“Consent Is F#@king Required”: Hashtag Feminism Surrounding Sexual Consent in a Culture of Postfeminist Contradictions

Hashtag feminism exists in a time of postfeminist contradictions marked by the simultaneous existence of popular feminism and popular misogyny. In one such contradiction, popular feminism has led women to expect the successful negotiation of sexual consent, while popular misogyny permits the circulation of traditional sexual scripts that disregard the necessity of consent. In this study, we analyze messages conveyed through digitized narratives of sexual consent posted on Tumblr, a social media site that is popular among feminist activists, to identify the ways that users construct meaning around the dissonance between expectations for consent and the inequalities that inhibit its negotiation. We specifically explore whether hashtag feminism navigates postfeminist contradictions in a way that simultaneously calls out misogyny and calls on feminism. We find that the Tumblr posts in our sample did both, albeit in a manner that failed to offer tangible solutions to the problem at hand. Calls on feminism were largely limited to tagging feminist allies and recirculating existing feminist campaigns. Thus, we argue that the hashtag ultimately became a handoff to a larger feminist abstraction. Future research should explore conditions under which activists link tangible issues, actors, and agendas to an otherwise abstract popular feminism.

Forced Empowerment and the Paradox of Mobile Dating Apps

New women-focused mobile dating apps purport to empower women by having them “make the first move” and disrupt traditional male-dominated dating norms. Drawing on feminist approaches and technological affordances, we examine how heterosexual cisgender women and men experience this “empowerment” and contrast it to other mobile dating app use. We used a multimethod approach to conducting app walkthroughs, focus groups, and interviews to contrast the mobile dating apps, Tinder and Bumble. The findings reveal that perceptions of free choice and action determine empowerment experiences. Our study reveals that the “forced empowerment” on Bumble was still strongly shaped by heterosexual gender norms that encouraged “good” girls and guys to use the app to look for long-term relationships but continue to use Tinder to hook up, despite the popular misogyny on Tinder identified by both men and women in our study. We conclude by discussing the empowerment paradox of dating apps through popular feminism and misogyny.

The problems with feminist nostalgia: Intersectionality and white popular feminism

Contemporary feminisms are ineluctably drawn into comparisons with historic discourses, forms of praxis and tactical repertoires. While this can underscore points of continuity and commonality in ongoing struggles, it can also result in nostalgia for a more unified and purposeful feminist politics. Kate Eichhorn argues that our interest in nostalgia should be to understand feminist temporalities, and in particular the specific context in which we experience such nostalgia. Accordingly, this article takes up the idea that neoliberalism and populism, which have given rise to both neoliberal feminism and femonationalism, have produced a series of contestations regarding the purpose and nature of feminist politics, as expressed by white popular feminism in the United Kingdom. This article examines two dimensions of feminist nostalgia: first, nostalgia for a more radical form of feminist politics – one not co-opted by neoliberal forces, not individualistic and not centred around online activism; and second, a nostalgia for the idea of ‘sisterhood’ – a time before white feminists were called upon to engage with intersectionality or be inclusive of trans-women. We analyse these themes through analysis of white popular feminism produced in the United Kingdom between 2010 and 2020, cautioning against a feminist nostalgia which neglects to engage with the radical politics of intersectionality.

Asociación de Mujeres Afro por la Paz: Feminism with the Body and Face of a Woman

The Asociación de Mujeres Afro por la Paz (Association of Afro Women for Peace—AFROMUPAZ) is an organization of displaced Afro-Colombian women now based in Bogotá. The organization represents a differential brand of feminism in the face of historical and ongoing violence and provides community, support, and employment opportunities for dozens of women and their families. Its “feminism with a woman’s body and face” is part of the landscape of popular feminism in the region, but its specific social location and its actions cannot be understood without a deliberate and critical understanding of race. La Asociación de Mujeres Afro por la Paz (AFROMUPAZ) es una organización de mujeres afrocolombianas desplazadas ahora radicadas en Bogotá. La organización representa un tipo distinto de feminismo frente a la violencia histórica y continua, y ofrece oportunidades comunitarias, de apoyo y de empleo para decenas de mujeres y sus familias. Su “feminismo en cuerpo y cara de mujer” es parte del panorama del feminismo popular en la región, pero la comprensión de su ubicación social específica y acciones requiere de un acercamiento deliberado y crítico de la cuestión racial.

YouTubers between postfeminism and popular feminism: Dulceida’s and Yellow Mellow’s construction and performance of gender identity

Participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006) has opened up the possibility of prosumption for the youngest users, who use social media as a tool for building their (gender) identities. At the same time, as part of a juvenile digital culture they share with their audiences, influencers, and more specifically YouTubers, they act as role models in this process. While YouTube and other social media continue to reproduce the post-feminist sensibility, recent studies indicate that it also embraces manifestations of popular feminism. This research focuses on two popular female Spanish YouTubers, Dulceida and Yellow Mellow, and its aim is to analyse how they build and represent their gender identity. Particular emphasis is put on the negotiation and/or integration of feminist precepts into those identities, in order to determine whether they contribute to the creation of new gender imaginaries. A qualitative methodology, which includes four models of analysis, is used to cover the representations from the audio-visual, socio-semiotic and textual aspects. The results show a certain ambivalence regarding gender, since popular feminism and queer theory coexist with postfeminism, and values such as diversity with the acritical acceptance of individualism.

Popular Feminism: Considering a Concept in Feminist Politics and Theory

An analysis of popular feminism as a category in Latin American feminist studies from its origins in the 1980s and its disappearance in the 1990s to its resurgence in the present through the protagonism of the World March of Women, asks what is at stake in this contemporary claim to popular feminism in relation to the multiplication of feminisms. The contemporary use of the concept specifies a feminist praxis that is contentious, materialist, and counterhegemonic in permanently unsettled relations both with other feminisms and mixed-gender movements on the left. Despite converging agendas for redistribution, it also remains in considerable tension with black and indigenous feminisms. As a racially unmarked category, contemporary popular feminism continues to reproduce an elision of race and colonialism common to mestiza feminism and the political left. Un análisis del feminismo popular como categoría en los estudios feministas latinoamericanos, desde sus orígenes en la década de 1980 y su desaparición en la década de 1990 hasta su actual resurgimiento a través del protagonismo de la Marcha Mundial de la Mujer nos lleva a preguntarnos qué está en juego en esta reivindicación contemporánea del feminismo popular cuando lo consideramos en relación a la actual multiplicación de feminismos. El uso contemporáneo del concepto especifica una praxis feminista que es polémica, materialista y contrahegemónica dentro del marco de relaciones permanentemente inestables, tanto con otros feminismos como con movimientos izquierdistas de género mixto. A pesar de las agendas convergentes de redistribución, también mantiene una tensión considerable con los feminismos negros e indígenas. Como categoría racialmente inespecífica, el feminismo popular contemporáneo mantiene sus elisiones de raza y colonialismo, asunto característico del feminismo mestizo, así como de la izquierda política.

Racialized Popular Feminism: A Decolonial Analysis of Women’s Struggle with Police Violence in Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas

The action of the women of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas to avoid, prevent, counter, and denounce police violence, both infrapolitically and in the public transcript, are associated with the rise of a political consciousness that is gendered and racialized in the context of the genocide of Brazil’s black population. Their resistance, rooted in “Amefricanidade” and the lingering coloniality of gender, is best described as characterized by an intersectional consciousness of injustice. A ação das mulheres das favelas do Rio de Janeiro para impedir, prevenir, combater e denunciar a violência policial, tanto na infrapolítica quanto na esfera pública, está relacionada ao surgimento de uma consciência política de gênero e também a racialização em um contexto de genocídio da população negra no Brasil. Sua resistência, arraigada na “Amefricanidade” e na persistente colonialidade de gênero, é mais bem descrita e categorizada como consciência interseccional de injustiça.

Feminist Solidarities and Coalitional Identity: The Popular Feminism of the Marcha das Margaridas

The Marcha das Margaridas is a mass mobilization in Brazil led by women’s organizations within rural unions in alliance with other social movements and nongovernmental organizations, including transnational partners such as the World March of Women. The main political subjects are rural working women, a political identity that articulates gender, class, and urban-rural inequalities. These are foundational for the popular feminism of the Marcha. An examination of the Marcha das Margaridas guided by a theoretical discussion of poststructural feminism and postcolonial feminism on the role of political identities in building coalitions reveals that it expands the agenda of popular feminism in its relationship to historical feminist agendas and intersectional feminisms and in its coalition politics with men and the left. A Marcha das Margaridas é uma mobilização de massa no Brasil liderada por organismos de mulheres dentro de sindicatos rurais em aliança com outros movimentos sociais e organizações não governamentais (ONGs), incluindo parceiros transnacionais como a Marcha Mundial das Mulheres. Os principais sujeitos políticos são as mulheres trabalhadoras rurais, uma identidade política que articula as desigualdades de gênero, classe e urbano-rurais. Estes são fundamentais para o feminismo popular da Marcha. Um estudo da Marcha das Margaridas guiado por uma discussão teórica do feminismo pós-estrutural e do feminismo pós-colonial sobre o papel das identidades políticas na construção de coalizões revela que ela expande a agenda do feminismo popular em sua relação com agendas feministas históricas e feminismos intersetoriais, como também em sua coalizão política com os homens e a esquerda.