Feminism, Resistance, Violence

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

The panel addresses the ambiguous role of violence in feminist resistance struggles. Can the use of violence be justified in the service of abolishing patriarchy? This challenging question remains neglected in much of feminist thought. Indeed, feminism is often associated with a pacifist critique of violence or tends to cast women primarily into the role of victims rather than agents of violence. Recently, however, these simplistic associations came under sustained attack from within feminist theory. This panel contributes to this momentum. It draws on feminist theory as a rich resource to rethink the complex and contested role of violence in resistance and inquire into the grey, messy, and potentially violent reality of struggles against patriarchy. The contributors explore the ambiguities of violence in various historical contexts and forms of feminist resistance, from the second-wave feminist movement to recent intersectional forms of struggle, contestation, and refusal.

Sub Unit

• Division 2: Foundations of Political Theory

Individual Presentations

• Theorizing Feminist Civil Disobedience with Black Lives Matter - Jennet Kirkpatrick, Arizona State University; Masa Mrovlje, University of Leeds

• Legible Resistance: Feminism, Vulnerability, and Violence - Menaka M Philips, University of Toronto

• The Reciprocity of Violence in Simone de Beauvoir’s Thought - Rose Owen, The New School

• Funa: Feminist Disobedience? - Melany Cruz, University of Leicester

• Feminist Freedom, Violent Resistance, and Responsibility - Tal Correm, New York University

Chair

• Masa Mrovlje University of Leeds

Discussants

• Nazli Konya Colby College

• Rinku Lamba National Law School of India University