Prameela Kottapalli - 2019 Near Scholar by The Harker School

2018-19 JOHN NEAR GRANT Recipient Deliberately Unafraid: Audre Lorde as a Pioneer of Intersectional Feminism Prameela Kottapalli

Deliberately Unafraid: Audre Lorde as a Pioneer of Intersectional Feminism

Prameela Kottapalli 2019 John Near Scholar Mentors: Mr. Mark Janda, Ms. Susan Smith April 12, 2019

Kottapalli 2 “Deliberate and afraid of nothing,” Audre Lorde was a visionary and a poet who stood at the cross-section of artist and activist. 1 Her writings, from her powerful, vivid commentary on the intersections of oppression to her transcendent, lyrical expressions of her own identity, were deeply steeped in her own experiences as a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” 2 Spanning nearly her entire life, Lorde’s literary career was marked by her concerted effort to not only bring voice and empowerment to the experiences of women who were normally excluded from mainstream activist spaces, but to also elevate feminist consciousness. Her literary activism was contemporary with the latter half of the Second Wave feminist movement, an era that extended from the 1960s to the 1980s. 3 Despite bearing witness to the voices of women-of-color and queer feminists, the Second Wave’s mainstream trajectory tended towards hegemony and homogeneity; Lorde challenged these notions. She powerfully and unapologetically raised consciousness about overlapping structures of oppression and identity relating to race, genderidentity, and sexual orientation through literary works like Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference, Scratching the Surface: Some Notes on Barriers to Women and Loving, and The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House. These texts championed the idea that difference among women was indeed a creative force that would contribute to academic and movement-based change. In this way, Lorde’s literature alludes to the power of intersectionality, a concept that was only fully defined at the onset of feminism’s Third Wave in the 1990s and, therefore, rose to the forefront of feminist theory among her successors. By embracing this concept and challenging the notions of second-wave feminism, Audre Lorde’s Audre Lorde, "New Year's Day," 1973, in The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2017), 71. 1

Sophia Siddiqui, review of Your Silence Will Not Protect You, by Audre Lorde, 100.

Nancy A. Hewitt, "Feminist Frequencies: Regenerating the Wave Metaphor," Feminist Studies 38, no. 3 (2012): 659. 3

Kottapalli 3 intersectional discourse on race, gender, and sexuality established a foundation for the Third Wave movement. Second Wave Feminism The eras of American feminism labeled ubiquitously through what scholar Nancy Hewitt describes as the “oceanic wave model,” belong to a history that dates back to over a century before Audre Lorde wrote her first words. 4 The First Wave, which was “defined only in retrospect,” emerged in the 1830s and, among other objectives, revolved around a suffragist movement with tangible goals of breaking down systemic barriers to women’s participation in the public sphere. 5 The Second Wave of feminism originated at a much later point; while scholars disagree on the exact dates, it is generally understood to have gained traction between the 1960s and mid 1980s. 6 Multiple factors incited the Second Wave, ranging from a growing middle class that followed the post-World War II boom to the burgeoning civil rights movement and, later on, anti-Vietnam War protests, all of which inspired sentiments of discontent with the status quo among those who felt “undermined by political and social institutions.”7 In 1963, Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, a text that would go on to greatly influence the advocacy of second-wave feminists. 8 Embodying the discontent that permeated 1960’s activist culture, Friedan’s work voiced the burdens of middle-class womanhood. Yet at the same time, these 4

Hewitt, "Feminist Frequencies," 660.

Claire R. Snyder, "What Is Third‐Wave Feminism? A New Directions Essay," Signs 34, no. 1: 181-82.

Hewitt, "Feminist Frequencies," 660.

Hewitt, 661-62.

Lester C. Olson, "The Personal, the Political, and Others: Audre Lorde Denouncing 'The Second Sex Conference,'" Philosophy & Rhetoric 3, no. 33: 261. 8

Kottapalli 4 women, those who reflected Betty Friedan’s rhetoric and became the center of the Second Wave, tended to fall within the exclusive boundaries of the American postwar cultural norm. Friedan, in The Feminine Mystique, highlighted the “malaise felt by college educated, middle-and-upper class, heterosexually-married white women who were bored with leisure, with the home, with children, with buying products, who wanted more out of life.” 9 In this way, the success of Friedan and her contemporaries embodied how the second movement was, at least at the outset, defined by the oppression of a single group. These women’s experiences fell at the center of the mainstream movement, and women who were not “heterosexually-married,” did not have time for “leisure” and could not afford “buying products” were left outside the margins. Evidently, the lens through which normative feminism examined systems of oppression was a narrow one, a practice known as “hegemonic feminism.” 10 Thompson describes this as a theory that “deemphasizes or ignores a class and race analysis, generally sees equality with men as the goal of feminism, and has an individual rights-based, rather than justice-based vision for social change.” 11 Nevertheless, women-of-color had a powerful impact on the era of second-wave feminism, and their influence would extend far beyond their time. Scholar Rebecca Thompson acknowledges that the hegemonic feminism theory that several historians apply to the Second Wave “does not recognize the centrality of the feminism of women of color in Second Wave

Jessie Daniels, "The Second Wave: Trouble with white Feminism," review, 1.

Becky Thompson, "Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism," Feminist Studies 28, no. 2 (2002): 337-38. 10

Thompson, 337-38.

Kottapalli 5 history.” 12 A multifaceted movement emerged during this time period, one that featured different voices and rotated upon multiple axis-points: What we have come to understand is that the Second Wave was comprised of feminisms, plural: organisationally distinct feminist movements that developed and grew along different paths. The vision of organisationally distinct feminist movements has allowed us to better understand how the organising of feminist women of colour, Black feminists among them, proceeded. 13 This historical viewpoint asserts that the “movement of middle-class white women” was just one of many dimensions of the Second Wave. Socialist feminists, lesbian feminists, and Womanists “shaped feminist thinking beyond the boundaries of their own movements.” 14 While secondwave feminism may be widely viewed as a hegemonic movement, a concurrent thread of “multiracial feminists” sought to address hegemony and essentialism by examining variegated discriminatory structures and providing insight into the “linked nature of oppressive systems.” 15 This concept formed the basis of a theory that would soon be known as “intersectionality” in the years following the second-wave movement. This separate trajectory was led by feminist powerhouses like Gloria Hull, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, and, of course, Lorde herself, whose work clearly embodies the notions of antihegemonic, “multiracial feminism” and, most precisely, intersectionality. As these writers highlighted the dangers of not acknowledging difference at the intersection of Black women’s

Thompson, "Multiracial Feminism," 339.

Thompson, 340.

Thompson, 341.

Thompson, 340.

Kottapalli 6 identities, they promoted a means of examining oppression that would confront both single-issue and simultaneous oppressions and, effectively, “created a feminism of their own.” Despite their periodic situation within the Second Wave, these scholars helped pioneer the Third Wave: the next generation of feminist theory. 16 The Third Wave Feminist Movement and the Rise of Intersectionality Theory The Third Wave, which essentially began in the early 1990s, was both a continuation of, and a response to, the second-wave movement. 17 While many third-wave feminists aimed to create a movement that responded to the gaps within the Second Wave, particularly its lack of inclusivity, this “new discourse did not seek to undermine the feminist movement, but rather refigure and enhance it so as to make it more diverse and inclusive.” 18 In it, feminism began to observe more and more feminists acknowledge the issues that many women-of-color and queer second-wavers addressed, from hegemony and heteronormativity, to the general lack of inclusion. 19 While gender equity remained the ultimate objective of feminism, in this newer movement, “equality was not focused on a single issue as in the first and second waves.” 20 New groups began entering the cultural mainstream, and threads that had begun unraveling in earlier eras, from queer feminism to multicultural feminism, became the foundation of the Third Wave: “Women of color suggest that the movement must focus on the diversity of women’s experience; lesbians stress the importance of gay rights and

Susan Archer Mann and Douglas J. Huffman, "The Decentering of Second Wave Feminism and the Rise of the Third Wave," Science & Society 69, no. 1 (January 2005): 62. 16

Mann, "The Decentering," 59.

Mann, 61.

Claire R. Snyder, "What Is Third‐Wave Feminism? A New Directions Essay," Signs 34, no. 1 (2008): 179.

Snyder, 185.

Kottapalli 7 are concerned about homophobia within the movement and society.” 21 Women-of-color and white feminists and heterosexual and queer feminists forged movements which existed concurrently, to combat patriarchal and societal oppressions during the Second Wave. However, these forces urged feminists of the broader movement to begin considering the complexity of difference, paving the way for an increasingly inclusive space: Third-wave feminism is multicultural in nature and sexually diverse as well, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual perspectives … interlocking natures of identity… gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality and class never function in isolation but always work as interconnected categories of oppression and privilege. 22 A pivotal figure in the third-wave movement was Kimberlé Crenshaw, a legal scholar who coined and defined the term “intersectionality” in her 1989 seminal paper Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex. Just as third-wave feminism is considered, in part, a continuation of second-wave feminism, Crenshaw’s intersectionality was a continuation and development of the concepts that predated her, a product of the multiracial feminism that focused on the experiences of women of color, along with the momentum of the Womanist movement. Crenshaw proposed a means of framing feminism that addresses overlapping oppressions and the ways in which various identities plus systems of discrimination impact privilege, whether it be social, economic, political, or even legal. 23

Deborah L. Siegel, "The Legacy of the Personal: Generating Theory in Feminism's Third Wave." Hypatia 12, no. 3, 48. 21

Kathleen P. Iannello, "Women 's Leadership and Third-Wave Feminism," in Political Science Faculty Publications, 71, previously published in Gender and Women's Leadership: A Reference Handbook, 2010, 70-77. 22

Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection," 160.

Kottapalli 8 It is critical to note that, while Crenshaw’s intersectionality was intended to be a basis upon which legal and scholarly proceedings could take hold, the concept also established an axis around which movements could revolve. Intersectional feminists, like those who situated themselves within the third-wave movement, emphasized the necessity of conceptualizing feminism through variegated lenses: 24 If their efforts instead began with addressing the needs and problems of those who are most disadvantaged and with restructuring and remaking the world where necessary, then others who are singularly disadvantaged would also benefit. In addition, it seems that placing those who currently are marginalized in the center is the most effective way to resist efforts to compartmentalize experiences and undermine potential collective action. 25 Crenshaw’s words form the basis of intersectionality doctrine. She claims that if feminism were to restructure itself to focus on acknowledging the experiences of those who face the most extreme forms of discrimination, then, naturally, the movement would shift to aid those who are marginalized on the basis of a single issue, whether it be race, class, gender-identity, sexual orientation, or any other identity-based force. The application of this inclusive theory to activism and scholarship, as Crenshaw asserts, would do more than merely contribute to feminism’s prevailing over patriarchal norms. It would transform feminists themselves, challenging deeprooted beliefs that would ultimately change institutions and “encourage us to look beneath the prevailing conceptions of discrimination to challenge the complacency that accompanies belief

Crenshaw, 160.

Crenshaw, 154.

Kottapalli 9 in the effectiveness of this framework.” 26 Additionally, it is also important to note that Crenshaw’s intersectionality was heavily rooted in academia, focusing on the importance of rhetoric as much as it did broad-based activist reform: By so doing, we may develop language which is critical of the dominant view and which provides some basis for unifying activity. The goal of this activity should be to facilitate the inclusion of marginalized groups for whom it can be said: ‘When they enter, we all enter.’ 27 Audre Lorde in the Second Wave Feminist Movement Lorde embraced this multifaceted approach to feminism in the pivotal decade before Crenshaw coined the term and as a result, challenged the notions of the feminists of her era. She sought to complicate mainstream feminist theory at a point when it lacked widespread complexity and failed to acknowledge the needs and oppressions of all women. Particularly, she examined identifiers of race and gender, those that commonly lie at the core of intersectionality doctrine, but she also focused on concepts relating to socioeconomic status, age, and sexuality. Later writers, from the activist Rebecca Walker to the novelist Jewelle Gomez, hailed her for her powerful speeches that embodied her passionate, unapologetic approach to activism, gleaning inspiration from her feminist rhetoric. While her words are foreshadowed by movements that followed her, her rhetoric was a direct response to the era in which she lived. A contemporary of the second-wave movement, Lorde ardently opposed hegemonic feminism, a perspective manifested in many of her writings. In a highly celebrated speech that she delivered at the 1979 Second Sex Conference entitled “The

Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection," 150.

Crenshaw, 162.

Kottapalli 10 Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” she confronts her audience (a quorum of mostly white, heterosexual, upper-middle-class women), and eloquently remarks upon the lack of adequate representation at a gathering meant to promote feminism. 28 Lorde takes similar responsive stances through other works as well. In her 1979 letter to Mary Daly, a reactionary piece written to a writer whose acclaimed feminist masterwork, failed to accurately depict the experiences of women-of-color. 29 Yet her work extends far beyond a critique of mainstream feminist culture. She established a “basis for unifying activity” within the feminist movement, clearly delineating ways for activists to come together across differences and embrace their unique identities in an effort to dismantle systemic oppressions. 30 In this aspect, Lorde was truly a visionary. While the concepts upon which intersectionality is based had predated Lorde for decades, her “theory of difference” embodied the core form of intersectionality that would rise to the forefront of the third-wave movement. Additionally, Rebecca Walker, one of the first activists to assert the onset of the third-wave movement, acknowledges Lorde’s contributions to feminism overall. “She was one of the most influential poets and thinkers of our time. Lorde articulated for a generation the political necessity of celebrating and not denying one's multiple identities.” 31 Yet more so than her works’ encapsulation of intersectionality, Lorde’s unique ability to offer specific methods by which activists could adopt the theory of difference was what separated her from many of her contemporaries. In three of her most seminal pieces, “Age, Race,

Audre Lorde, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House," 1979, in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (New York: Random House US, 2012): 110-113. 28

Lorde, 110-11.

Lester C. Olson, "The Personal, the Political, and Others: Audre Lorde Denouncing 'The Second Sex Conference,'" Philosophy & Rhetoric 3, no. 33: 261. 30

Rebecca Walker, “Warrior Poet,” The Advocate (2004), 178.

Kottapalli 11 Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” “Scratching the Surface: Some Notes on Barriers to Women and Loving,” and “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” Lorde does more than propose these methods. She asserts that they are means of survival, the most powerful tools by which feminists can forge a stronger future. Through these three works, she begins introducing her audience to what is an intersectional toolkit, providing them with an understanding of three identifiers, which will be focused on for the purpose of this paper: race, gender, and sexual identity. While she defines these identifiers within the context of mutual difference, her rhetoric focuses on the ways in which these differences are acknowledged, and fail to be acknowledged, by mainstream society. Fear of these differences, to Lorde, was a “form of human blindness,” a weakness that she describes as it applies to each identifier in “Scratching the Surface” Racism: The belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right to dominance. / Sexism: The belief in the inherent superiority of any one sex and thereby the right to dominance. / Heterosexism: The belief in the inherent superiority of one pattern of loving and thereby its right to dominance. / Homophobia: The fear of feelings of love for members of one’s own sex and therefore the hatred of those feelings in others. 32 She reasons that these fears that are embedded within the feminist movement result from patriarchy, the very institution that feminism seeks to dismantle. 33 Fear, to Lorde, was “the inability to recognize or tolerate the notion of difference as a beneficial and dynamic human

Audre Lorde, "Scratching the Surface: Some Notes on Barriers to Women and Loving," 1980, in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1984), 83. 32

Audre Lorde, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference," 1980, in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1984), 121. 33

Kottapalli 12 force, and one which is enriching rather than threatening to the defined self.” 34 Lorde emphasized that this form of self-definition could be the main tactic by which individuals overcome their intrinsic fear of difference. 35 In doing so, Lorde equated understanding with strength and helped redefine what it meant to be a true feminist. Gender While each facet of identity plays an important role in intersectionality theory, it is the notion of gender equality that lies at the center of the concept, serving as the catalyst for feminist and, ultimately, intersectional thought. 36 In a parallel manner, Lorde’s discussion of the complexity of the female identity and the necessity of sisterhood among self-defining women forms the core of her intersectional rhetoric. Central to Lorde’s argument about sexism was that it was inseparable from other “fears of human difference,” from racism to heterosexism, because it originated from the same place. 37 The racism and the inequality embedded in the patriarchal system are similarly ingrained in feminist theory and activism, and in the individual relationships between women. Lorde emphasized that the lack of inclusivity within the women's movement embodied the patriarchy’s tools of exclusivity, silencing, and oppression. 38 And with a mindset that overlooked the strength of difference in favor of patriarchal compliance, Lorde argued, the feminist movement as a whole could not bring about broad change: “When the tools of a racist patriarchy are used to 34

Lorde, “Scratching the Surface,” in Sister Outsider, 82.

Lorde, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex," in Sister Outsider, 120.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics," University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989, no. 1 (1989). 36

Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle,” in Sister Outsider, 110.

Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle,” in Sister Outsider, 111.

Kottapalli 13 examine the fruits of that same patriarchy, it means that only the most narrow perimeters of change are possible and allowable.” 39 Lorde’s 1979 speech, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” described how this systemic failure to see difference as a powerful force acted as a tool that shuts down marginalized women. 40 Crenshaw, like Lorde, also emphasized the fact that gender-based oppression was linked to other interacting systems that oppress minority groups, and that this was most evidently the way that “discrimination was structured.” 41 Before the widespread acceptance of intersectionality into the mainstream third-wave movement, though, the lack of acknowledgement when it came to difference resulted in narrow parameters of the second-feminist movement: Most early feminists, even those who were radical, socialist, and dissenters from the status quo, created a feminism in which Black women—and Black and White women are the primary focus here—were unwelcome and uncomfortable. As a result, feminism remained predominantly white for many years. 42 Lorde’s criticism is reflected in Third Wave texts that follow her. During this new generation, writers like Katie Roiphe, Christina Hoff Sommers, Tania Modleski, Kate Rushin, and Naomi Wolf all published works that outwardly opposed the notions and parameters of the second-wave movement. Third-wave scholar Amanda D. Lotz even claims that Wolf explicitly used the term “Third Wave to differentiate her theories from second-wave feminism.” 43 The third-wave 39

Lorde, 111.

Lorde, 112.

Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection,” 154.

42 Breines, Winifred. "Struggling to Connect: white and Black Feminism in the Movement Years." SAGE Journals Online.

Amanda D. Lotz, "Communicating Third-Wave Feminism and New Social Movements: Challenges for the Next Century of Feminist Endeavor," Women and Language 26, no. 1: 3. 43

Kottapalli 14 movement became an increasingly intersectional response to the homogenous, heterocentric second-wave movement: “Third-wave feminists criticize the Second Wave for its lack of diversity, as the Second Wave is commonly known for being led by mostly white affluent women.” 44 Lorde also confronts her fairly homogenous audience with ways in which their own complicity harms feminism. 45 She compares power imbalances as reflected in relationships between women and men and between black and white women, beginning by describing how oppression manifests itself in the former relationship: “Women of today are still being called upon to stretch across the gap of male ignorance and to educate men as to our existence and our needs. This is an old and primary tool of all oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied with the master's concerns.” 46 Lorde’s description of a common experience in women’s lives, that of serving as the sympathetic educator when “the need for some pretense of communication arises” with men, serves as the focal point of her entire argument. 47 She goes on to draw a parallel between this gender-based power dynamic and race-based subordination: “Now we hear that it is the task of women of color to educate white women in the face of tremendous resistance, as to our existence, our differences, our relative roles in our joint survival. This is a diversion of energies and a tragic repetition of racist patriarchal thought.” 48

Kathleen P. Iannello, "Third-Wave Feminism and Individualism: Promoting Equality or Reinforcing the Status Quo?," Women, Empowerment, and Cultural Expression, 316. 44

Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle,” in Sister Outsider, 111.

Lorde, 111.

Lorde, 112.

Kottapalli 15 Lorde suggested that both forms of oppression are tools that the patriarchy uses to keep hold on its power in society. Yet, while general opposition to the patriarchy is something Lorde’s discourse shared with that of her feminist contemporaries, the form of oppression with which she can reach across to them is undeniably gender-based. Lorde was able to do so by using “vocabulary familiar to most feminists” and forming a powerful rhetorical link between the experiences of women-of-color and white women. 49 Lorde further touches upon this as she addresses the lack of diversity on the Second Sex Conference panel, which, by excluding the voices of women of color, embodied “the same tools of oppression over others that the participants deplored in the politics of patriarchy.” 50 Lorde directly confronts her audience’s oxymoronic feminism and implicit racism through the lens of shared, gender-based oppression, artfully employing gender as both a link between her and her audience and a tool to elevate her audience’s consciousness. 51 In the process, Lorde encouraged her listeners to broaden their feminism to encompass more than gender, and provided a meaningful lens through which scholars, like Crenshaw and later feminists, could examine varied and overlapping oppressions. Third-wave feminism particularly draws upon the relationships between white and black women as necessary fuel for the movement. Lorde reinforces this connection by providing examples of how women are subjugated within their own cultural communities, focusing specifically on black and white women. Black women, according to Lorde, “are used by the power structure against Black men, not because they are women, but because they are Black.” 52 Lorde further highlights how the feminist 49

Olson, "The Personal, the Political, and Others," Philosophy & Rhetoric 3, no. 33: 261.

Olson, 263.

Lorde, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex" in Sister Outsider, 118.

Kottapalli 16 movement itself and black women’s acknowledgement of their gender-based struggles have caused rifts in their relationships with men, a conflict that demonstrates how racist patriarchal norms force men of color to subordinate their female partners to maintain their position in a convoluted power hierarchy: Because of the continuous battle against racial erasure that Black women and Black men share, some Black women still refuse to recognize that we are also oppressed as women, and that sexual hostility against Black women is practiced not only by the white racist society, but implemented within our Black communities as well. 53 This intrinsic conflict within communities of color is also reflected in Crenshaw’s third-wave paper. Particularly, Crenshaw describes a pivotal dilemma that black women face: the impossible choice between “specifically articulating the intersectional aspects of their subordination, thereby risking their ability to represent Black men, or ignoring intersectionality in order to state a claim that would not lead to the exclusion of Black men.” 54 This sense of dual oppressions, and the decisions that the oppressed must make when it comes to articulating their experiences, is a core tenet of why intersectionality matters. It forms a prominent thread in Lorde’s work, as well: “Therefore, for Black women, it is necessary at all times to separate the needs of the oppressor from our own legitimate conflicts within our communities.” 55 Moreover, the “sexual hostility” that Lorde describes, an element of discrimination that also resonates with many white women, is a key element of intersectionality doctrine, which contends with sexual assault as a manifestation of the overlapping systems of racial and gender-

Lorde, 118-19.

Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection,” 167.

Lorde, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex" in Sister Outsider, 120.

Kottapalli 17 based oppression. 56 Crenshaw specifically cites instances of violence against black women in her paper, particularly focusing how they face sexual assault at a disproportionate rate to non-black women due to the combined effects of racial and gender-based subordination, both within and apart from their cultural communities. 57 Other third-wave texts also embody Lorde’s emphasis on the impact of sexual violence as a form of silencing. Rebecca Walker’s seminal article “Becoming the Third Wave” describes how the dual oppressions of racism and sexism impacted the senate hearings in which Anita Hill testified against Clarence Thomas, along with the media coverage that followed her testimony. 58 Yet, despite both scholars’ emphasis on the reality of sexual violence for women-of-color, they bridge the gap between "the other” and their audience by expressing how this mode of oppression impacts all women: “battering and rape, once seen as private (family matters) and aberrational (errant sexual aggression), are now largely recognized as part of a broad-scale system of domination that affects women as a class.” 59 Lorde’s reference to the plight of black women “within [their] communities” not only serves as a manifestation of her intersectional activism, but also contrasts with the experiences of white women in their own communities. She describes a plight that white women face as a result of gender-based oppression: “the pitfall of being seduced into joining the oppressor under the pretense of sharing power.” 60 Acknowledging that white women are not innocent when it comes to structural and systemic racism, Lorde goes further to explicate the core reasons why they are

Susan Archer Mann and Ashly Suzanne Patterson, "Chapter 5: Intersectionality Theories," in Reading Feminist Theory: From Modernity to Postmodernity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 224. 56

Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection,” 165.

Rebecca Walker, “Becoming the Third-Wave,” in Ms. Magazine (1992), 41-42.

Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection,” 165.

Lorde, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex" in Sister Outsider, 120.

Kottapalli 18 complicit in this system. She does not merely confront her audience with their own widespread complicity, but rather she provides the systemic basis for how and why they do so. In going on to describe the power that difference has and the beauty that can come out of self-defined relationships, provides solutions to overcome these pitfalls. 61 Lorde’s solution, the “basis for unifying activity” that she presents both in “Age, Race, Class, and Sex” and before her quorum of feminist peers at the Second Sex Conference, is selfdefinition. Difference between women was a primary cause of conflict, a reality that Lorde acknowledges. Yet difference itself is not the problem, she suggests; rather, it is the way that women acknowledge difference that incites conflict. To embrace difference would be a threat to their own presumed grasp of power, a common viewpoint pervasive in many cultural communities. Lorde, though, emphasizes that difference is not a dangerous entity between women, but rather a healing and conducive one: Within the interdependence of mutual (non-dominant) differences lies that security which enables us to descend into the chaos of knowledge and return with true visions of our future, along with the concomitant power to effect those changes which can bring that future into being. Difference is that raw and powerful connection with which our personal power is forged. 62 Difference should not be subject to domination, the top-down system of discrimination that Crenshaw describes in “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex.” 63 Rather, mutual differences can unify people, enabling learning, collaboration, and discovery, elements that,

Lorde, 121-22.

Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle,” in Sister Outsider, 113.

Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection,” 160.

Kottapalli 19 when combined, are strengths that may create tangible change. 64 Lorde suggests that only once women accept and embrace the power of difference, can patriarchal institutions be dismantled. 65 Lorde’s emphasis on finding strength in mutual differences is a prominent theme in thirdwave feminism, in which “intersectionality became a key discourse through which the members of the movement located themselves generationally, politically, and intellectually.” 66 While many third-wave feminists did not outright describe themselves as third-wavers or intersectional feminists, the idea of overlapping oppressions and broader feminist parameters was the glue that “[held] the Third Wave together; without that idea, the disparate threads of the movement would unravel, and the only way to define the movement would be through a generational perspective.” 67 In contrast, the Second Wave that preceded it was rife with “tensions between white and Black women activists.” 68 Audre Lorde’s promotion of female connection, and her ability to reach across differences to connect with her audience, marked a tangible shift in activist culture, one that was more indicative of the increasingly unified movement that would follow the Second Wave and make greater efforts to integrate feminism. By providing a powerful rhetorical link between the interests of white and black feminists, she promoted the concept of shared oppressions across difference, notions that were ubiquitous in third-wave texts.

Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle,” in Sister Outsider, 113-14.

Lorde, 113-14.

Elizabeth K. Keenan, “Intersectionality in Third-Wave Popular Music: Sexuality, Race, and Class." Oxford Handbooks Online (2015), abs. 66

Keenan, “Intersectionality in Third-Wave Popular Music.”

Winifred Breines, "Struggling to Connect: White and Black Feminism in the Movement Years," 4.

Kottapalli 20 However, as in the Second Wave, some third-wave ideas, particularly when it came to notions of gender and race, were more “useful for feminist theory building than others.” 69 Scholar Amanda Lotz, who published the seminal work “Challenges For the Next Century of Feminist Endeavor” in 2002, distinguishes between the three main theoretical camps of thirdwave feminism: reactionary feminism, “Third-Wave” or “woman of color” feminism, and postfeminism. 70 Reactionary feminists criticized the second-wave movement for a number of issues: its narrow focus, its lack of emphasis on sexual liberation, and, in many instances, its lack of inclusivity, and they sought to forge their own movement that responded to these gaps. 71 While post-feminism focuses more exclusively on developments within feminist theory than the other two axes of the movement, it also, according to Lotz, “emphasizes the need to combat oppression caused by identity determinants that intersect with gender.” 72 Lorde’s words effectively embody these two threads of feminism; her works serve both as reactions to the inequities within her contemporary feminist movement and as foundational documents for the future of the Third Wave. The Third Wave generally rejected hegemonic feminism in favor of these more conducive theories and feminism moved in a more intersectional direction as “white and women-of-color feminists learned that it was possible to be connected in difference.” 73

Amanda D. Lotz, "Communicating Third-Wave Feminism and New Social Movements: Challenges for the Next Century of Feminist Endeavor," Women and Language 26, no. 1: 3. 69

70 71

Lotz, 4. Lotz, "Communicating Third-Wave," 5.

Lotz, 6.

Breines, "Struggling to Connect," SAGE Journals Online.

Kottapalli 21 Sexuality Lorde’s discourse on sexuality, rhetoric that was particularly steeped in her own identity and experiences, also formed an important tenet of her intersectionality. Unlike other queer theory scholars of the time like Mary Daly (whose self-labeled “radical lesbian feminism” was particularly concerned with the experiences of white, upper-middle-class queer women), Lorde’s complex approach to sexual identity marked her as a visionary lesbian feminist and activist. 74 She dedicated a portion of her work, including 1979’s seminal “Scratching the Surface: Notes on Barriers to Women and Loving,” to the assessment of homophobia and heterosexism as it manifested in female relationships, and her literary and rhetorical voice proved to be “eloquent and insightful in her examination of the ways in which homophobia is painful to individual heterosexual women.” 75 “Scratching the Surface” was primarily concerned with the relationships between black women, describing how the vilification of lesbian connections permeates many black communities. 76 While she does acknowledge the prevalence of this mindset across society, Lorde specifically delves into the context behind this form of community-based heterosexism. She urges her audience to adopt a broader viewpoint and understand how homophobia itself perpetuates age-old systems of power and subordination: “the red herring of lesbian-baiting is being used in the Black community to obscure the true face of racism/sexism.” 77

Audre Lorde, "An Open Letter to Mary Daly," 1979, in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (New York: Random House US, 2012): 66-67. 74

Rudolph Byrd, "Audre Lorde and the Tradition of Black Radical Thought," introduction to I Am Your Sister, by Audre Lorde (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 16. 75

Lorde, “Scratching the Surface,” in Sister Outsider, 83.

Lorde, 84.

Kottapalli 22 Lorde explains how the fear of sexual relationships that do not fall within the bounds of heteronormativity is rooted in power dynamics, and that the upholding of these dynamics through heterosexism and homophobia only undermines the efforts of communities of color to overcome systemic oppression. Lorde confronts her own racial community, a perspective seldom adopted by second-wave feminists and their contemporaries. She acknowledges the toxicity and oppressive institutions embedded in male-dominant culture, and, to those who feel threatened by these “women-defined women,” proposes a similar set of solutions as she did to her nonintersectional feminist contemporaries at the Second Sex Conference, where she delivered “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” For Lorde, intersectionality, which applies to queer feminism as much as it does to multiracial feminism, is the solution— a concept mirrored in Crenshaw’s third-wave rhetoric. Crenshaw suggests that intersectionality can “provide the means for dealing with other marginalizations as well… race can also be a coalition of straight and gay people of color, and thus serve as a basis for critique of churches and other cultural institutions that reproduce heterosexism.” 78 This aspect of intersectionality, the formation of sisterhood in pursuit of a common solution, is a central tenet of Lorde’s work, through which she “worked to bring together her different communities, and in that union, created a Black lesbian community for countless women who were in need of coalition.” 79 The Third Wave that followed Lorde and was catalyzed by feminists like Crenshaw witnessed queer theory becoming integrated into the

Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection,” 161.

Denise L. Fitzer, "Audre Lorde's Expansive Influence on Black Lesbians: Jewelle Gomez, Cheryl Clarke, and Kate Rushin," abstract, Masters Theses. 79

Kottapalli 23 mainstream movement to a far greater extent, and many leading lesbian feminists credited Lorde as an influence both on their activism and their personal experiences of self-definition: [Jewelle] Gomez, [Cheryl] Clarke, and [Kate] Rushin pay homage to Lorde for breaking ground for them, and thereby allowing them to embrace visibility and resist silence. In Gomez’s, Clarke’s, and Rushin’s poetry and essays, the effects of Lorde’s words and teaching can be seen and heard through their personal, emotional, and political exhalations. 80 Lorde, as a figurehead of black lesbian feminism, was one of the most prominent figures who brought this facet of second-wave feminism into a wider space during the Third Wave. Kate Rushin acknowledges that Lorde “made a space for Black lesbians, a space that has never existed in the history of the world.” 81 While Rushin’s work does not explicitly confront homophobia and heterosexism within her own cultural community, she primarily focuses on the importance of the Lordeian coalition she saw reflected in her feminist influences– and the power that community support can have when it comes to all forms of oppression. 82 Jewelle Gomez’s work serves as the exemplar of Lorde’s influence; she even asserts the importance of Audre Lorde in one of her most prominent works of fiction: “Audre Lorde was a wonderful mentor to me. She really helped guide the Gilda Stories.” 83 She drew upon her own multifaceted identity, that of a black lesbian socialist feminist, not only to further feminism, but

Denise L. Fitzer, 90-91.

Kate Rushin, “Clearing Space for Us: A Tribute to Audre Lorde,” Radical America 24, no. 4: 86.

Rushin, 86.

Jewelle Gomez, "Jewelle Gomez on Writing, Resistance, and Waiting for Giovanni," interviewed by Claire Heuchan, After Ellen. 83

Kottapalli 24 also to create literature that was deeply rooted in the intersection of difference. 84 Gomez was a particularly prominent voice in the queer movements of the 1990s, going on to become one of the founders of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). 85 In her activism, Gomez focused on the complexity of lesbian identity and homophobia within tight-knit cultural communities, issues she had firsthand experience with, but also which she found reflected in the literary activism of Audre Lorde. 86 Lorde was able to influence activists like Gomez both personally and politically by affirming her own experiences as much as she did for those who shared a similarly marginalized experience: “she legitimizes her existence, and consequently, the existence of other black lesbians who live in the closet of fear.” 87 In this way, by “clearing a space” for the black lesbian feminists who came after her, she, in part, enabled their voices to rise to the surface of the third-wave movement and to enter the scholarly and activist mainstream. Lorde also urged her fellow women to find strength in their own sexuality, while also asserting the necessity of conversations that focused on the ways in which queer women faced oppression at the intersections of their identity. While the fulfillment of this vision was lost in the homogeneity of the Second Wave’s dominant thread, it was, in part, realized on a broader scale by the intersectional activists of the Third Wave. Lorde discussed how homophobia in feminist communities was “destructive of the radical and progressive work that women may choose to undertake together across sexualities,” calling upon all women to attempt to forgo their

Fitzer, "Lorde's Expansive Influence on Black Lesbians," in Masters Theses: 92.

Yolanda Williams Page, Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007), 223. 85

Fitzer, "Lorde's Expansive Influence on Black Lesbians," in Masters Theses: 92.

Kottapalli 25 prejudices, because only then, could they focus on the true issues at hand. 88 Ultimately, though, if activists could transcend these barriers, true progress, rooted in the “theory of difference,” could be achieved. 89 While Crenshaw’s work focuses more on the academic elements of intersectionality theory, her rhetoric embodies Lorde’s activist faith in the power of difference itself. She describes overlapping oppressions through an analogy: Imagine a basement which contains all people who are disadvantaged on the basis of race, sex, class, sexual preference, age and/or physical ability. These people are stackedfeet standing on shoulders-with those on the bottom being disadvantaged by the full array of factors, up to the very top, where the heads of all those disadvantaged by a singular factor brush up against the ceiling […] In efforts to correct some aspects of domination, those above the ceiling admit from the basement only those who can say that "but for" the ceiling, they too would be in the upper room [...] Those who are multiply-burdened are generally left below. 90 Lorde’s rhetoric functions precisely within the framework of this analogy. The ceiling, in Lorde’s terms, is the patriarchy. Lorde emphasizes the importance of unity across differences, calling for all individuals in the basement to find solutions to shatter the ceiling rather than falling for the false pretense of barely accessing the room above. Only by overcoming fear of difference can the people closest to the ceiling support the individuals farthest away from it, and,

Lorde, “Scratching the Surface,” in Sister Outsider, 84.

Lorde, “Scratching the Surface,” in Sister Outsider, 85.

Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection,” 160.

Kottapalli 26 in the process of doing so, the ceiling itself could give way, ensuring that everyone could find a place in the new world above. Race Lorde’s most prescient discourse, on race, most influenced later feminists. As a selfdefined black radical feminist, Lorde was part of the burgeoning Womanist movement that found its own trajectory in the gender-identity discussion of the 1970’s and 80’s. Lorde’s feminism existed in a separate space from mainstream feminism, a space that embraced diversity, found strength in difference, and promoted concepts like intersectionality before Crenshaw herself helped popularize the term. Yet at the same time, Lorde aimed to challenge second-wavers’ preconceived notions of their activism. 91 This goal particularly shines through in “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” In the speech, Lorde directly addresses a quorum of women at the 1979 New York Institute for the Humanities’ Second Sex Conference, intended to be a “commemorative conference on feminist theory.” 92 However, the majority of speakers at the gathering were upper middle-class white women, representing only a fraction of female experiences. 93 In turn, the works of these women, their theoretical literature, embodied only a sliver of the expansive feminist doctrine that black thirdwave activists would come to adopt. Lorde points out this major gap in social justice theory, asserting the importance that literature has in establishing a foundation for social movements and giving voice to marginalized communities: 94 Lester C. Olson, "The Personal, the Political, and Others: Audre Lorde Denouncing 'The Second Sex Conference,'" Philosophy & Rhetoric 3, no. 33: 261. 91

New York Institute for the Humanities, “The second sex, thirty years later: a commemorative conference on feminist theory, September 27-29, 1979,” New York: New York Institute for the Humanities. 92

Lorde, “The Master’s Tools,” in Sister Outsider, 110.

Lorde, 111.

Kottapalli 27 Why weren’t other women of Color found to participate in this conference? Why were two phone calls to me considered a consultation? Am I the only possible source of names of Black feminists? That is the same evasion of responsibility, the same cop-out, that keeps Black women’s art out of women’s exhibitions, Black women’s work out of most feminist publications… and Black women’s texts off your reading lists. 95 Lorde also addressed the underlying reasons for why many white feminists such as those at the conference were “heavily invested in ignoring the real differences” of the identities of womenof-color. 96 According to her, their “reluctance to see Black women as women and different from themselves” was a result of internalized guilt; they were unable to see oppression outside the bounds of sex because they do not experience it in such a way. 97 Yet Lorde also provides means to solutions: the first step, she claims, is for white women to acknowledge their own racial privilege to begin understanding how they actively contribute to the suppression of women-of color and less economically and geographically privileged women. 98 Additionally, she emphasizes how the women before her are pawns in the “patriarchal power struggle,” neutralized and prevented from joining arms with women of color. 99 And this lack of awareness, coupled with patriarchal complacency, endangers reform efforts: “ignoring the differences of race

Lorde, 112.

Lorde, 56.

Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex,” in Sister Outsider, 120.

Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex,” in Sister Outsider, 121.

Lorde, “The Master’s Tools,” in Sister Outsider, 54-58.

Kottapalli 28 between women and the implications of those differences presents the most serious threat to the mobilization of women’s joint power.” 100 Lorde’s speech was notable because she explicated oppressive systems within society and connected them to the conference itself, a gathering intended by its organizers to promote diversity and champion social justice. She not only addressed the lack of diversity of the panel before her, but the patterns of oppression that the feminists at the conference actively perpetuated by appropriating black women’s experiences through their writing and generally excluding of women of color from the convention panels. Her remarks “suggest underlying, interconnected techniques of domination in use at the conference” 101 as she demanded that the conference planners take accountability for appropriating her own credibility and tokenizing her as the designated spokesperson for women of color. In this context, while she urged her audience to broaden the parameters of their activism and feminist theory, she also refuted a very specific tactic of oppression, seeking “to have members of dominant communities assume responsibility for self-education about Black people, instead of assigning such responsibility to members of Black communities.” 102 By confronting her female audience with the ways in which they perpetuate the subordination of black feminists, Lorde asserts that many non-intersectional second-wavers are complicit in these systems of oppression. In this way, sought to “raise consciousness among feminists about how [these] practices […] within feminist theory weakened and discredited it,”

100

Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex,” in Sister Outsider, 122.

Lester C. Olson, "The Personal, the Political, and Others: Audre Lorde Denouncing 'The Second Sex Conference,'" Philosophy & Rhetoric 3, no. 33: 261. 101

102

Olson, “The Personal,” 270-71.

Kottapalli 29 and “complicate feminist theory” so to strengthen the movement as a whole. 103 This diversitybased awareness rose to the forefront of the black feminist and intersectional feminist movements that dominated the Third Wave. While Lorde’s work focuses specifically on the contextual necessity of intersectionality, particularly as it plays a role in women’s relationships with one another, Crenshaw’s focuses more on the structural importance of the concept. For example, the latter’s “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color” discussed the economic and social realities, from language barriers to poverty to shelter conditions, that many women of color face and how these frames of identity should drive reform efforts that specifically address their oppressions: “Women of color are differently situated in the economic, social, and political worlds. When reform efforts undertaken on behalf of women neglect this fact, women of color are less likely to have their needs met than women who are racially privileged.” 104 Crenshaw also focuses on intersectionality through the lens of black women’s experiences, seeking to demarginalize the intersection between race and sex by using a different tactic than offering social evidence and rhetoric: proposing concrete legal evidence. 105 She alludes to the institutional exclusion that women of color face through incidents surrounding court decisions such as DeGraffenreid v. General Motors and Payne v. Travernol, cases that demonstrate the utter necessity of intersectionality in legal practice. Similarly, by discussing the exclusion of women of color from the Second Sex Conference and the silencing of their

103

Olson, 261.

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color," Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6: 1245. 104

105

Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection,” 160.

Kottapalli 30 experiences in feminist literature, Lorde substantiates her argument that feminism must be broadened. The parallels between the work of Lorde and Crenshaw are emphasized in shared discourse on sexual violence. While Lorde offered evidence of violence perpetrated against black women to demonstrate the dangerous nature of active patriarchal oppression, these examples also highlight a different reality: that this violence is a more immediate and common threat for nonwhite women. Lorde emphasizes the structural and institutional oppressions that women outside the margins disproportionately face: “WE are the primary targets of abortion and sterilization abuse, here and abroad.” 106 She brings attention to the prevalence of “womanhating as a recourse of the powerless,” an institutional barrier that keeps “sapping strength from Black communities and our very lives.” 107 In a similar manner, Crenshaw explains the means by which cultural barriers keep women of color in dangerous cycles of abuse, discussing the lack of information and awareness that communities of color have to address the issue of domestic violence to the “generalized community ethic against public intervention” and the police force. 108 Lorde also references external manifestations of violence that black mothers face, and, in an extremely powerful rhetorical manner, she contrasts these common maternal experiences with that of white feminists: Some problems we share as women, some we do not. You fear your children will grow up to join the patriarchy and testify against you, we fear our children will be dragged

106

Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex,” in Sister Outsider, 120-21.

107

Lorde, 120.

108

Crenshaw, "Mapping the Margins,” 1247.

Kottapalli 31 from a car and shot down in the street, and you will turn your backs upon the reasons they are dying. 109 Here, Lorde refers to police brutality and its existence as a racist force that perpetuates oppression against all members of the black community. This reference resonates strongly with intersectionality doctrine, as Crenshaw describes it as a socio-political institution that actively silences and subjugates people-of-color. 110 Just as the Anita Hill hearings shed light upon sexual violence, the beating of Rodney King in 1991 brought decades-old conversations about oppressive police tactics to the surface of many social justice movements, including third-wave feminism. 111 As a result, the incident pulled Lorde’s assertions about violence to the center of conversations about race and power. Still, Lorde’s rhetoric, and intersectional feminism in general, primarily focused on the intersections of race and gender-identity theory. Akasha Gloria Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith’s seminal collection of essays, All the Women are white, All the Blacks are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave, which was published prior to the Third Wave but after Lorde delivered many of her most prominent speeches, also discusses this junction as it applies to the experiences of black women. Like “The Master’s Tools,” it was primarily concerned with intersectional feminist doctrine as it presented itself in activist literature and theory. While this text was published towards the end of the Second Wave, it, like the work of Lorde, offers discourse that was highly pertinent to the third-wave movement that followed, and Lorde even remarked upon the collection’s impact by stating that it affirmed the “beginning of a new era,

109

Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex,” in Sister Outsider, 119.

110

Crenshaw, "Mapping the Margins,” 1246.

Deborah L. Siegel, "The Legacy of the Personal: Generating Theory in Feminism's Third Wave," Hypatia 12, no. 3: 51. 111

Kottapalli 32 where the ‘women’ in women’s studies will no longer mean ‘white.’” 112 This new era of scholarship to which Lorde refers is none other than the Third Wave, which tended to “[foreground] personal narratives that illustrate an intersectional and multi-perspectival version of feminism.” 113 Perhaps most powerfully, Lorde discusses that women of color, as outsiders to her era’s political and social mainstream, must find a common cause with those who experience other forms of oppression to create a world in which all differences can be acknowledged: 114 Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference– those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older– know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. 115 Regardless of individual identifiers, Lorde asserts that all differences should matter– not merely within feminist theory but also within broader society. By voicing this perspective, she both confronts her audience with truths beyond their singular experiences and connects with a common feminist cause. Lorde’s influence on racial theory, steeped in her powerful, unapologetic rhetoric and her direct confrontation of “the system of oppression that has actively worked against her,” evidently 112

Audre Lorde, review of But Some of Us Are Brave, The Feminist Press.

113

Claire R. Snyder, "What Is Third‐Wave Feminism? A New Directions Essay," Signs 34, no. 1: 181.

114

Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex,” in Sister Outsider, 119.

115

Lorde, “The Master’s Tools,” in Sister Outsider, 58.

Kottapalli 33 bridged what some scholars see as the gap between Second and Third Wave of feminist theory. 116 In her seminal work, third-wave scholar and historian Amanda Lotz indicates that the second trajectory of third-wave feminism, woman of color feminism, essentially parallels intersectionality theory, referencing Kimberlé Crenshaw as a key figure in its development. 117 Additionally, Lotz describes the group of woman of color feminists as individuals who presented “a more truly feminist branch of Third Wave thinking” and asserts that they “used the identifier third-wave longer than any of the other groups… to define themselves and their activism against experiences of racial exclusion in second-wave feminist organizations.” 118 She effectively only labels this group as “women-of-color” feminists to differentiate them from the other axes of the third-wave movement, in her terms, third-wave feminism is woman of color feminism. 119 While many feminists, including Crenshaw, played a pivotal role in the development of this facet of feminist theory, Lorde stands out because of her fundamental reactionary role within the secondwave movement, a role that placed her at opposition with much of mainstream theory yet built a foundation for the feminists that would follow. Her discourse, particularly showcased through works like “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” that address racebased oppression and criticize second-wave hegemonic norms, finds more similarities within this third-wave trajectory than it does within its own broader movement, demonstrating her prescient grasp on truly feminist theory.

116

Lotz, "Communicating Third-Wave," 4.

117

Lotz, 4.

118

Lotz, "Communicating Third-Wave," 5.

119

Lotz, 7.

Kottapalli 34 The Edges of Our Battles Lorde’s work was rooted in more than just a keen, insightful understanding of difference and the impact it had upon identity. It had a foundation of activist energy that demanded change with existing power structures and provided the rhetorical basis of intersectionality for why this was necessary. Intersectionality meant mutual strength as much as it dealt with the intersections of societal oppressions. And in this way, she not only helped define a term but helped define a movement and, in turn, the future of the ever-growing realm of feminism. While some of her contemporaries who adopted similar theories eschewed the notion of being a feminist, Lorde embraced it, considering the word, at its essence, to imply a fundamental sense of female connection and empowerment: “the true feminist deals out of a lesbian consciousness whether or not she ever sleeps with women.” 120 Her rhetoric centered around gender as much as it did sexuality, as much as it did class, as much as it did race, but Lorde was, unapologetically, a “woman-defined-woman.” 121 Lorde established a basis for other women and feminists to similarly define themselves, regardless of the other battles they may be fighting: We have chosen each other / and the edge of each other's battles / the war is the same if we lose / someday women's blood will congeal / upon a dead planet / if we win there is no telling.” 122

Audre Lorde, "Audre Lorde on Being a Black Lesbian Feminist," interview by Karla Hammond, Modern American Poetry. 120

121

Lorde, “Scratching the Surface,” in Sister Outsider, 85.

Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex,” in Sister Outsider, 120. This excerpt, taken from one of Lorde’s unpublished poems entitled “Outlines,” appears as a powerful final note at the end of the essay.

122

Kottapalli 35 Bibliography Breines, Winifred. "Struggling to Connect: White and Black Feminism in the Movement Years." SAGE Journals Online. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ctx.2007.6.1.18. Winifred Breines is a professor of sociology and women’s studies at Northwestern University, and the author of The Trouble Between Us: An Uneasy History of White and Black Women in the Feminist Movement. Her piece reflects many of the same themes of her book, focusing on the dual movements that arose among white and Black women in the second-wave feminist era. She describes each movement’s separate goals, while also discussing how the movement that followed the second-wave transformed into a more unified front than that which preceded it. Her piece describes an important aspect of the third-wave that was not nearly as present in the second-wave. Byrd, Rudolph. "Audre Lorde and the Tradition of Black Radical Thought." Introduction to I Am Your Sister, by Audre Lorde. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Rudolph P. Byrd was a professor in the Department of African American Studies and the founder of the James Weldon Johnson Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies at Emory University. He wrote and edited ten books that encompassed issues of race, sexuality, and American identity. Byrd opens Lorde’s essay collection “I Am Your Sister” with a powerful piece of his own that describes who Audre Lorde was as a writer, artist, and activist. His essay examines Lorde from a secondary-source perspective, and, due to its being written years after her pieces were composed, is able to contextualize her role in the Black Arts movement. Clark Mane, Rebecca L. "Transmuting Grammars of Whiteness in Third-Wave Feminism: Interrogating Postrace Histories, Postmodern Abstraction, and the Proliferation of Difference in Third-Wave Texts." Signs 38, no. 1 (September 2012): 71-98. doi:10.1086/665810. Rebecca L. Clark Mane was a graduate student at the University of Washington who received her doctorate in philosophy in 2012, and she is currently a professor of communication at California State University, Northridge. Much of her research has focused on gender studies, feminism, and the media. Her article examines the ways in which difference as a concept manifests itself in the works of third-wave writers. Her piece is particularly important because it helps defines the third-wave movement as a whole. Crenshaw, Kimberle. "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color." Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (1991): 1241-299. doi:10.2307/1229039. Kimberlé Crenshaw is an acting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, Law School as well as Columbia Law School. A preeminent scholar of critical race theory, Crenshaw developed the principles of intersectionality and applied it to scholarship surrounding feminism. In this seminal paper, Crenshaw discusses the ways in which concepts pertaining to intersectionality– particularly an understanding of overlapping systems of oppression– play a role in the culture of violence perpetuated

Kottapalli 36 against women-of-color. Crenshaw’s third-wave work truly parallels much of Lorde’s rhetoric about the intersections of difference and forms a key foundational element of intersectionality doctrine. Crenshaw, Kimberle. "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics." University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989, no. 1 (1989): 139-67. Accessed July 20, 2018. https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf. Kimberlé Crenshaw is an acting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, Law School as well as Columbia Law School. A preeminent scholar of critical race theory, Crenshaw developed the principles of intersectionality and applied it to scholarship surrounding feminism. In her seminal paper, she explains how black women must contend with multi-dimensional forms of discrimination, and that the varying oppressions that individuals face are not independent of one another but rather experienced as one. To elaborate on the implications of such multi-faceted oppressions, Crenshaw refers to several discrimination lawsuits that demonstrate the extent to which Black women are discriminated against on the basis of their gender and race. Furthermore, Crenshaw also emphasizes the necessity for feminist and antiracist movements to acknowledge the intersectional experiences of black women–frequently absent from political narratives–rather than focusing on solely the gender-based struggles of white women and the race-based struggles of black men, respectively. Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality proposes an alternative lens through which to examine systems of power and oppression, one that has significant implications upon the feminist movement. This concept, along with Crenshaw's emphasis upon challenging the complicity of the established movement, reflects Lorde's desire to expand feminist theory and to focus on a more inclusive, multi-dimensional approach towards achieving social justice. Lorde's focus upon embracing difference is an essential element of Crenshaw's intersectional feminism, which seeks address the different oppressions that women face to fuel collective action. Fitzer, Denise L. "Audre Lorde's Expansive Influence on Black Lesbians: Jewelle Gomez, Cheryl Clarke, and Kate Rushin." Abstract. Masters Theses. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/1611/. Denise L. Fitzer was a masters (MA) student at Eastern Illinois University who graduated in 2000. Her masters thesis draws directly upon the works of Jewelle Gomez, Cheryl Clarke, and Kate Rushin to demonstrate the connection between the works of these Black lesbian feminists and those of Audre Lorde. Each of the writers that Fitzer discusses were inspired by Lorde in their own ways, and, as contemporaries to the third-wave, their works embody how Lorde truly impacted the movement that followed her. Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Hewitt, Nancy A. "Feminist Frequencies: Regenerating the Wave Metaphor." Feminist Studies 38, no. 3 (2012): 658-80. JSTOR. Nancy A. Hewitt is the Emeritus Professor of History and Women’s Studies at Rutgers University. In “Feminist Frequencies,” Hewitt explains the wave metaphor of feminism in detail, specifically focusing on how feminists

Kottapalli 37 defined the movements that predated them. This article includes important contextual information to shed light on the similarities and differences between these movements, providing clarification with respect to the historical waves of feminism. Iannello, Kathleen P. "Third-Wave Feminism and Individualism: Promoting Equality or Reinforcing the Status Quo?" Women, Empowerment, and Cultural Expression, 313-21. PDF. Kathleen Iannello is a professor in the political science department at Gettysburg College, and she has published numerous research papers in the area of third-wave feminism. "Third-Wave Feminism and Individualism: Promoting Equality or Reinforcing the Status Quo?" deals with the nuances of the third-wave movement and the numerous trajectories present in such a diversified social era. In the paper, Iannello examines how the thirdwave was reactionary in its nature, its ideologies seeking to fill many of the gaps in the second-wave movement (particularly its lack of emphasis upon intersectionality). Lorde, Audre. "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference." 1980. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, 114-24. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1984. A feminist lesbian scholar, writer, poet, and activist, Audre Lorde was a powerful voice in social and literary movements of the late twentieth century. Through her work, much of which focused on addressing social injustices and exploring the nuances of one's identity, she heavily influenced feminist discourse and established a precedent for the concept of intersectionality. In her paper delivered at an academic seminar at Amherst College, Lorde emphasizes the necessity of defining differences in identity to move towards constructive social change. Lorde argues against the normalization and homogeneity of perceived experiences, offering various examples of cultural communities such as that of white women within the feminist movement who focus on the oppression of women while ignoring the different aspects of self that constitute women's identities (sexuality, race, age, class, etc). She also goes on to stress that all women, in order to escape patterns of repression rooted in a fear of difference and hierarchies of power, should embrace a mutual differences so they can join together in the crusade for a common goal. Lorde's essay highlights the reasons behind her emphasis upon the necessity of recognizing differences, providing rationale as to why women must redefine themselves and their relationships. Moreover, her main argument truly reflects the theory of intersectionality as developed by scholars like Crenshaw, and she admonishes against the one-dimensional approach that many of her contemporaries take towards feminism. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;â&#x20AC;&#x201D;â&#x20AC;&#x201D;. "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House." 1979. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. New York: Random House US, 2012. A feminist lesbian scholar, writer, poet, and activist, Audre Lorde was a powerful voice in social and literary movements of the late twentieth century. Through her work, much of which focused on addressing social injustices and exploring the nuances of identity, she heavily influenced feminist discourse and established a precedent for the concept of intersectionality. Her essay, delivered at a panel held before a forum at women at the "Second Sex Conference", discusses the importance of embracing and defining

Kottapalli 38 differences of identity. She emphasizes that the lack of inclusivity within the feminism (and at the conference at which she speaks) embodies the system of patriarchal oppression that the movement seeks to dismantle. In addition, she argues that reaching across social boundaries and including all voices in feminist theory promotes collaboration between women, contributing towards tangible change in the crusade for social justice. Lorde's call-to-action, which reflects the theory of intersectionality, demonstrates not only her aim to address the differences between women, but also her intention to raise awareness about the importance of these differences as an agent of change. ———. "Scratching the Surface: Some Notes on Barriers to Women and Loving." 1980. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, 114-24. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1984. An influential feminist lesbian scholar, writer, poet, and activist, Audre Lorde was a powerful voice in social and literary movements of the late twentieth century. Through her work, much of which focused on addressing social injustices and exploring the nuances of identity, she heavily influenced feminist discourse and established a precedent for the concept of intersectionality. Her seminal essay highlights the reasons behind her emphasis upon the necessity of recognizing differences, providing rationale as to why women must redefine themselves and their relationships. It also explores these relationships in detail and discusses the oppression that lesbians and women-defined women experience both within and apart from their cultural communities. Above all, it provides key foundational rhetoric for intersectionality, transmitted through the lens of gender, race, and sexuality. Lotz, Amanda D. "Communicating Third-Wave Feminism and New Social Movements: Challenges for the Next Century of Feminist Endeavor." Women and Language 26, no. 1: 2-9. EBSCO eBook Collection. Amanda D. Lotz is a preeminent communications scholar who has researched gender and the media extensively. Her piece on third-wave feminism, written ten years after the wave began, describes the three distinct trajectories of the movement: reactionary feminism, post-feminism, and women of color feminist. This information is particularly pertinent because Audre Lorde’s second-wave rhetoric and intersectionality at its essence both heavily parallels the concepts within these three threads of feminism. Olson, Lester C. "Liabilities of Language: Audre Lorde Reclaiming Difference." Quarterly Journal of Speech, no. 84 (1998): 448-70. Accessed July 21, 2018. https://www.comm.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/Olson%20on%20Lorde%20liabilities.pdf. Lester C. Olson is the chair of the department of communication and a chancellor’s distinguished educator at the University of Pittsburgh. He has worked focused extensively in the fields of social justice rhetoric, his most recent project diving into the works of Audre Lorde. In this paper, Olson examines the ways in which Lorde uses language, an essential aspect of her work not only reaching others, but also defining her own identity. Olson’s assertion that Lorde was able to connect with her feminist audience through shared opposition to the patriarchy, and, in turn, was able to create analogies between this dynamic and that between women across identifiers, forms a key aspect of

Kottapalli 39 Lorde’s intersectionality that bridged the theoretical gap between her and her contemporaries. ———. "The Personal, the Political, and Others: Audre Lorde Denouncing "The Second Sex Conference"." Philosophy & Rhetoric 33, no. 3 (2000): 259-85. http://www.jstor.org.puffin.harker.org/stable/40231724. Lester C. Olson is the chair of the department of communication and a chancellor’s distinguished educator at the University of Pittsburgh. He has worked focused extensively in the fields of social justice rhetoric, his most recent project diving into the works of Audre Lorde. In this paper, Olson examines the rhetorical techniques that Lorde employs in “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” a speech delivered to a quorum of nearly all-white women at the Second Sex Conference in 1979. He discusses how Lorde’s linguistic skills and dialogue-based tools enabled her to deliver such a powerful message and reflected her theory of intersectionality. Rushin, Kate. "Clearing Space for Us: A Tribute to Audre Lorde." Radical America 24.4 (1990): 85-88. Kate Rushin is the author of poetry book The Black Back-Ups, and she has received the Rose Low Rome Memorial Poetry Prize and the Grolier Poetry Prize for her work. One of her poems was also published in feminist anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. The Black Back-Ups was released in 1993, towards the beginning of the third-wave movement, and it featured poems that echoed Lorde’s themes of identity, self-examination, and the intersections of oppression. Rushin’s essay that specifically focuses on how Lorde has influenced her demonstrates Lorde’s truly expansive influence on third-wave feminist writers. Siddiqui, Sophia. Review of Your Silence Will Not Protect You, by Audre Lorde. SAGE Journals Online. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0306396818771236?journalCode=racb. Sophia Siddiqui is a feminist writer whose review appears in the Institute for Race Relations’ “Race & Class” publication. Her review focuses on the impact of Lorde’s writing and helps define the poet-activist in her own terms. Siddiqui’s review of “Your Silence Will Not Protect You” draws attention to Lorde’s literary prowess, a crucial aspect of her ability to transmit such powerful messages through her activist rhetoric. Siegel, Deborah L. "The Legacy of the Personal: Generating Theory in Feminism's Third Wave." Hypatia 12, no. 3 (1997): 46-75. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3810222. Deborah L. Siegel, PhD, is an activist and writer who co-founded the web journal “The Scholar & Feminist Online” and wrote “Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild.” Siegel has worked extensively in the areas of gender, politics, and cross-generational feminism. Her paper describes how the third-wave movement diverged from the campaigns that preceded it, particularly describing the ways in which different groups were able to bring their concerns to the forefront of the scholarly and activist space. Siegel helps contextualize the movement itself while also furthering the contrast between it and the second-wave.

Kottapalli 40 Snyder, Claire R. "What Is Third‐Wave Feminism? A New Directions Essay." Signs 34, no. 1: 175-96. JSTOR. Claire R. Snyder is an associate professor of government and politics at George Mason University. Her works focus on the intersection of politics and social justice, and she wrote the acclaimed book “Gay Marriage and Democracy: Equality for All.” Snyder’s paper describes third-wave feminism in detail and delves into intersectionality’s role within the broader movement. It provides essential scholarly evidence that the third-wave became increasingly focused in intersectionality.

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