LEC 11 - Violence and Intersectionality.

Question 1

Where does intersectionality originate from?

Answer 1

Origins of the concept
* Black feminism; third feminist
wave
* Criticism of radical (second wave)
feminism 60s/70s
- Idea that “women” are a homogeneous
category with similar experiences
- Mobilizing on the basis of “sisterhood”
* Combahee River Collective:
“simultaneity of oppressions”

Question 2

What are the 3 types of intersectionality?

Answer 2

Three types of intersectionality

Representational intersectionality:
- How cultural representations and media portrayals affect the perception and treatment of marginalized groups.
- Cultural construction of women and men of color
- “Media portrayals of Latina women often emphasize stereotypes that can affect how they are perceived and treated in society. These portrayals might combine racial and gender stereotypes, leading to a narrow and often negative representation.”

Political intersectionality
- How laws and policies impact people differently based on their intersecting identities.
- Implications for mobilization and policy
- “Policies that affect women differently based on their race. For instance, welfare policies might disproportionately impact women of color, who are more likely to be single mothers and thus more reliant on social support systems.

Structural intersectionality
- How different forms of discrimination (like race and gender) intersect and create unique experiences for marginalized individuals. (The sum of being for instance Black AND Woman, or Black AND Gay.)
- “the ways in which the location of women of color at the intersection of race and
gender makes our actual experience of domestic violence, rape, and remedial
reform qualitatively different than that of white women”

Question 3

What is the relationship between sexual violence and racial stereotypes?

Answer 3

Racial stereotypes of men of color
* History of racist narratives about sexual violence as a minority problem
- Racialized stereotype of Black men as perpetrators of (sexual) violence

• Racial stereotypes justify repressive policies
  against the racialized “Other” (Said 1979; Spivak 1988; Hill Collins 2006)
• Lynching and rape as social control (Collins 2006, 223)

Black men accused of raping white women treated most harshly (legally)

Question 4

What is Carceral Feminism?

Answer 4

Carceral feminism is a term coined by sociologist Elizabeth Bernstein in 2007². It refers to a type of feminism that advocates for using police and prisons to address gender-based violence². This approach relies heavily on law enforcement and the criminal justice system to solve issues like domestic violence and sexual assault²³.

This resulted in sexual violence against women of color being under-criminalized and by men of color being over-criminalized.

Question 5

What is the relation between masculinity and othering related to intersectionality.

Answer 5

• White masculine superiority reaffirmed and naturalized through
• Feminizing narratives about Chinese-American men
• Racist tropes of Black or Muslim men as sexually violent
• “Stranger danger” narratives: associate sexism and gender-based violence with cultural Others (Ahmed 2017)
• Allow White men to deflect responsibility for gender-based oppression and
  violence

Question 6

What is the European and Dutch Context regarding intersectionality?

Answer 6

• Since 1990’s: increasing media focus on forced marriage, polygamy and genital
  mutilation
• Presented as forms of pre-modern gender violence committed by racialized minorities
• Feminist themes appropriated in nationalist politics
• Homonationalism (Puar 2007)
• Femonationalism (Farris 2017)
• Sexual nationalism (Mepschen, Duyvendak and Tonkens 2010)
• Sexual democracy (Fassin 2010)

Question 7

What is Homo/femonationalism in the Netherlands?

Answer 7

Far-right parties adopt violence against
women and against LGBT people as key
issue
- Present women (and gay) rights as threatened
by Islam
- Pim Fortuyn, Ayaan Hirsi Al

• Criticism of “political correctness”;
  “new realistic discourse” (Prins 2004)
• But: far-right parties alternate between
  defending traditional family values and
  women’s liberation/LGBT rights

Question 8

What is political intersectionality?

Answer 8

• Why is an intersectional understanding of violence against women important,
  according to Crenshaw?
• As a consequence of histories of racial stereotyping, violence against women of
  color was long neglected and (strategically) silenced in:
• Antiracist movements and writings
• Feminist critiques of violence against women
• Intersectionality: more than an accumulation of oppressions
• Category of women based on white women’s experiences
• Category of Black based on black men’s experiences
• Situated in at least two (subordinated) groups with frequently conflicting political
  agendas
• Tension between struggle against sexism and against racism?