Jones, S. (2009). Constructing Identities at the Intersections: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Multiple Dimensions of Identity. Journal of College Student Development, 50(3), 287-304. DOI:10.1353/csd.0.0070
Keywords:
autoethnography, identity, intersectionality, privilege, oppression
Abstract:
This article investigates identity development through the lenses of race, gender, class, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, culture, and family background, using the autoethnographic research method. The argument of using this method is to display the multiple layers of consciousness, connecting the personal to the cultural, through evocative stories. The aim of this article is to find the intersectionality, a term rooted in feminist theory, between identity negotiation and perception management. Jones argues that self-authorship is not enough to define identity, when we are also externally defined by the external context from which we draw from to define ourselves. The process included reading, rereading the individual narratives, and writing responses to these narratives to illuminate the particularities and commonalities across individual perceptions of multiple and intersecting identities and to arrive at a collective interpretation. Through the autoethnographic method, Jones argues that intersectionality of identity was researched and presented in a more genuine voice navigating both oppression and privilege.
Relevance:
Complex formation of identity, layers that one must navigate to see somebody’s true identity
Different way of exploring identity based on perceivable difference and oppression
Quotes:
“Intersectionality provides a a heuristic for exploring the relationships between identity categories and individual differences and larger social systems of inequality and thus illuminates the complexities of the lived experience.”
“Bringing together intersectionality, which necessarily situates identity within larger structures of power and privilege, with self-authorship and its emphasis on holistic development, provides a new theoretical lens to explore developmental understandings of the multiple dimensions of identity.” (289)
“The goal of these conversations was to illuminate the particularities and commonalities across individual perceptions of multiple and intersecting identities and to arrive at a collective interpretation.” (291)
“We found it easier to name our oppressed/marginalized identities, but it also became clear that self-definitions cannot really be considered outside structures of power and privilege and the dynamic interplay between dominant and oppressed identities.” (296)
“Far from fixed and stable, the process of identity construction was consistently described in both contested and fluid terms as the dynamic interplay of managing the perceptions of others and negotiating one’s own sense of self.” (298)
“Individuals from more privileged identities (e.g., White) are able to more closely connect to the internal process of negotiating their social identities and sense of self, whereas participants of colour were expressing the need to manage the perceptions of others–presumably because of how they are treated by others and the realities of the external contexts they must negotiate.” (299)