Queer Ecologies



Towards a Cosmic Model of Intersectionality

What physical models and/or scientific analogies can we appropriate to better understand Intersectionality?

By this I mean–are there more robust models for conceiving Intersectionality that exceed the parameters of longitude and latitude that so often dominate discourses of Intersectionality? It seems to me that the first step is to throw away a 2-dimensional conception of intersectionality–to instead add that crucial Z-Axis that gives Intersectionality–and life itself–profound depth.

Not all intersections are created equal, and intersections themselves interact and affect each other, each of them with an individual weight that–just as it does on a cosmic scale–carries gravity, and it is this force which is responsible metaphorically for the dynamic and interactive nature of intersecting identities and various other structures of affinity that have become crucial to identity formation in the twenty-first century.

Justin Lutz, “Towards a Cosmic Model of Intersectionality”, 2013