One last thought about class

I think Aditya left us with a great closing statement today on the inadequacies of individual models to describe the lived experiences of multiple forms of oppression; however, I wanted to briefly comment on the qualitative/quantitative debate we had circulated. I feel that while we may concede that a poor, homosexual woman will experiences more instances (in sheer number) of oppression than say a middle-class heterosexual woman, that is just not enough to describe the reality of oppression for that woman. Instead, I think Spelman and Crenshaw encourage us to not only look at the quantity of oppressive acts, but also on the quality of them both individually and in tandem. I think Schaeffer is right in that we can assume that individuals and groups in more oppressive categories experience "more" (instances of) oppression, but without looking at how the instances overlap and interact with each other qualitatively we miss a big part of understanding that person's (or group's) oppression. Thus the study of oppression of marginalized or largely forgotten groups requires both a quantitative and qualitative study.