in society. She discusses the importance of social categories. Although these are indeed social constructions (race, gender, etc.), that is not to imply that socially constructed categories have no importance. Women of color are systematically disadvantaged in society because of the social categories that they are members of. Crenshaw’s paper explores race and gender and how the intersection of these two categories leads to violence against women of color. She claims that negative experiences that women of color have are a result of their intersecting identities (race and gender), and the experiences of women of color are systematically ignored in conversations about racism and sexism.

One of Crenshaw’s most striking examples of this comes from her discussion of a CBS news program called 28 hours. The program had a special about sexual abuse, and included seven women. Six of these women were white, and one was a woman of color. The six white women shared their personal stories and seemed to really connect with viewers, but the woman of color was never focused on my the show. She did not get to personally share her story, and Crenshaw argues that CBS subtly suggested that the woman of color was responsible for her own abuse and victimization. This reminds me of Susan Douglas’ discussion of how the media perpetuates stereotypes about women. CBS had the opportunity to humanize the woman of color and really expose her story, but instead CBS promoted stereotypes and suggested that she was responsible for her situation.

In her conclusion, Crenshaw sums up her argument by stating that intersectionality is a way to “articulate the interaction of racism and patriarchy generally”. I thin intersectionality is an important concept to consider. We often consider challenges that women face today, and separately look at challenges that people of color face. However, with the combination of these two factors, women of color are often in a “bird cage” situation.

Susan Brownmiller

Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape

I, like Mike, was pretty stunned while reading this article. Maybe I am naïve, but I have never heard the idea that all women secretly want to be raped. If this idea has existed in popular culture as a “joke”, I have remained completely unaware. So, while reading, I struggled with that a bit. The phrase seems trivial to me. Of course no woman wants to be sexually assaulted, humiliated, and abused.

Brownmiller discusses how, even from childhood, we are conditioned to know that rape is a “women’s issue”. Girls get raped, not boys. I’m not sure that I agree with Brownmiller’s claim that the Little Red Riding Hood story is a parable of rape…although, the way she describes it makes me almost believe her. There is no doubt that fables and fairytales have definite undertones of sexism, but I think that making them stories about rape may be taking the idea a little too far.

I’m glad that Brownmiller closes her writing with a discussion of how to combat rape. I especially loved her final line, stating that we need to deny rape a future, and it is a problem that rape even has a history to begin with. Her discussion of “fighting back” against men and ending rape is powerful, and I think that she should have spent more time writing about this, and less time writing about how women “want” to be raped.