Intersectionality Analysis

Intersectionality is a framework designed to acknowledge and investigate the dynamic between various identities and their connected systems of oppression. As someone who struggles to understand the purpose of labels, as they give name to their co-existing stigma and predispositions, it intrigued me when I first began the paper, writing: “As a white male…”. In a society where identities are necessary to express oneself, everyone is susceptible to the oppression and benefits of these systems, and the goal of this paper is to simply explore how I, Nolan Cobb, was, and am affected by the stigma attached to the various labels of which I choose to identify. It is, however, noteworthy to mention that I will be greatly condensing my experiences throughout

Being both introverted and an extremely picky eater, the though of sitting at a table with 10+ relatives haunted me every single holiday. However, what I dreaded most at the routine family socials was the inevitable question from my distant relatives, the dreaded: ‘have you found yourself a girlfriend yet?’. Sexually confused teenage me disliked the implication that I even wanted to date a girl. Asexually identified young adult me dislikes the implication that I even wanted to date. An example of how this extended beyond casual inquiry lies in the helping hands of my closest relative, Aunt Marzipan , who reached out to me on multiple occasions to offer a set-up date with friends’ children. When I denied the ‘help’, she repeatedly elucidated that I could always come out to her (as gay) and she would love me no matter what. Perhaps that was exactly what someone who was gay needed, however, I am not gay, and subsequently, being constantly barraged by friends and family inquiring about my gayness and offering their support, likely despite their best intentions, destroyed my self-image and severely impacted my self-conscious. I choose not to oust myself as asexual for I am a firm believer that refraining from sex is no different from refraining from eating carbs- the only problem being that the former can also be a sign of mental illness, suppression, and other negative states that may require help to overcome. To have my orientation

I grew up in a society riddled with white privilege; I only knew one single person of colour growing up and wasn’t even close enough to remember their last name. I subconsciously reaped all of the 16 skin-colour privileges outlined by Peggy McIntosh in her paper, “White Privilege”, and was never even aware until a couple weeks ago when I learned about them in the introductory module for this course. Due to my upbringing, as mentioned prior, I had almost no experience interacting with people of colour until I began school at Queen’s and as such I didn’t know how to approach my dark-skinned colleague in the workplace. Perhaps it is natural to be cautious in a new scenario, but as I quickly learned they are just like everyone else- my caution was all due to societal portrayal, specifically the association between people of colour, low income, and