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In Gloria Anzaldua’s essay “La Conciencia de la Mestiza: Toward a New Consciousness,� Anzaldua elaborates on how race, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality are interlinked in the structure of oppression. As a Chicana lesbian, Anzaldua identifies with what she considers the borderlands consciousness. Her use of the term borderlands is figurative. In reality, a borderland is a physical region between two separate places. In her case Anzaldua refers to the borderlands between the United States and Mexico, as she is Chicana—both Mexican and American. Therefore, the borderlands consciousness is that which exists in between two cultures: both cultures yet neither. A “hybrid� of the two, constantly juggling and adapting to fit the norm.

From Anzaldua’s perspective we can study gender and power from a different perspective. We cannot take solely gender into account, as race, culture, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality are all intersected with gender. Oppression based on these five elements can and does occur within genders. Within the +5 system, each +1 that one does not meet is one less way in which they hold power.

Similarly, Audre Lorde explains similar obstacles in her article “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference.� As a black, Socialist lesbian, Lorde is also caught at an intersection. This intersectionality is the consciousness she experiences. Lorde states, “…white women focus upon their oppression as women and ignore differences of race, sexual preference, class, and age.� Thus, any woman or feminist straying from a +4 in the +5 system cannot fully partake in the fight for women’s rights.

As displayed in the short entry, Anzaldua and Lorde share similar perspectives. Both express that the relationship between gender and power is also impacted by race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. Both live on the outskirts, at a crossroads. In order to understand gender and power, we must first understand other characteristics such as those listed above that are oftentimes excluded.