positionality
positionality noun: the quality of being positional.
Noun
positionality (countable and uncountable, plural positionalities)
- The quality of being positional.
- The social context one inhabits that shapes and defines a person's identity and perspective.
- In the post-civil rights era, some white men have adopted a marginalized positionality in an effort to reclaim the tacit social privileges of being white, heterosexual and male.2007, Sean Brayton, “MTV's Jackass: Transgression, Abjection and the Economy of White Masculinity”, in Journal of Gender Studies, volume 16, page 58
- Many of my liberal friends and acquaintances now seem to believe that being a good person means constantly reminding Black people that you are aware of their Blackness. Difference, no longer to be politely ignored, is insisted upon at all times under the guise of acknowledging “positionality.”2023 August 14, Tyler Austin Harper, “I’m a Black Professor. You Don’t Need to Bring That Up.”, in The Atlantic
Forms of positionality
| plural | positionalities |
|---|
Origin of positionality
From positional + -ity.
Words formed from positionality
Questions about positionality
- What does positionality mean?
- Positionality means the quality of being positional.
- What part of speech is positionality?
- Positionality is a noun.
- What is the plural of positionality?
- The plural of positionality is positionalities.
Words near positionality in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: positionality (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “positionality.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/positionality. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
