Saher Husain Week 2.

Both the articles, How Young People with Disabilities Conceptualize The Body, Sex and Marriage in Urban India: Four Case Studies by Renu Addlakha and A Hair Piece: Perspectives On The Intersection Of Race And Gender by Pauletre M. Caldwell talk about intersectionality. The paper by Renu Addlakha shows us how people with different forms of disabilities undergo issues related to their body, marriage and sexual identity through four case studies of different young individuals living in urban India. We realise how even though people with disabilities as a whole have been segregated from the rest of society, an individual of a different gender also feels segregated from the other gender within this sphere itself. How disabled women like Mira and Payal can have different opinions and views regarding not only marriage but also other family related issues from disabled men like Amit and Lalit and the issues faced by these individuals and also their views on sexuality help us understand how intersectionality works in this community.

On the other hand, the article by Pauletre M. Caldwell speaks about the discrimination faced by black women in America wherein they are discriminated on the basis of not only gender but also their race. The author explains how intersectionality works within the law itself using case law, Rogers v. American Airlines, where a black women was not allowed to keep her hair fully braided and was asked to wear a headpiece over these braids to cover them. When she approached the court arguing this was discrimination not only on the basis of gender but also her race, the court denied it as, according to the court, such discrimination could not exist simultaneously and hence her complaint was dismissed. Thus we are able to recognise the negative stereotypes such as the beauty standards that come into picture through such discrimination of women and especially black women from the white women who undergo discrimination not only because of their gender but also their race, hence we are able to understand and realise the different kinds of problems that are faced by such communities and groups through such intersectionality as witnessed in both of the above mentioned articles.  

submitted by- Saher Husain (18010673)