Undermining Intersectionality
The Perils of Powerblind Feminism

PB: $29.95
EAN: 978-1-4399-1651-3
Publication: Aug 20
HC: $69.50
EAN: 978-1-4399-1650-6
Publication: Nov 18
Ebook: $69.50
EAN: 978-1-4399-1652-0
Publication: Nov 18
284 pages
6 x 9
Now in Paperback—a sustained critique of the ways in which scholars have engaged with and deployed intersectionality
Read an excerpt of Chapter 1 (pdf.)Description
Praise for the hardcover edition:
"(A) timely intervention. The author carefully and intelligibly guides the
reader through discussions of the deficiencies, normative predispositions, and consequences of extant efforts to suppress Black feminist political thought." "(Tomlinson) lays down a forceful defense of intersectionality’s
contribution to knowledge and of women of color’s ownership over
'true' intersectional thought. Tomlinson meticulously analyzes popular feminist discussions about intersectionality and their discursive strategies, finding that the most vocal critics tend to neglect any meaningful engagement with intersectionality’s original texts, the racial studies literature, the history of European imperialism and slavery, or their own positionalities….
In this provocative book, esteemed scholar Barbara Tomlinson asserts that intersectionality—the idea that categories such as gender, race, and class create overlapping systems of oppression—is consistently misinterpreted in feminist argument. Despite becoming a central theme in feminist scholarship and activism, Tomlinson believes dominant feminism has failed to fully understand the concept.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Interrogating Critiques of Intersectionality
2. Category Anxiety
3. Metaphor Anxiety
4. Legitimating Powerblindness
5. The Vise of Geometry
6. Intersectionality Telephone and the Canyon of Echoes
7. The Invisible White Woman
8. Colonizing Intersectionality
9. Affect and the Epistemic Machine
10. Turning Off the Epistemic Machine
Notes
References
Index