Caveat Lector: This is my personal attempt to construct a Canon of Intersectionality. Due to intersectionality’s inherent hybridity, fluidity, and ambiguity, this canon shouldn’t be considered comprehensive, authoritative, or definitive. It is a beginning of something that probably won’t have a final ending either. Part of canon-building is historical rediscovery / reclamation / reconsideration. With that said, these canonical figures should also be considered with a rather large grain of salt. One of the facets explored in this essay was mental illness.

This has been complicated by the psychiatric community’s complicity in aiding in the criminalization of homosexuality. Homosexuality wasn’t de-listed as a mental illness until the 1970s and homosexuality wasn’t decriminalized (at least in the United States) until very recently. It still remains a crime with harsh penalties in many parts of the world. Google the influence and funding of “Kill the Gays” laws in Africa by American conservative Christian groups. This colonialist meddling by conservative Christianity remains strong and influential at present and should be considered a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States. It is, simply put, moral, political, and legislative terrorism. Any claims of victimhood by these groups should be considered disinformation and blatantly false. Be vigilant and stay on guard from such rhetorical poison and culture-killing monstrosities.

While this singling out of conservative Christianity as responsible for all the world’s ills and misfortunes may seem harsh, one should remember – in a darkly ironic twist of intersectionality – that the bigotries cultivated by the poisonous rhetoric of conservative Christianity also transcends race and class. One can still be a venomous bigot while simultaneously being a member of a persecuted ethnic or social group. In the end, one gets exhausted from the endless excuse-mongering and the hollow utterance of “… but I’m a good person.” One has to be a good person, not merely identify as one. Being a conservative Christian doesn’t make someone good by default. No one is good by default. Being good comes from acting good. Everyone, including myself, have their own failings, biases, and personal weaknesses. Being a good person is hard to do, but so are a lot of things. Yet one can strive to be good, but in that constant struggle and challenge to be good, one achieves a rewarding existence. When a conservative Christian blabs uses the empty phrase “… but I’m a good person,” it sounds a lot like the phrase “… but I was just following orders” after the commission of a war crime or similar atrocity. So to wrap up this insufferable digression, let me just say: Don’t be good,do good.

Finally, due to the presence of historical figures on this list, the inclusion of certain aspects, especially relating to the concepts of mental illness, homosexuality, and race, should be considered speculative, tenuous, and contingent. Figures like the Marquis de Sade and William Blake had uniquely fascinating perspectives about the world, but associating mental illness with either is purely speculative and not a diagnosis. Where is the line demarcating individual eccentricity and mental illness? Is there one? Or is the concept of “mental normality” purely a product of an ideological-political-cultural consensus?

I am not a medical professional or a mental health professional. The consequences of placing a literary genius in a medicalized and sexualized context is a risky proposition. Hence the asterisks by the names. Again, this canon is my own. If you have issues with this, take it up in the comments and/or build your own canon.

A(n) (Incomplete) Canon of Intersectionality

• Homer* (blind)
• John Milton* (blind)
• Langston Hughes (black, gay)
• Countee Cullen (black, gay)
• Robert Duncan (gay, disabled [vision-related])
• Stephen Jonas (black, gay, mental illness)
• Antonin Artaud* (mentally ill [?])
• Paul Celan (mental illness)
• John Milton (disabled [blind])
• Aldous Huxley (disabled [blind])
• Henry Darger* (mental illness [?])
• Henry James* (gay, disabled [from an accident?])
• William Blake* (“unsane”)
• The Marquis de Sade* (omnisexual, “unsane”)

I’m absolutely sure there are more individuals that can be added to this list. Suggestions / edits? Let me know in the comments.