Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Intrinsically Intersectional: Difference, Performativity, and Hybridity

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Race and Gender

  • 1913 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter focuses on queer theory’s performativity, postcolonial theory’s hybridity, and Chicana feminism’s mestiza, frontiers, and flow to understand how poststructuralism’s concept of difference locates race and gender identities as ‘intrinsically intersectional’. This allows us to apply the concepts of hybridity (Bhabha,.Rutherford (ed), Identity Community Culture Difference, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1990; Bhabha,.The Location of Culture, Routledge, London, New York, 1994; Bhabha,.Chambers and Curti (eds), The Postcolonial Question – Commom Skies, Divided Horizons, Routledge, London, 1996; Bhabha, H. (1998) O local da cultura. Belo Horizonte: UFMG.;), performativity (Butler,.Gender Trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity, Routledge, New York and London, 1990, 1993a, 1993b), and the mestiza, frontiers, and flow (Anzaldúa,.Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Aunt Lute Books, San Francisco, 1987) to both race and gender identities to break with the stability and essentialism of identity categories in order to emphasize that inequalities are not additive. Rather than being essentialist, identity here emphasizes the necessity for poststructuralist difference and decentering of the subject in its very definition. Thus, hybridity and performativity are contained in the very definition of race and gender identities as “intrinsically intersectional”.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abramo, L. (2006) Desigualdades de gênero e raça no mercado de trabalho brasileiro. Ciência e Cultura, 58(4): 40‒41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Acker, J. (1999) Rewriting class, race, and gender: problems in feminist rethinking. In: M. M. Ferree, J. Lorber and B. B. Hess (eds.) Revisioning gender. London, Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage, pp. 44‒69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Acker, J. (2011) Theorizing gender, race and class in organizations. In: E. Jeanes, D. Knights, and P. Y. Martin (eds) Handbook of Gender, Work and Organization (1st ed.). West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 65–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anzaldúa, G. (1987) Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baines, D. (2010) Gender Mainstreaming in a Development Project: Intersectionality in a Post-Colonial Un-doing? Gender, Work and Organization, 17(2): 119‒149.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnard, I. (1999) Queer Race. Social Semiotics, 9(2): 199–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bendl, R., and Fleischmann, A. (2008) Diversity management discourse meets queer theory. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 23(6): 382‒394.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhabha, H. (1990) The third space: Interview with Homi Bhabha. In: J. Rutherford (ed.) Identity Community Culture Difference. London: Lawrence and Wishart, pp. 207–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhabha, H. (1994) The Location of Culture. London, New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhabha, H. (1996). ‘Unpacking my library … again’. In: I. Chambers and L. Curti (eds) The Postcolonial Question – Commom Skies, Divided Horizons. Routledge: London, pp. 199–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhabha, H. (1998) O local da cultura. Belo Horizonte: UFMG.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braidotti, R. (1994) Nomadic subjects: embodiment and sexual difference in contemporary feminist theory. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braidotti, R. (1997) “The doxa of difference”: working through sexual difference. Signs, 23(1): 23–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braidotti, R. (2008) Intensive genre and the demise of gender. Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 13(2): 45–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bredström, A. (2006) Intersectionality: a challenge for feminist HIV/AIDS research? European Journal of Women's Studies, 13(3): 229–243.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. New York and London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1993a) Critically Queer, GLQ, 1: 17‒32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1993b) Bodies that matter: on the discursive limits of “sex”. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang, R. S., and Culp Jr., J. M. (2002) After intersectionality. UMKC Law Review, 71(2): 485–492.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cho, S. (2013) Post-intersectionality: the curious reception of intersectionality in legal scholarship. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 10(2): 385–404.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, P. (1988) The Perversions of Inheritance: Studies in the making of multiracist Britain. In: P. Cohen and H.S. Bains (eds.) Multi-Racist Britain. London: Macmillan, pp. 9–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, C. J. (1997) Punks, bulldaggers, and welfare queens: The radical potential of queer politics? GLQ, 3: 437–465.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (1995) Comment on West and Fenstermaker. Gender & Society, 9: 491–494.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (2015) Intersectionality’s Definitional Dilemmas. Annual Review of Sociology, 41(1): 1–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (2019) Interview with Patricia Hill Collins on Critical Thinking, Intersectionality and Educational: key objectives for critical articulation on Inclusive Education. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 17(2): 151–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costa, C. D. L., and Ávila, E. (2005) Gloria Anzaldúa, a consciência mestiça e o “feminismo da diferença”. Revista Estudos Feministas, 13(3): 691–703.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crenshaw, K. (1989) Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Legal Forum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamson, J. (2003) Sexualities, Queer Theory, and qualitative research. In: N. Denzin and S. Lincoln (eds.) The landscape of qualitative research: theories and issues. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, pp. 540‒568.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (1990) Cultural identity and diaspora: Identity, community, culture, difference. London: Lawrence and Wishart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (2000) “Who needs ‘identity’?” In: P. Du Gay, J. Evans, and P. Redman (eds.) Identity: a reader. London: SAGE Publications, pp. 15–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hames-García, M. (2011) Identity complex: making the case for multiplicity. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, N., Ford, J. and Fotaki, M. (2013) Invited contribution ‘Is ‘F’ word still dirty? Twenty years of feminism and gender studies in Organization and feminist journals’. Organization, 20(1): 51‒65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holvino, E. (2010) Intersections: The simultaneity of race, gender and class in organization studies. Gender, Work and Organization, 17(3): 248‒277.

    Google Scholar 

  • Islam, G. (2012) Can the subaltern eat? Anthropophagic culture as a Brazilian lens on post-colonial theory. Organization, 19(2): 159‒180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jagose, A. R. (1996) Queer theory: An introduction. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, D., and Stablein, R. (2006) Diversity as resistance and recuperation: critical theory, post-structuralist perspectives and workplace diversity. In: A. M. Konrad, P. Prasad, and J. K. Pringle (eds.) Handbook of Workplace Diversity. London: SAGE Publications, pp. 145–166.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krstić, P. (2017). Thinking Identity with Difference: Society and theory. Filozofija I Društvo, XXVIII(1): 136–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenny, K. (2012) ‘Someone Big and Important’: Identification and Affect in an International Development Organization. Organization Studies, 33(9): 1175–1193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Letiche, H. (2009) Doubling: there’s an escape from commodification ...? Society and Business Review, 4(1): 8–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linstead, S., and Pullen, A. (2006) Gender as multiplicity: Desire, displacement, difference and dispersion. Human Relations, 59(9): 1287–1310.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann, S. A. (2013) Third Wave Feminism’s Unhappy Marriage of Poststructuralism and Intersectionality Theory. Journal of Feminist Scholarship, 4(4): 54–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mariano, S. A. (2005) O sujeito do feminino e o pós-estruturalismo. Estudos Feministas, 13(3): 483–505.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nash, J. C. (2011) ‘Home truths’ on intersectionality. Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, 23(2): 445–470.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nash, J. C. (2013) Practicing love: Black feminism, love-politics, and post-intersectionality. Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, 11(2): 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, S. (2005) Power and politics in poststructuralist thought: new theories of the political. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, M., and Knowles, D. (2012) Performance and Performativity: Undoing Fictions of Women Business Owners. . Gender, Work and Organization, 19(4): 416–437.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phoenix, A. and Pattynama, P. (2006) Intersectionality. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 13(3): 187–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prasad, A. (2012) Beyond analytical dichotomies. Human Relations, 65(5): 567–595.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seidman, S. (1996) ‘Symposium: Queer Theory/sociology: a dialogue’, Sociological Theory, 12(2): 166–177.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skeggs, B. (2006) ‘Which Bits to Exploit? Making Value from Emotional Telling on Reality TV’: PhD course on Intersectional Analysis, Aalborg, January, pp. 18–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spivak, G. C. (1988) Can the subaltern speak? In: C. Nelson and L. Grossberg (eds.) Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, pp. 271–313.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, N. (2003) A critical introduction to queer theory. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tate, S. A. (2005) Black skins, black masks: Hybridity, dialogism, performativity. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tate, S. (2015) Transracial Intimacy and ‘Race’ Performativity: Recognition and Destabilizing the Nation’s Racial Contract. In: M. Bleeker, J. F. Sherman and E. Nedelkopoulou (eds.)Performance and Phenomenology: Traditions and Transformations. New York: Routledge, pp. 174–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyler, J. A. (2009) Moving Beyond Scholar-Practitioner Binaries: Exploring the Liminal Possibilities of the Borderlands. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 11(4): 523–535.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, G. (2007) ‘Theorizing and Researching Intersectionality: A Challenge for Feminist Geography’. The Professional Geographer, 59(1): 10–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verloo, M. (2006) Multiple inequalities, intersectionality and the European Union, European Journal of Women’s Studies, 13(3): 211–228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. (2005). Understanding Poststructuralism. Stocksfield: Acumen Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, R. (1995) Colonial Desire: Hybridity in theory, culture and race. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yuval-Davis, N. (2006). Intersectionality and Feminist Politics. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 13(3): 193–209.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil

    Eloisio Moulin de Souza

Authors
  1. Eloisio Moulin de Souza
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eloisio Moulin de Souza .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Shirley Anne Tate

  2. Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

de Souza, E.M. (2022). Intrinsically Intersectional: Difference, Performativity, and Hybridity. In: Tate, S.A., Gutiérrez Rodríguez, E. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Race and Gender. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83947-5_32

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83947-5_32

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-83946-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-83947-5

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation