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Lesson 3.4: Intersectional Inequalities and Uneven Impacts

Site: OpenLearn Create
Course: Solidarity and Struggle: Resisting Anti-Gender Politics
Book: Lesson 3.4: Intersectional Inequalities and Uneven Impacts
Printed by: Guest user
Date: Friday, 21 August 2026, 8:56 PM

Description

This lesson analyses how intersecting inequalities intensify vulnerability to ‘anti-gender’ mobilisation. Drawing on intersectionality as both an analytic category and a practical approach, we show how race, migration status, class/economic status, disability, and legal precarity shape exposure to violence and access to safety. It also highlights intersectional forms of resilience and care that arise in response to ‘anti-gender’ violence.

Table of contents

1. Intro

2. The Intersectional experiences of harm

3. Borders, legal precarity, and xenophobia

Migration status also shapes exposure to harm. Asylum and immigration systems often rely on ‘credibility tests’ that force people to perform gender and sexuality according to Western norms; those who do not conform face disbelief or deportation.  
  Legal insecurity, such as unstable visas, restricted travel, dependency on sponsors - all limit participation in activism and advocacy. Those most affected by repression often become the least visible in transnational spaces.
For queer Belarusians in exile, ‘anti-gender’ hostility in host countries merges with xenophobia: stigmatised both as ‘sexual deviants’ and as ‘unwanted migrants.’ Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian-speaking Belarusians reported being discriminated against in a two-fold way — for being queer and for being associated with an aggressor state.  
  The examples below show how border regimes and ‘anti-gender’ politics reinforce one another, turning legal insecurity into emotional and social marginalisation. As you watch them, please reflect: How does migration status shape whose stories of gender and sexuality are recognised as ‘credible’? 

LGBTQIA+ refugees need support

Video about forced displacement because of sexual orientation and gender identity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIAHGZ36JkM

 

4. Reflection & exercise


  

Mapping lived experiences 
and intersectional positioning

In this activity, you will use the ReliefMaps+ tool to reflect on how your experiences of comfort, safety, or unease vary across different everyday spaces, and how these experiences are shaped by intersecting aspects of your social position.

Rather than focusing on a single identity, this exercise invites you to think about how gender, sexuality, race, age, class, disability, migration status, or other factors interact with specific places in your daily life.

https://reliefmaps.upf.edu

How the activity works

You will be asked to think about familiar places, such as:

  • your home
  • your workplace or place of study
  • public spaces (streets, transport, institutions)
  • leisure or community spaces

For each place, you can:

  • indicate your level of comfort or discomfort by moving a point up or down
  • select emotions that best describe how you feel in that space
  • add written reflections if you wish

The tool allows you to consider multiple axes of inequality at once, helping to visualise how experiences shift depending on context.

Purpose of the exercise

The goal is not to produce data or correct answers, but to support reflection on:

  • how everyday spaces are experienced differently by different people
  • how power relations become visible (or invisible) in ordinary settings
  • how media narratives, public debates, or political discourses may shape feelings of safety, belonging, or exclusion

This activity connects to the session’s focus on the lived and affective effects of ‘anti-gender’ politics, showing how abstract debates translate into embodied experiences.

Care and consent

Reflecting on difficult places or experiences may bring up uncomfortable emotions. Please remember:

  • you can pause, stop, or leave the activity at any time
  • you do not need to complete or submit anything
  • no personal information is required

The information you enter will not be stored or used for research. If you do not click ‘Finish’, nothing will be saved.

Optional reflection questions

After completing the activity, you may want to reflect on the following:

  • Which places felt most comfortable or uncomfortable — and why?
  • Did different aspects of your social position matter more in some places than others?
  • How might public discourse or media narratives influence how certain spaces feel safe or unsafe