Within social work education and the social justice conversations that I have been a part of, intersectionality is a buzzword that is utilized as something to constantly consider and to work through the lens of. What I find myself frustrated with is that although this framework is often as something to consider, it is often left out of the programming and lived out action.
So what actually is intersectionality?
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| Simple Breakdown of Intersectionality (In awesome picture form!) |
I thought that it was interesting that Jones & Abes' took a look at both Kegan's and Baxter-Magolda's meaning making theories and looked at the development toward self-authorship (in this case looking at Lesbian identified college women). This research came to the conclusion that ones capacity for meaning making has an effect on how external influences are interpreted prior to influencing self perception (Jones & Abes, 2013). To further breakdown this concept they looked at the role that cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal situations play in each of the meaning making stages (see picture below).
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| Jones & Abes (2013) p. 102 |
What was also brought up for me this week is this idea of development as an ending process. Although not explicitly stated, ones identity development is often thought about in the context of experiencing identity confusion and one day experiencing a sense of having "figured it out". In conjunction with this, Jones and Abes state, "answering the question "Who am I?" is a central developmental task...and is often marked by the experience of "identity crisis" or decision making" (56). This idea of only asking "Who am I?" in the beginning stages of development of one's identity is one that is included in many identity development theories as well as the idea of ever truly nothing who one actually is. Although I have known who am i and identified as a woman for the whole of my life, do I truly know what being a woman means for me or just because I know that I am a woman does that mean that my identity as a woman will never change? Although I do not have an answer for this, it is something to think about as we consider our own and the students we work with identity development.
With that, I leave you all with these wise words from Audre Lorde.
"There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives."
Tynishia, I really enjoyed your blog post. I think you bring up a lot of important issues with development theory that need to be discussed and, as you say, “lived out”. I remember when I first heard of intersectionality I was blown away. I remember then reading Gloria Anzaldúa’s book Borderlands/La Frontera The New Mestiza and realizing how interconnected were my identities of being a Chicana and a woman were. Before reading that book I had not really thought about the two together. I had only thought of being a woman in the context of growing up and living in America and of being Chicana in the same way. I really had not thought about being a woman in Mexican culture living in the U.S. and what that was like. Since then I have had numerous conversations in classes, at work, at home and with friends on intersectionality but I think you are absolutely right when you say we do not live it out. I really need to think about this as I move forward into a profession in higher education where I hope to work with students that will be experiencing the world through their intersecting identities. Honestly, though, I have no clue as to how intersectionality looks like as a “lived out action”. As I think of the feminist movement and how it is criticized for being predominantly white I wonder what a feminist movement that was not predominantly white would look like and what it would stand for. I think it would require a lot of conversations working to understand cultural and racial differences first. In terms of the learning and development of college students I do feel that the MMDI model lends itself to initiating discussions on intersectionality with students that none of the previous models did.
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