April 9, 3pm-5pm, St Salvator’s Quad, School II

The Lecture will be followed by a wine reception in Edgecliffe.

Title: Commodification and the Economics of Feminist Activism

Abstract: The resurgence of feminist activism in recent years has been accompanied by the emergence of feminist commodities, some by small feminist businesses, others mass-marketed by chains, some sold purely for profit, others attached to donations to feminist and other social justice causes. This entails two shifts in feminist activism: first, the increasing reliance on charitable giving through commodity consumption as a means of feminist political action and second, the transfer of the work of feminist activism from movements to enterprises. This paper examines the implications of such feminist practices by juxtaposing them with past instances of feminist activism engaged with the commodities. Selling things has been a part of funding feminist activism since the women’s suffrage movement. During the second wave, feminists likewise had to make various compromises or take political risks in order to secure funding for activism. I examine the parallels between contemporary and past economic modes of feminist activism, and in so doing analyse how the intensified turn to commodification and the enterprise form change the politics of feminism itself.

Joint event with the St Andrews Institute for Gender Studies. For more info go here: https://staigs.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/event/second-annual-st-andrews-institute-for-gender-studies-lecture/