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

TLDR

Contemporary feminist and antiracist discourses have failed to consider the intersections of racism and patriarchy. The paper proposes intersectionality to address this gap and discusses its implications for contemporary identity politics. The study examines structural intersectionality by showing how women of color’s experiences of domestic violence, rape, and reform differ from white women’s, and then analyzes political intersectionality to reveal how feminist and antiracist politics have jointly marginalized violence against women of color.

Abstract

Contemporary feminist and antiracist discourses have failed to consider the intersections of racism and patriarchy. To overcome this difficulty, an original approach is suggested here: that of intersectionality. In the first part, the paper discusses structural intersectionality, the ways in which the location of women of color at the intersection of race and gender makes their real experience of domestic violence, rape, and remedial reform qualitatively different from that of white women. The focus is shifted in the second part to political intersectionality, with the analysis of how both feminist and antiracist politics have functioned in tandem to marginalize the issue of violence against women of color. Finally, the implications of the intersectional approach are addressed within the broader scope of contemporary identity politics.