Comments on Intersectionality

Abstract

[The] struggle for liberation has significance only if it takes place within a feminist movement that has as its fundamental goal the liberation of all people.

(hooks, 1981: 13)

In the words of Audrey Lorde, ‘there is no such thing as a single-issue life’ (Black Past, 2012). Radical Black feminist literature has discussed the legal or otherwise non-legal disadvantages of living multiple-issue lives. Discrimination can no longer be considered from a single-axis view. Intersectionality, as a key concept, appreciates and discusses the very intersecting axes of discrimination. This contribution would argue that the contemporary rule of law, and otherwise non-legal structures, still fail to adequately recognise an intersectional approach. In so failing to apply the theorem in a systemic approach, there has been an obstruction of the encasement and appreciation of a diverse world population. This article addresses the growing lacuna of society in moving towards true freedom and equality.