bibliogramma | Essays: Feminist Erasures (Reply)

In Feminist Erasures: Challenging Backlash Culture, editors Kumarini Silva and Kaitlynn Mendes have collected essays from a range of feminist scholars aimed at addressing - and countering - the growing belief in North America and the United Kingdom that we are living in a 'post-feminist' society, where the goals of feminism have been achieved and the movement is no longer needed. It is true that I - and many other feminists - would agree that feminism needs to change, to become a movement that recognises intersectionality and decentres the specific experiences of white women, in order to become a meaningful movement that addresses the needs of all women. Nonetheless, it has become painfully obvious in the past year, under the presidency of Trump, that sexism, like racism, is alive, well, and making a serious comeback in the public discourse arena - and that neither has ever been absent in the lives of people of colour and white women.

In their Introduction, Silva and Mendes talk about feminist erasure and an apathetic approach to feminism that threaten the gains made to date, and the potential of future gains.

"For us, what is at stake is the erasure of feminism as a completed project before its work is done. That the current circulation of postfeminist discourses, in both popular and political culture, creates a sense of ‘after’ that we, among other feminist scholars ..., feel is inaccurate. The apathetic approach to understanding the importance of feminism and its genea- logical history makes us immune to the systemic backlash against women that has become part of everyday culture. Here, let us take a moment to explain what we mean by an apathetic approach to feminism: for us, it’s a condition where the progress made by feminists and women’s rights movements, on a global level, are presented as a fait accompli and any ongoing activism or commitment to feminism is seen as outmoded and unnecessary. It is the simple belief that ‘women have arrived’ in spite of significant evidence to the contrary. This contrary evidence can be seen in the continued use of sexualized imagery and violence against women to sell products, in the legislative practices that are routinely enacted which negatively affect women’s health benefits, the continued double- burden that is placed on women who work both within and outside the home, the continued debates around welfare mothers and the general judgment placed on single mothers, just to name a few. In spite of these realities, women are continuously and relentlessly encouraged to believe that there is nothing more to be done. That women’s liberation has arrived and triumphed. But, as the chapters in this anthology suggest, such a declaration is not only inaccurate, it can also have significant drawbacks for continued activism and engagement with issues of gender, class, race, and sexuality that are much needed in contemporary culture."

The collected essays address a broad range of issues. Beginning from their personal contexts as scholars and feminists, the editors open the volume with a selection of essays addressing feminist issues in academe, from becoming a feminist scholar and in turn teaching feminism to conducting research within the modern academy and developing feminist methodologies. Subsequent sections look at the implications of postfeminist assumptions and the erasure of feminist history and analysis in discourse on popular culture, the relationship of femininity, motherhood and the workplace, and activism.

Identifying the overall impact of these very disparate essays and topics takes some contemplation, but my takeaway is that postfeminism creates certain dangers. It erases not only the recognition that there remains much work to be done, but also the history if what has been done and how that connects to present issues facing women. Without feminism, there is no fabric to connect isolated concerns, no awareness of systemic conditions which produce multiple points where resistance and change are needed - and thus no basis for co-ordinating resistance and creating alliances. Postfeminism is here revealed as a trap, a way of undoing the solidarity and structural understanding that supports collective and revolutionary action.