Gender, Intersectionality, And Critical Theory -- By: Pat Sawyer

Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 01:2 (Fall 2019)
Article: Gender, Intersectionality, And Critical Theory
Author: Pat Sawyer


Gender, Intersectionality, And Critical Theory

Pat Sawyer

& Neil Shenvi

Dr. Pat Sawyer has a Ph.D. in Education and Cultural Studies from UNC-Greensboro, an M.A. in Communication Studies from UNC-Greensboro, and a B.A. in Psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill. He currently teaches at UNC-Greensboro, and can be found on Twitter at @RealPatSawyer.

Dr. Neil Shenvi has a Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry from UC-Berkeley and an A.B. in Chemistry from Princeton. He homeschools his four children through Classical Conversations and can be found on Twitter at @NeilShenvi.

In the last few years, the #MeToo movement, revelations of sexual abuse and cover-up within the Southern Baptist Convention, and controversy surrounding the appropriateness of women preaching in Lord’s Day worship have reopened discussions of gender within evangelicalism. While there has been little development within the evangelical church in the underlying theological and exegetical arguments regarding gender roles, there has been a significant shift in how these issues are understood within the broader culture. Ideologies once confined to the rarefied atmosphere of academia now fill the newsfeeds of social media users. For this reason, it’s crucial for Christians to understand these ideas, recognizing that conversations about gender don’t happen in a vacuum but are informed by cultural trends and popular discourse. One example is the growing use of the term “intersectionality” in discussions about gender. In this article, we’ll attempt to present an accessible overview of intersectionality that aids the church in taking every thought captive for the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).

What Is Intersectionality?

Intersectionality has been explicated in a number of ways, including: an established theory,1 an analytical societal paradigm2, a theoretical conceptual framework3, a public policy heuristic,4 and a comprehensive research method.5 Despite its complexity and multiple usages, we can offer the following definition: intersectionality is the claim that different facets of our identity interact in distinct and complex ways based upon the particular intersection of social categories we occupy, yielding a life and existence that can be generally characterized by either privilege, oppression, or both.

Critical race theor...

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