Erasure of Identity

Reading Butler's article, the idea that sticks out most to me is the problematic notion of the "universal" definition of "woman," (4) and how this all encompassing view point may ask women to put a priority on their identities as women over the other identities of race, class, etc. Butler writes that "gender is not always constituted coherently in different historical contexts, and because gender intersects with racial, class, ethnic, sexual, and regional modalities...as a result, it becomes impossible to separate out 'gender' from the...intersections in which it is invariably produced and maintained" (4-5). She is trying to say here that the label of "woman" is not a singular thing that can be isolated within a person's identity and when universal feminists try to call to all woman to look over their differences and to unite as women, this erases the other various identities that make up a person.

Intersectionality is important to feminist debate because as Butler states, it is not true that "the oppression of women has some singular form discernible in the universal or hegemonic structure of patriarchy or masculine domination" (5). Not all women are subject to the same methods of oppression in Western and non-Western cultures and to assume so is to limit our understanding of other cultures. The solution to one symptom is not necessarily the best and only solution to the array of problems that stem from patriarchy.