CALLING ALL FEMINISTS: The Urgency for Intersectional Truths in Science
Imagine how obscure it would be to know that the very history books that we give our children are in fact biased and tainted with colonization. Would you be surprised? If your answer to this question was yes, then wake up. Without fail in each and every generation, the subaltern is silenced. Since the beginning of conceptualization and theory, popular stories and philosophical ideas have been taught from a very specific standpoint: That of men, more specifically those of Western European descent. Time and time again, history exemplifies the importance of the male perspective. Now I am calling to all you feminists: Let history from here on out be told from both collective and individual experiences. Let our goal be to gain understanding of people from various genders, classes, identities, cultures and origins. By accepting the idea that the world is formed from millions of voices rather than one very large and powerful one, female epistemology brings to light the truths of intersectionality; that of acceptance, empathy and a wider variation of knowledge.
The first time I ever began to question the validity of truths was when I was a freshman in college, already eighteen years old. I understood that the world “was the way it was”, but only because someone before me had decided that. Instead of accepting this, I related to the idea that the fundamental basis of truths have a role in perpetuating the realities of not so covert inequalities. Traditional ways of understanding the world quickly became visible, but mostly because I saw them for exactly what they were: Biased. The popular scientific method of asking a question, doing research and forming outputs is a great way of collecting viable information. However, knowledge as a whole is biased because of the fact that the only main contributors to these said sciences come from a privileged standpoint in the world. We are complying to these Euro-privileged truths by accepting modern science as common knowledge. As common truths.
I challenge you now to stand up and fight against this systematic oppression. To rise above what you are told and to beg the harder questions, such as “Why?”, “How?” and “Who says?”
Science and history are tools used by the master to control oppressed groups and silence the vast opinions of those his wrath destroys. The consequences of dissemination not only harm groups excluded by tradition knowledge, but also hurt the oppressors themselves. When only one form of knowledge is spread, human beings fall short of gaining better understandings of themselves and the relationships they are both inevitably and actively a part of. Female epistemology turns traditional science on its head and questions the oddity of its foundations by opening up the conversation of knowledge across the spectrum. Traditional knowledge is exclusive, oppressive and detrimental to the majority who are not able to fit into the narrow categories of dominant male figures.
Feminist perspective’s stance on intersectionality begins to answer the question and form a response to the urgency for specific philosophy through a feminist lense. Because of female epistemology, feminist philosophers refuse to accept the male perspective as the only truth, and instead challenge the very institutions that oppression was built on. Traditional ways of knowing continue to exclude, whereas feminist epistemology finds a space for everybody’s story through intersectional knowledge. Female epistemology shatters the newfound glass ceiling of knowledge, and destruction of social binaries.
In most educational contexts I have come across, the story has mostly been narrated by a privileged man deemed knowledgeable enough to influence truths. We can not take away from knowledgeable male philosophers simply because they are male, but instead must wonder where they were in the world when their truths were discovered. The approach of intersectionality expands our ability to understand the social world by broadening our understanding of humankind through a wider scope. It is not the time to continue our silence, our acceptance and our silent heartaches. It is time to be inclusive, empathetic and knowledgeable about the wider scope of humanity that refuses to be silent as a consequence of colonization.
