Invoking intersectionality: discursive mobilisations in feminism of the radical left

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the past ten years the concept of intersectionality has become increasingly popular in feminist activism. Yet, how intersectionality is used within grassroots movements remains understudied. This article explores intersectionality in feminism within the radical left using a case study of the 2014 Scottish independence movement. The article draws on analysis of 37 semi-structured interviews carried out during the referendum campaign of 2014. Building on black feminist critiques, I highlight that intersectionality is taken up in ways that reproduce rather than tackle hegemonic norms of gender identity, race, class and age. I trace a disjuncture between interviewee claims to be intersectional and simultaneous perceptions of multi-dimensional marginalisations. I explore interviewee discussion of trans-inclusion as illustrative of how axes of intersectionality can be mobilised in ways that sustain hegemonic norms. Interviewees tended to legitimise their claims to intersectionality through invoking the trope of the ‘TERF’ – trans-exclusionary radical feminist – as a symbol of a selectively defined second-wave feminism elided with radical feminism. This invocation paradoxically reproduced marginalisations of race, class and even gender identity itself.