UCLA Intersectionality Discussion

Today you’re writing about: 

Poem: Kaylin Haught, “God Says Yes to Me” (Links to an external site.) (1995)

Video: Roxane Gay, “Confessions of a Bad Feminist” (2015)

• Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I A Woman?” (Links to an external site.) (1851)
  (or use this version (Links to an external site.), which only includes the speech itself and not all the context. (I find the context fascinating, but the speech itself is what’s important. But definitely read my background note below!)

A bit of background on the Sojourner Truth speech:

“Ain’t I A Woman?” is an 1851 speech delivered by ex-slave and feminist activist Sojourner Truth, who was an amazing person as you will see from her words. In her speech, she advocates for black women to be included in the feminist movement–and she is speaking to a room full of white women and men who– AT FIRST — don’t even want her to speak at all. By the end, they were all taken by Truth’s true words, and while it took a whole lot longer for white women to include women of color in the feminist movement, this speech was the start. 

• These readings (and all of the readings and videos we’ve explored in this module) are informed by the idea of intersectionality, which we will explore in detail in Module 2. Basically, intersectionality understands that people’s identities are complex and not simply equal to one aspect of identity, such as gender. Gender always “intersects” with race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, nationality, socioeconomic status, (dis)ability, religion, and other factors. We should always acknowledge that women are diverse and not all the same. 

• “I sell the shadow to support the substance”: Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), born Isabella Baumfree to a family of slaves in Ulster County, New York, escaped with her daughter in 1826, a year before New York state’s emancipation. After living in a commune, she converted to Christianity, changed her name in 1843, and became an itinerant preacher. The publication of the Narrative of Sojourner Truth, recorded in 1850 by her friend Olive Gilbert, and “Sojourner Truth: The Libyan Sibyl,” written by Harriet Beecher Stowe for the Atlantic Monthly in 1863, raised Truth’s national profile. She toured with abolitionists Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison and earned money from these speaking engagements as well as from the sale of images. As demonstrated by the inclusion of text on her cartes-de-visite, Truth actively controlled the dissemination of her image as a proper, educated, middle-class woman to support herself and her activist work. An ardent feminist, Truth often had herself represented proudly engaged in “women’s work,” such as knitting. (source: International Center of Photography)