The Role Of Intersectionality In Feminism

Feminism and gender studies have been a prominent field of study since their introduction to society well over 200 years ago. One of the most prominent theories of feminism emerged during this time and remains a significant field of research since it was implemented: intersectionality. Intersectionality as a feminist theory and application takes into consideration the multiple layers of a person that come together to form a person’s whole identity (K. Davis, 2009; Mann, 2013). Historically, the focus has been on race, gender, class, and age (Winch, 2014; Farrell, 2013). As intersectionality gained strength over the next few years, the media took advantage of feminist movement. With the third-wave of the feminist movement in the early 1990s,

While physical appearance has been a defining trait in advertising and intersectionality theory, it was only recently that feminists have called to add “fat-shaming” as a vital category for intersectionality and the advertising field (Chrisler, 2012; Farrell, 2011). Both research areas have shown growth and a shift with normative expectations, but women are being misrepresented and portrayed unrealistically, causing both physical and emotional pain to the target audience (Chrisler, 2012; Diedrichs, Lee, & Kelly, 2011). For example, Caroline Robinson Jones was one of the first African –American women to make headway and have success in advertising (J. Davis, 2013). Jones is remembered as one of the first women, overall, to spearhead the fight for rights in

While intersectionality is, arguably, one of the founding blocks of feminist analysis, it is widely debated if intersectionality is, in fact, a theory or if it would have stronger practical application being labeled as a concept, or reading strategy (K. Davis, 2009). K. Davis (2009) defines intersectionality as “the interaction between gender, race, and other categories of difference in individual lives, social practices, institutional arrangements, and cultural ideologies and the outcomes of these interactions in terms of power,” (p. 68). While different fields of research use intersectionality in different ways, gender studies tends to use intersectionality as a theory with practical application and makes the argument that any person working in the field of research must acknowledge the differences among the population or they “run the risk of having her worked view as theoretically misguided, politically irrelevant, or simply fantastical,” (K. Davis, 2009, p.