ar 1 431 ce 2's be е Is Is 3 Butler / Imitation and Gender Insubordination such that the instrumental uses of "identity" do not become regulatory imperatives? If it is already true it resists, that it is constituted in part from the very that "lesbians and gay men" have been tradition- heterosexual matrix that it seeks to displace, and ally designated as impossible identities, errors of clas- that its specificity is to be established, not outside or beyond that reinscription or reiteration, but in the sification, unnatural disasters within juridico-medical discourses, or, what perhaps amounts to the same, very modality and effects of that reinscription. In the very paradigm of what calls to be classified, regu- other words, the negative constructions of lesbian- lated, and controlled, then perhaps these sites of dis- ism as a fake or a bad copy can be occupied and re- worked to call into question the claims of ruption, error, confusion, and trouble can be the heterosexual priority. In a sense I hope to make clear very rallying points for a certain resistance to classifi- in what follows, lesbian sexuality can be understood cation and to identity as such, The question is not one of avowing or disavowing placing hegemonic heterosexual norms. Understood to redeploy its "derivativeness" in the service of dis- in this way, the political problem is not to establish the specificity of lesbian sexuality over and against its derivativeness, but to turn the homophobic con- struction of the bad copy against the framework that privileges heterosexuality as origin, and so “de- rive” the former from the latter. This description t 3 other forms of sexual crossing that affirm the inter- nal complexity of a lesbian sexuality constituted in part within the very matrix of power that it is com- pelled both to reiterate and to oppose. pursue On the Being of Gayness as Necessary Drag the category of lesbian or gay, but, rather, why it is that the category becomes the site of this “ethical" choice? What does it mean to avow a category that can only maintain its specificity and coherence by performing a prior set of disavowals? Does this make "coming out into the avowal of disavowal, that is, a return to the closet under the guise of an escape? requires a reconsideration of imitation, drag, and And it is not something like heterosexuality or bisex- uality that is disavowed by the category, but a set of identificatory and practical crossings between these categories that renders the discreteness of each equally suspect. Is it not possible to maintain and heterosexual identifications and aims within homosexual practice, and homosexual identifica- tions and aims within heterosexual practices? If a sexuality is to be disclosed, what will be taken as the true determinant of its meaning: the phantasy performance and production of a “self” which is the The professionalization of gayness requires a certain structure, the act, the orifice, the gender, the anat- constituted effect of a discourse that nevertheless omy? And if the practice engages a complex inter- play of all of those, which one of these erotic I spoke at the conference on homosexuality in 1989, claims to represent" that self as a prior truth. When dimensions will come to stand for the sexuality that I requires them all? Is it the specificity of a lesbian was off to Yale to be a lesbian, which of course didn't experience or lesbian desire or lesbian sexuality that mean that I wasn't one before, but that somehow lesbian theory needs to elucidate? Those efforts then, as I spoke in that context, I was one in some have only and always produced a set of contests and more thorough and totalizing way, at least for the refusals which should by now make it clear that time being. So I am one, and my qualifications are there is no necessarily common element among les- even fairly unambiguous. Since I was sixteen, being a bians, except perhaps that we all know something lesbian is what I've been. So what's the anxiety, the about how homophobia works against women-al- discomfort? Well, it has something to do with that though, even then, the language and the analysis redoubling, the way I can say, I'm going to Yale to be a lesbian; a lesbian is what I've been being for so we use will differ. То argue that there might be a specificity to les- long. How is it that I can both “be” one, and yet endeavor to be one at the same time? When and bian sexuality has seemed a necessary counterpoint to the claim that lesbian sexuality is just heterosexu- where does my being a lesbian come into play, when ality once removed, or that it is derived, or that it and where does this playing a lesbian constitute does not exist. But perhaps the claim of specificity, something like what I am? To say that I “play” at on the one hand, and the claim of derivativeness or being one is not to say that I am not one “really”; rather, how and where I play at being one is the way non-existence, on the other, are not as contradictory in which that “being” gets established, instituted, is a process that reinscribes the power domains that as they seem. Is it not possible that lesbian sexuality circulated, and confirmed. This is not a performance 430 | New Cultural Theories after Modernity that "1." In the act which would disclose the true and what is meant by invoking the lesbian-signifier, since is thereby produced. For it is always finally unclear its signification is always to some degree out of one How do those divisions operate to quell a certain intertextual writing that might well generate wholly full content of that "I," a certain radical concealment different epistemic maps? But I am writing here now: is it too late? Can this writing, can any writing, refuse the terms by which it is appropriated even as, to some extent, that very colonizing discourse en- control, but also because its specificity can ables or produces this stumbling block, this resis- demarcated by exclusions that return to tance? How do I relate the paradoxical situation of this dependency and refusal? If the political task is to show that theory is never merely theoria, in the sense of disengaged contemplation, and to insist that it is fully political (phronesis or even praxis), then why not simply call this operation politics, or some necessary permuta- tion of it? I have begun with confessions of trepidation and a series of disclaimers, but perhaps it will become only be disrupt its “closet.” The “you” to whom I come out now has lesbian, claim to coherence. What, if anything, can lesbians be said to share? And who will decide this question, and in the name of whom? If I claim to be al I “come out” only to produce a new and different access to a different region of opacity. Indeed, the locus of opacity has simply shifted: before, you did not know whether I "am,” but now you do not know what that means, which is to say that the copula is empty, that it cannot be substituted for with a set of clear that disclaiming, which is no simple activity, descriptions. And perhaps that is a situation to be will be what I have to offer as a form of affirmative (and resistance to a certain regulatory operation of ho- are out of the closet, but into what? what new un- bounded spatiality? the room, the den, the attic, the basement, the house, the bar, the university, some new enclosure whose door, like Kafka's door, pro- yet, and which guarantees its dissatisfaction. For being valued. Conventionally, one comes out of the closer how often is it the case that we are “outted” served its purposes, but what are its risks? And here I am not speaking of unemployment or public attack or violence, which are quite clearly and widely on the increase against those who are perceived as "out" whether or not of their own design. Is the “subject" duces the expectation of a fresh air and a light of it who is "out” free of its subjection and finally in the lumination that never arrives? Curiously, it is the clear? Or could it be that the subjection that subjec- figure of the closet that produces this expectation , tivates the gay or lesbian subject in some ways con- tinues to oppress, or oppresses most insidiously, once “our” always depends to some extent on being “in" "outness" is claimed? What or who is it that is "out," it gains its meaning only within that polarity. Hence, made manifest and fully disclosed, when and if I re- being "out" must produce the closet again and again veal myself as lesbian? What is it that is now known, in order to maintain itself as "out.” In this sense, out- anything? What remains permanently concealed by ness can only produce a new opacity; and the closet the very linguistic act that offers up the promise of a produces the promise of a disclosure that can, by transparent revelation of sexuality? Can sexuality definition, never come. Is this infinite postponement even remain sexuality once it submits to a criterion of the disclosure of “gayness," produced by the very of transparency and disclosure, or does it perhaps act of “coming out,” to be lamented? Or is this very cease to be sexuality precisely when the semblance of deferral of the signified to be valued, a site for the full explicitness is achieved? Is sexuality of any kind production of values, precisely because the term now even possible without that opacity designated by the takes on a life that cannot be, can never be, perma- unconscious, which means simply that the conscious nently controlled? “I” who would reveal its sexuality is perhaps the last It is possible to argue that whereas no transparent to know the meaning of what it says? or full revelation is afforded by “lesbian” and “gay To claim that this is what I am is to suggest a there remains a political imperative to use these nec- provisional totalization of this "I.” But if the I can so essary errors or category mistakes, as it were (what determine itself, then that which it excludes in order Gayatri Spivak might call “catachrestic” operations: to make that determination remains constitutive of to use a proper name improperly), to rally and repre, the determination itself. In other words, such a state- sent an oppressed political constituency. Clearly, I ment presupposes that the “I” exceeds its determina- am not legislating against the use of the term. tion, and even produces that very excess in and by question is simply: which use will be legislated, and the act which seeks to exhaust the semantic field of what play will there be between legislation and use My 422 | New Cultural Theories after Modernity ences of racism and sexism converge is only gradu. discrimination. Intersectionality is a conceptualiza- ally developing on a global level. Provided below is only a provisional framework intended to assist in the multiple ways that intersectionality might play cataloging and organizing existing knowledge about The objective of these initial topologies is to intro- duce a language for people to attach to their own of expanding conceptual parameters of existing experience. It also serves to illustrate the imperative treaty discourses. As the topologies show, the inter- sectional problem is not simply that one discreet form of discrimination is not fully addressed, but that an entire range of human rights violations obscured by the failure to address fully the intersec- are rape 1. The tragic incidents of racially motivated are sometimes preceded by another manifestation of are sometimes framed as distinctive and mutually intersectional oppression, the propagation of explic- exclusive axes of power, for example racism is dis- itly raced and gendered propaganda directed against ethnic women in efforts to rationalize sexual aggres- class oppression. In fact, the systems often overlapsion against them. This was explicitly deployed in reported by Human Rights 2. Women are not the only victims of this inter- sectional subordination. Racialized gender stereo- rationalize a sex-inflected form of violence against discrimination, multiple burdens, or double or triple tion of the problem chat attempts to capture both the structural and dynamic consequences of the in- teraction between two or more axes of subordina- tion. It specifically addresses the manner in which racism, patriarchy class oppression and other dis- criminatory systems create background inequalities that structure the relative positions of women, races, ethnicities, classes and the like. Moreover, it ad- dresses the way that specific acts and policies create burdens that flow along these axes constituting the dynamic or active aspects of disempowerment. To use a metaphor of an intersection, we first analogize the various axes of power-i.e., race, eth- tional vulnerabilities of marginalized women and nicity, gender, or class—as constituting the thor- occasionally marginalized men, as well. oughfares which structure the social, economic or political terrain. It is through these avenues that dis- empowering dynamics travel. These thoroughfares tinct from patriarchy which is in turn distinct from and cross each other, creating complex intersections Bosnia and Rwanda, as at which two, three or four of these axes meet. Ra- Watch reports from both regions. cialized women are often positioned in the space where racism or xenophobia, class and gender meet. They are consequently subject to injury by the heavy types have also been deployed against men to flow of traffic traveling along all these roads. Racial- ized women and other multiply burdened them. In the US, for example, racist propaganda groups who are located at these intersections by virtue of often preceded and subsequently rationalized the their specific identities must negotiate the "traffic" lynching of African American men. that flows through these intersections. This is a par- 3. Even where sexualized propaganda does not ticularly dangerous task when the traffic flows simul- culminate in mass scale sexual violence, there is rea- taneously from many directions. Injuries are son to believe that such targeted propaganda against sometimes created when the impact from one direc- women is damaging in a host of other ways, and thus tion throws victims into the path of oncoming traffic forms yet another example of intersectional oppres- while in other occasions, injuries occur from fully sion. Propaganda against poor and racialized women simultaneous collisions. These are the contexts in may not only render them likely targets of sexualized which intersectional injuries occur-disadvantages violence, it may also contribute to the tendency of or conditions interact with preexisting vulnerabilities many people to doubt their truthfulness when they to create a distinct dimension of disempowerment. attempt to seek the protection of authorities. Ac- cording to Human Rights Watch, Dalit women who Categorizing the Intersectional attempt to press charges against accused rapists are Experience: A Provisional Framework highly unlikely to have their cases prosecuted, partic- While it is now widely accepted that women do not ularly in cases involving higher caste perpetrators. In the US, Black and Latino women are least likely to always experience sexism see the men accused of raping them prosecuted and in the same way, and that men and women do incarcerated. Studies suggest that the racial identity not experience racism in the same way, the project of of the victim plays a significant role in determining framing the actual circumstances in which experi- such outcomes, and there is evidence that jurors may of com- center. Crenshaw / Dimensions of Intersectional Oppression | 421 views the world as a dynamic place where the goal is e as their not merely to survive or to fit in or to cope; rather, it o decen- becomes a place where we feel ownership and ac- one has countability. The existence of Afrocentric feminist thought suggests that there is always choice, and by Afri- power to act, no matter how bleak the situation may 2, Latina appear to be. Viewing the world as one in the mak- ing raises the issue of individual responsibility for ts, with bringing about change. It also shows that while indi- roaches vidual empowerment is key, only collective action ome the can effectively generate lasting social transformation rom its of political and economic institutions. ituated an men, its own -s' par- ast at- emo- . Each groups Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (1959–) was born ness of in Canton, Ohio. She took her bachelor's degree at Cornell in 1981 before studying law at Harvard appre- Law School and the University of Wisconsin. She is is the professor of law at both UCLA and Columbia Uni- versity. At Columbia in 2011, she became the ing to founding director of the Center for Intersectional- d the ity and Social Policy Studies. Crenshaw is also con- 1 im- sidered a major figure in Critical Race Studies is the movement, which, like intersectionality studies, has s for- served as a provocation among legal studies to take posi- racial and other social differences as central to the study and teaching of law. She is a prizewinning teacher, a notable public intellectual, and a leading at in social theorist whose influence spans most major reby disciplines. Her books include On Intersectionality but (2012), The Race Track: Understanding Structural es in Racism (2013), and Black Girls Matter (2014). The nity. selection is from her United Nations Background en- Paper for the 2000 Expert Meeting on the Gen- der-Related Aspects of Racial Discrimination. zed ing ipi- hat Dimensions of Intersectional Oppression* cir- Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (2000) ves. en The conjoining of multiple systems of subordina- ng tion has been variously described as compound sts Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, “The Structural and Political at Dimensions of Intersectional Oppression, as excerpted from In- t. tersectionality: A Foundations and Frontiers Reader by Patrick R. Grzanka (Westview Press, 2014), from K. W. Crenshaw, “Back- nd ground Paper for the Expert Meeting on the Gender-Related Aspects of Race Discrimination” (United Nations, 2000). Re- htprinted with permission. 0-
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