Interlocking, Intersecting, and Intermeshing: Critical Engagements with Black and Latina Feminist Paradigms of Identity and Oppression

Abstract:Inspired by Mariana Ortega's invitation to reflect on diverse iterations of intersectionality, this article focuses on María Lugones's engagements with two Black feminist concepts, namely, inter-locking oppressions (as articulated by Barbara Smith, Beverley Smith, and Demita Frazier) and intersectionality (as articulated by Kimberlé Crenshaw). It explores these concepts alongside Lugones's use of her own terms such as intermeshed, curdling, multiplicity, and fusion, in several paradigm shifting essays, specifically, "Purity, Impurity, and Separation" (1994 and 2003), "Tactical Strategies of the Street Walker" (2003), "On Complex Communication" (2006), "Heterosexism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System" (2007), "Toward a Decolonial Feminism" (2010), "Methodological Notes Toward a Decolonial Feminism" (2011), and "Radical Multiculturalism and Women of Color Feminisms" (2014). It also underscores Ortega's important contributions bringing these Black and Latina feminist concepts together in philosophically productive ways—in a spirit of collaboration and coalition rather than zero-sum competition.