by Carol Frenier

All social theories sooner or later are shown to be flawed. This is because no theory, no matter how brilliant, can capture all of reality. 

Intersectionality theory, as taught and practiced in our education system, is a good example. It claims that all members of one race, gender or other social category have more claim to victimhood and society’s protection than another category. While intersectionality theory can be a useful tool in exposing the nuances of prejudice and discrimination, it also distorts what should be blind justice for actual individual people in specific situations. Thus college students, who would ordinarily be appalled by rape and the other atrocities committed by HAMAS on October 7th, felt compelled to support Gaza over Israel. Even before the Israelis had time to counter attack, intersectionality informed the students that Muslims were the oppressed party and Jews were the oppressors. 

We are seeing more and more of society through the intersectional lens of oppressed and oppressor, and it is tearing us apart. The media and social media encourage us to rank the parties of a dispute according to these categories. Being a woman is higher on the scale than being a man, but not as high as being a woman who is gay or transgender. White heterosexual males have no claims to any protection whatsoever under this system, as seen in the “believe all women” mantra of the #metoo movement.

Transgender is the top ranking category on today’s intersectionality scale. This explains why, in Loudoun County, VA, two school administrators were indicted because they “failed at every juncture” to respond “appropriately to a sexual assault by a gender fluid male student in a girls’ bathroom.” This was not a theoretical intersectionality situation: it was real violence inflicted on real people and needed wise adult intervention on an individual basis.

The locker room incident in Randolph Union High School (RUHS), VT—in which female athletes objected to the presence of a trans female student in their locker room—is another example of damage done by the intersectionality mindset. The needs of the biological female athletes were dismissed to meet the needs of the trans female student, even in the face of written school policy stating that “ALL students were entitled to a safe school environment.”

The Intersectionality mindset denies communities the space to deal creatively and respectfully with social problems where two or more claims are legitimate but in conflict with each other. That mindset encourages snap judgments and sets up—even mandates— double standards. If perceived oppressed groups “feel uncomfortable,” that discomfort has been used repeatedly as a justification for canceling events and objects. But in the case of the Randolph girls, their feeling uncomfortable was viewed by many as evidence of bigotry and harassment.

Despite being aware intersectionality theory for some time, I was unprepared for the extent of its impact on college campuses that was so clearly demonstrated by the student response to the HAMAS attack on the morning of October 8th. The only good news of the day was that most of my fellow citizens seem to agree with me. I hope this is the wake-up call we need to realize that intersectionality is often more damaging than it is helpful.

Carol Frenier is a former high school US History teacher and indexer for Norwich University. She and her husband, Bob Frenier, reside in Chelsea, VT.