Visual Map
Statement
My interpretation of intersectionality most essentially refers to Kaiser’s initial position on the subject: involving the simultaneous embodiment of “gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, national identity, age/generation, place, and other “positions” that are themselves shifting through complex power relations.” (Kaiser, Ch. 1) Intersectionality is a nuanced consideration of all intersecting subject positions that go into a subject’s becoming. In my visual map, I decided to put my ethnicity (white, Mediterranean) and class (Privileged) as I believe they have the heaviest influence on my ability to dress myself as I do, regardless of what I choose to wear. These intersecting privileges allow me to wear luxurious and outlandish items I’d likely not have access to otherwise– my prized Vivienne Westwood corset, for example. (Class, specifically, can also be restrictive for me however, in that I’m expected to look of a certain pedigree– when I’m at home, I’m expected to present a “preppy image”, and wore a mandated prep school uniform for the entirety of my upbringing.) They also influence my other subject positions in that they allow me more freedom to express my sexuality/gender, and the way a femme body of my age is perceived. I gave nationality the least bearing as though I am from an immigrant family, I feel this identity is overshadowed in systems of dress by my whiteness and economic status. Ethnicity, Age, and Class were also placed at the top because though they are what influence my freedom to dress the way I do, they are not the most conscious elements of my daily dress practices. When dressing, I’m much more consciously aware of how I’m expressing my gender and sexuality; as a person who’s fluid in both category, the image of masculinity, femininity, or neither that I want to present that day is very influential in my dress choices. A major influence on my habitus, I can vacillate between hypersexual, masculinely confident expressions of feminity or norm-pushing masculine expressions that mark me as androgynous, depending on how I feel in my body on the given day and how I am ready to be received by others/who is receiving me.
