race

Control of historical narrative, of how the past is recorded, gives way to legitimacy and recognition. For women, to tell their own stories is a powerful action that attempts to reclaim subjecthood in the face of sexual oppression, and it is therefore of central importance to the cause of feminism that the lives of women are not merely dictated and described by oppressors. As women’s own accounts of their histories gain recognition as valid modes of historical work and ways of telling the past, deviation from traditional (read: male-dominated and male-employed) methods gives us new ways of reckoning with the marginalization of women that more effectively translate that experience, a decidedly feminist project.

How does form inform our reading of texts as successfully feminist? (I am aware of my own biases in the meaning of “success,” but for the purposes of this exercise, I will define success as elliciting a response in those who engage with the material that incites emotion of some kind, in this case an emotional response that leads us to seek to support feminism). Typically feminsts forms have included poetry and literature, but these forms are somewhat tied to conceptions of women as delicate and admirers of that which is flowing, flowering, beautiful. Other options include co-opting the form of the patriarchal institutions which reinforce sexual hierarchies, such as academic work and dense theory couched in even denser language. This kind of feminism is far from accessible and has a specific class (and typically race) bias.