The term “intersectional feminism” is more than just a buzzword. It is decades of hard work, of screams and shouts, of frustration over not being heard. It is a term that sheds light on stories that diverge from the mainstream. If feminism is the advocacy for equality between the sexes, then intersectional feminism is the understanding of how overlapping identities like race, religion, socioeconomic class, or sexual orientation may impact how we experience discrimination. A white woman is disadvantaged by her gender, but advantaged by her race. A Latina woman is disadvantaged by her race and her gender. A black transgender woman is disadvantaged by her race, sexual orientation, and gender. Various forms of oppression – such as racism, misogyny, classism, transphobia, homophobia, etc – feed off each other, and in order to tackle one, we must try to understand another.
On Sunday, March 12, 2017, a study published in "The Psychology Of Women Quarterly" found that white female college students were less apt to help a black individual at risk of rape or sexual assault. A group of 160 undergraduate white women were given a hypothetical scenario: a sober male dragging a very drunk woman into a room at a party. The difference between the way these scenarios were given each time during the study was the woman’s name: Laura vs. LaToya. And, it turns out that while the white female students correctly pointed out that LaToya was in a dangerous situation, they were less likely to intervene or help the woman with the supposedly black-sounding name, not feeling personally involved in the scenario.
As with every study, this one has its caveats. Remember that this was a hypothetical scenario, not a real occurrence. If this were an actual event, would these students have jumped in to save LaToya’s life? Or, would they have just turned their heads away from a woman screaming on the top of her lungs for help?
With Title IX on the line for elimination, bystander education has now become more important than ever. But, in order to revamp our efforts to fight sexual assault on campus, we must first recognize how intersectional factors such as race and ethnicity may affect why bystanders do not take action. We cannot dismantle the patriarchy without addressing human trafficking in Southeast Asia as a pressing, legitimate issue. We cannot fight misogyny if we fail to recognize the rising murder rate of trans women in the United States – over 80% of the trans women killed in the United States so far were people of color. Just remember this: feminism is not one-size-fits-all.
