Social identities empower even when shaped by oppressive power relations.

Evidence

Nor can the social identity of woman be seen, any more than social life generally, as merely a source of restriction and limitation, calling forth only disruption, parody and destabilisation as appropriate responses (Grimshaw 1986:141). Social identities are also sources of empowerment and connection, of stability and continuity, which make it possible to draw on and contribute to wide social sources of meaning and practice. They are, to be sure, never unproblematic given the power relations which shape social identities generally and traditional gender identities in particular. But they are capable of liberatory or subversive reconstruction without total demolition and abandonment. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 251

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the reading purpose: identity-as-empowerment mirrors the eco-justice thread that subordinated epistemologies (women, indigenous peoples) are strengths despite colonising shaping. — connects to: Gender content is not exhausted by the powerlessness that shaped it. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 258; Identity construction of self and other is a political contest over power — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 838; Resistance to oppression also creates social categories of difference (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Adopting a derogatory label as one’s own identity can transform oppression. #exemplifies (0.90) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 694
• Resistance to oppression also creates social categories of difference #corroborates (0.85)
• Identity’s political meaning derives from domination structures, not attachments themselves #complicates (0.80) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 2145
• Identity arises from action and struggle rather than preceding politics #expands (0.78) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 121
• Identity construction of self and other is a political contest over power #expands (0.75) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 838