Intersectionality and privilege
I'd never be told to ‘check my privilege’ before. It was
an eye opener.
It came about because I was challenged to think about
intersectionality.
Inter-what?? Intersectionality has several meanings, all of which include
a sense that ‘just because we are all X,
it doesn’t mean we experience being X the same way’. Most meanings of
intersectionality also talk of stigma and oppression, and how the totality of
who we are will affect how we experience oppression in relation to any
characteristic. For example, most writing about Black oppression is written
from a man’s perspective, but Black oppression may be experienced very
differently by a woman. Most writing about oppression of women is written from
a White perspective, but oppression for being a woman may be experienced very
differently if you are Black. Most writing about being disabled is written from
a White man’s perspective and that’s not terribly helpful if you are a disabled
Black woman.
You see, I have a number of stigmatising characteristics.
·
I'm fat.
·
I'm a woman (and to make that more stigmatising,
I don't even behave like one - I don't wear make up or do my hair or nails).
·
I have a long term mental health condition in that I live as a committee within my head (entertainingly my other selves reject the ‘mental health condition’ label - they rather enjoy being a collective, it's only a couple of us that recognise the label as applying to us).
·
I have a number of physical health problems that
interfere with everyday life.
·
I don't have a career or a proper job.
·
I’m over 50
But despite those stigmas, I don't seem to experience the
oppression that many people with one or more of those characteristics
experience.
It's possible I've internalised oppression (so don't see
oppression for what it is). And it's possible that I am in denial or that I
subconsciously use avoidance tactics to make sure in never in a situation where
those characteristics are relevant.
But I genuinely think I have avoided being oppressed
(even though I have definitely come across people/circumstances that would have
oppressed me - if I'd let them).
Pause, think: If I'd let them….
And that's why I need to check my privilege. How
privileged am I if I can avoid being oppressed?
I have a number of non-stigmatised characteristics, some
of which confer privileges in contemporary Welsh culture.
·
I'm white
·
I'm middle class
·
I’m well-educated
·
I speak (some) Welsh
·
I may be a woman, but I went to a majority boys
independent school where I was never encouraged to see myself as different from
the boys
·
I have a comfortable income (courtesy of
husband) - oh, yes, there's another, I'm married to a man.
·
I'm not a carer of young children or older or
disabled family members.
·
Oh, and I'm Christian – although based on how
people react when I say that, I'm not sure whether that's stigmatising or
privileging these days!
I think three features of my life stand out as privileged
characteristics that over-ride the potential oppression of my stigmatising
characteristics and allow me to refuse to let others oppress me:
·
I went to Oxford University.
·
I do not rely on the benefits system.
·
I face life shoulder-to-shoulder with an amazing
other half.
The
Oxford University thing is so many privileges rolled into one.
·
The one-to-one tutorial system means I was
taught to think, evaluate, critique, argue and stand up for my opinion.
·
The majority male environment continued the
pattern set at secondary school of seeing myself as one of the crowd rather
than ‘a girl’.
·
I knocked about with people who took power and
privilege for granted, and who opened doors for me to see inside the powerful
elite world of the very rich and very influential. Some of that confidence and
assumption that you are worthy of respect rubbed off on me.
·
While I did not consider going to Oxford made me
better than others, it was a very useful status symbol to bring out casually
when needed. I tried to use it very sparingly. But it meant I got to talk to a
senior government official in Hong Kong to sort a problem when a friend (a
Filipina maid) told me about an issue affecting her and most of her friends.
Not
relying on benefits. That is a huge privilege for anyone with long term
mental ill health.
[my internal committee are likely to shoot me if I
keep saying that – we would say: ‘for anyone who is neurodiverse’ because
that’s the narrative that makes sense to us. It allows us to be powerful in being different, not powerful despite being different].
Back to the
“not relying on benefits”. Having income (albeit mostly from being married to
someone with a good income) means no debilitating fights with officialdom. No
need to focus on what I’m not able to do, and why I’m ‘broken’ so I can fill in
interminable forms. No constant fear of something going wrong with the system
and being left destitute. No media portraying me as a charity case at best, and
a work-shy, cheating, scrounging, fraudster at worst. I can’t imagine the day
in, day out grind of negative messages about people who rely on benefits. It
was bad enough when I was a part-time wheelchair user. I confess there were
times I stayed sat in my chair in public because I couldn’t face another round
of explanations, stares and tuts if I stood up to reach the can of beans on the
top shelf in the supermarket.
Facing
life shoulder-to-shoulder.
I don’t
think it actually matters that my amazing other half is a man and that we are
married. I think that what matters is that I am facing life with someone by my
side. We have committed to each other, and we have honoured that commitment to
each other for over 25 years. That level of commitment reduces the fear. It
means in the self-doubting moments (of which there are many), I am reassured by
someone I trust of the wonderfulness of being who I am.
Thank you to the writer on
intersectionality who reminded me to ‘check my privilege’.
Stopping to
check has made me cringe to think of the times I have glibly told other women
who share my ‘committee-in-our-head’ way of life that they just need to
re-frame how they see themselves (ie think in terms of neurodiversity) and
their oppression and stigma will start to recede as people interact with them
differently. That might work if you have my privileges. But a new narrative won’t
overcome the soul-destroying weight of relying on benefits and facing life
alone. I have some apologies to make.
As I go into
the future, I will be more aware of my privilege and my responsibility to use
my privileges wisely. Privileges doesn’t mean I’m better. But it certainly
means I get more doors opened for me. My
task is to get my foot in that door then hold the door open for anyone else who
wants to get inside. I wonder how the
PhD can help with that.
