Gender and Sexualities: An Inquiry

Introduction—Chapter 1: The Personal Is…? This chapter takes it title from a foundational concept from the feminist movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, “the personal is political.” While the phrase is typically credited to Carol Hanisch, who wrote an essay in 1969 that was re-issued in 1970 under the title “The Personal Is Political,” no single writer has laid claim to having coined the term. “Instead,” Kerry Burch writes, “ they [individual feminist writers] cite millions of women in public and private conversations as the phrase's collective authors.” 1 The essays included here explore and tease out this theoretical breakthrough in exposing the connection of private experiences to the public, political, structured realities that create the conditions under which individual lives are lived. Both in writing that might be termed “memoir” and in a scholarly essay, the authors reveal elements of their own social locations (the social position occupied by a person based on their membership in various identity groups) and the lived experiences which both arise from and shed light on the identities and identifications that inform their social locations. In this way, the pieces included here evidence what Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 called intersectionality , a theory that holds that various forms of oppression, domination, and discrimination exist always and only in relation to each other. These authors articulate how they negotiate multiple identities and identifications within and against the intersectional systems of domination that characterize our social and political world in fundamentally complex ways. Key words and phrases: the personal is political , social location , identity , identification , oppression , domination , discrimination , intersectionality Key questions:  In what ways do these authors exemplify “the personal is political”? How do their essays offer examples of what this concept looks like, when viewed through the lenses of people’s lives?  How do the authors illustrate “intersectionality” in their essays? In what ways do these pieces speak to the complex ways that systems of oppression play themselves out in people’s lives? Which systems of oppression do you see at work in these pieces, and how?  How do you understand the difference between the terms “identity” and “identification,” as discussed by Deborah Thompson? How do you name your own identities and identifications? What meaning does that naming have for you?  If you were to write an essay like Diana Courvant’s or Vicki Reitenauer’s, what would you write about? What lived experiences resonate deeply for you, and how do those experiences connect to your multiple identities and/or identifications? 1 Burch, Kerry T (2012). Democratic transformations: Eight conflicts in the negotiation of American identity . London: Continuum. p. 139