ihaveibs

ihaveibs , 1 year ago

As someone that just took class that utilized intersectionality as a framework, I heavily disagree. Intersectionality is confusing and lacking real foundational principles (i.e. it lacks a materialist perspective) that can interpret the world in real, actionable ways. It is basically like playing whack-a-mole, where each "intersection" requires its own individual investigation and understanding rather than belonging to an overarching understanding of the world. I interpret your critique as saying MLs generally lack a good understanding of class beyond Marx and Lenin (or maybe more generally, 19th and 20th century Europe) and how to incorporate decolonial ideas into class concepts, which I completely agree with. I am also part of the problem! But I don't think this is something that other MLs haven't analyzed. I think its a tendency of white labor aristocrats that are overrepresented in Western ML spaces (again, I am part of the problem). If anyone has good resources that bring class analysis into our modern world, I would also appreciate that!

I now realize I may be misinterpreting what you were saying about intersectionality, as I do think it is successful in at least bringing these topics into the forefront as worthy of serious analysis. I am just really frustrated with it right now since it caused me headaches lol

ihaveibs , 10 months ago

Thanks for the detailed and thought-out response, I really appreciate it. My frustrations come purely from the mainstream application of intersectionality which decontextualizes everything for the sake of primacy of racial and social hierarchy, completely ignoring the basic question of why these hierarchies even exist in the first place (presumably because of typical western orthodoxy of "human nature"). I have definitely been rethinking it and seeing its value even in Marxist applications.