The Metaphysics of Intersectionality Revisited

Leslie McCall wrote in the journal Signs in 2015, 'intersectionality is the most important contribution that women's studies, in conjunction with other fields, has made so far'. There's a whole journal dedicated to intersectional thought: The Journal of Intersectionality. Kimberle Crenshaw, the black feminist legal theorist credited with coining the term, has a 2016 TED talk titled 'The Urgency of Intersectionality'. The agreed conclusions of the United Nations 61st Commission on the Status of Women included the phrase 'Multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination' four times. It is common for university campuses to be plastered with posters reading 'if your feminism isn't intersectional, it's bullshit'. Popular pieces on the topic have appeared in The Conversation, The Guardian, Vox, and even Time. It's absolutely clear, to anyone who has any contact with feminism at all-activist or academic-that their feminism had better be intersectional.