Awareness of Multiplicity: Intersections of Identity within the Law
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Mia Jackson (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Susan Johnson
Abstract: Intersectionality since its coining by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, has worked as an indispensable framework to recontextualize instances in which the law has rendered the bodies of women of color invisible or revictimized. Its recontextualization has been covert and intersectionality has remained difficult for legal frameworks to bridge as a theoretical framework into one that can be tangibly applied. Such legal frameworks include laws of general applicability and laws that are on its face neutral in its intent; legal spheres that are meant to provide remedies for individuals who have been dissimilarly treated and marginalized. This paper utilizes the methodology of systematic review to analytically examine and chronicle laws of general applicability and neutrality. Laws instrumental to the legal spheres of civil rights cases as well as criminal sexual assault and domestic violence cases. Analyzations drawn from this review will be contextually applied to past and current feminist thoughts to reveal the impact of general applicability and neutrality for individuals who possess multiple intersections of identity. This body argues that such difficulty to bridge the theoretical with the tangible is not only due to the theoretical nature of intersectionality; but also the legal principles that formed the genesis of the ideology. Laws of general applicability reveal that laws of neutrality and neutral intent can hinder the pursuit of remedies for many women of color. This is due to the law viewing women of color in their singularity, when it is the interactions of race and sex that gave rise to intersectionality as an ideology. Intersectionality and its concepts already exist covertly and if made explicitly and intentionally named, possess the power not only to render the law more transparent in its foibles, but also provide remedies for individuals who have been consistently uncentered and minoritized.
Awareness of Multiplicity: Intersections of Identity within the Law
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Created on 10/30/2024
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Honors Project
- Language: English
- Date: 2024
- Keywords
- Intersectionality , Women of Color , Black Women , Indigenous Women , Legal Analysis , Civil Rights , Employment Law , Sexual Assault , Domestic Violence , U.S. Feminist Theory , International Feminist Theory