For a multi-cut feminism

The first time I heard about intersectionality in the media was about ten years ago, at the microphone of The more the merrier, the more we read! at Radio Canada.

I had been invited to participate in the radio segment The primer of feminism, set up in October 2013, to counterbalance the dominant macho discourse. We were up to the letters G, H and I. That day, I had chosen to speak of the word “honour”, with big quotation marks, as in “honour killings”, while evoking the tragedy of the Shafia. At my side, Aurélie Lanctôt had chosen “intersectionality”, a word which was not yet in the dictionary at the time, but which was already well known in the university environment. She offered a sort of “intersectionality for dummies” capsule.

I include myself here in the “dummies”. I was a priori put off by the word, which seemed convoluted to me. But listening to Aurélie Lanctôt (now a doctoral student in law whose research focuses on feminist theories and the epistemology of law) explaining its origin and usefulness, I had to face the facts: if we are interested in equality and the rights of all women, intersectional feminism is an essential tool for thinking (and rethinking) the world, better understanding power relations in all their complexity and better tackling inequalities.

The theory of intersectionality, developed over 30 years ago by American feminist jurist Kimberlé Crenshaw based on an idea from Black feminism American, leads us to reflect on the sources of discrimination that overlap in the paths of certain women.

“A tool for reflection that is first legal, but has become sociological, intersectionality is the taking into account of the intersection of relations of discrimination to reveal the specificity of discriminatory situations that are often ignored”, we read in thePrimer of feminism¹.

In other words, an intersectional approach focuses on the condition of those whom a so-called “universal” feminism too often leaves behind. She suggests that “one size fits all” feminism is like “one-size-fits-all” clothing. It doesn’t really “fit”. What we believe is suitable for all bodies is not, as Sabrina Lemeltier recently reminded us in the Debates section, testifying to the importance of an intersectional approach in the prevention of feminicides². If we have the rights and dignity of all women at heart, contemporary feminism can only be multifaceted.

I realized after the fact, when speaking that day of the need to learn lessons from the tragic Shafia affair and to pay more attention to cultural specificities in the handling of files from the Department of Youth Protection (DPJ ), that this was, without my calling it that, a very concrete example of an intersectional approach that can literally save lives.

Because let us remember that in the case of the Shafia girls, the DPJ and the police had been alerted long before the Zainab, Sahar and Geeti sisters as well as their mother-in-law, Rona Amir Mohammad, were found dead in a car thrown into the Rideau Canal. in June 2009. But without an approach taking into account the specific risk factors of these young girls of Afghan origin who just wanted to be free, it was in vain.

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A decade later, we can only applaud the fact that intersectionality, which has finally integrated the Little Robert in 2022, be an integral part of the 2022-2027 government strategy to counter sexual violence and domestic violence in Quebec.

“The intersections between different systems of discrimination place some women in contexts of heightened vulnerability to sexual violence and domestic violence. Let us think in particular of immigrant or racialized women, aboriginals, seniors, in situations of poverty, with disabilities and people of sexual and gender diversity, ”we read in the strategic plan. It recognizes that taking an interest in what happens “at the intersection” makes it possible to propose effective actions³.

Paradoxically, while its usefulness is no longer to be proven, intersectionality suddenly seems to have become suspect in the eyes of some. In the wake of the CAQ government’s recent refusal to support a motion by Québec solidaire marking International Women’s Rights Day with a reference to intersectionality, the office of the Minister responsible for the Status of Women indicated that intersectional feminism was not her vision of feminism⁴. Minister Martine Biron said in an interview with Sun that she does not want to “get entangled” in a debate on feminism, but to act⁵.

Dodging tough debates doesn’t solve them, unfortunately. Meanwhile, after having warned us against the danger wokepolemicists, nostalgic for the “one size fits all” era when we didn’t have to think about these questions, began to raise the specter of ugly intersectional feminism.

Rather than using intersectionality for what it is – a reflection tool that has become essential to better defend the rights of all women without exception – we have made it the new bugbear of the moment, just in time for the 8 March.

Proof that it is not because a word integrates the dictionary and public policies that it integrates minds. And that there is still a long way to go so that everyone can dress with dignity at their size.

(1) The radio segment gave birth to the book Primer of feminism published by Somme tout in 2016 (original idea: Marie-Louise Arsenault; texts: Noémie Désilets-Courteau; illustrations: Sarah Marcotte-Boislard).