Sister Outsider is a groundbreaking essential contribution to Black feminism, Postcolonial feminism, gay and lesbian studies, critical psychology,[23] black queer studies, African American studies, and feminist thought at large.[1][2][24] The canonical work has been cited by renowned scholars like Patricia Hill Collins,[1] Donna Haraway,[25] and Sara Ahmed.[2][26] The publication was met with overall "resounding praise".[27] A reviewer for Publishers Weekly referred to the work as "an eye-opener".[27] American author Barbara Christian called the collection, "another indication of the depth of analysis that black women writers are contributing to feminist thought."[28] From this work, Lorde is said to have created a new critical social theory that understands oppressions as overlapping and interlocking, informed from her position as an outsider. She presented her arguments in an accessible manner that provided readers with the language to articulate differences and the complex nature of oppression.[23] American professor and theorist Roderick Ferguson cites Sister Outsider as a critical influence in his book, Aberrations in Black, in which he coins the term Queer of Color Critique.[29]
Sister Outsider received a critical reception, as well, as the collection challenges readers' unacknowledged privileges and complicity in oppression.[30] Negative reviewers tended to focus on how Sister Outsider caused them discomfort with confronting their guilt as individuals whose identities occupy dominant positions within the United States, specifically through whiteness, maleness, youth, thinness, heterosexuality, Christianity, and financial security.[30] While some reviewers claimed that the work is hard to identify with if they are not similar to Lorde,[30] others refute this, claiming that Lorde uses a "flexible model of subject positioning" that allows readers of various backgrounds to determine points of similarity and difference, challenging their standard notions of selfhood and subjectivity.[14]
In The Man Question, Kathy Ferguson questions Lorde's employment of what she defines as "Cosmic Feminism", a feminism that relies on a feminine primitivism and values feelings that are more intense and seemingly deep-rooted.[31][32]
