{"id":654,"date":"2017-06-12T12:02:04","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T11:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crab.port.ac.uk\/?p=654"},"modified":"2017-06-12T12:02:04","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T11:02:04","slug":"feminism-racial-neoliberalism-co-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crab.port.ac.uk\/?p=654","title":{"rendered":"Feminism, co-option and (racial) neoliberalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Terese Jonsson<\/em><\/p>\n

At a recent event organised by the Women\u2019s and Gender Studies research cluster at the University of Portsmouth, titled \u2018Feminisms, anti-racism, social justice: Theories and strategies for our times\u2019<\/a>, the topic of feminism\u2019s co-option by capitalist and racist forces was much discussed. The co-option of feminist language and politics by a variety of nefarious forces is a recurrent topic of feminist concern, with some of the most common culprits identified as capitalism\/neoliberalism, racism, imperialism. For example, Nancy Fraser\u2019s<\/a> and Angela McRobbie\u2019s<\/a> analysis of the neoliberal co-option of feminist language and politics in the service of the market are two well-known and influential critiques. In relation to imperialism, Western states\u2019 cynical use of \u2018women\u2019s rights\u2019 as justification for military invasion<\/a> has been much discussed. Similarly, far-right groups\u2019 uptake of a language of \u2018women\u2019s rights\u2019 to demonise Muslim and migrant men is has been described as \u2018theft of feminist rhetoric<\/a>\u2019 in the service of racism.<\/p>\n

As the language of \u2018theft\u2019 implies, within these framings, a \u2018genuine\u2019 feminism is often positioned as something of an innocent victim (with the exception of Fraser\u2019s argument, which does place some blame on feminists themselves for losing their socialist focus – although note Brenna Bhandar and Denise Ferreira da Silva<\/a>\u2019s critique of Fraser\u2019s erasure of the work of Black and Third World feminists). These framings often suggest there is some more authentic feminism which remains entirely outside of discourses of imperialist capitalism. This erases the fact that, as highlighted in a recently published conversation between Inderpal Grewal and Srila Roy<\/a> (2017), that feminist theory is not itself innocent of processes of co-option. Grewal points out that feminism has never been \u2018pure\u2019 or autonomous in the sense often evoked when its co-option is lamented. Feminist politics have a long history of entanglement with imperialism, racism, capitalism, states and transnational organisations, thus in Grewal\u2019s view, \u2018the problem we face now is how to address neoliberalism as a problem without producing that pure, prior feminist subject\u2019 (Roy, 2017: 2).<\/p>\n

To think further through Grewal\u2019s proposition in the context of feminism in Britain, it is particularly important to consider the role of racism in the complexities surrounding both feminism\u2019s co-option and its co-opting tendencies. David Goldberg\u2019s concept of \u2018racial neoliberalism<\/a>\u2019 (2009) \u2013 usefully explored by Nisha Kapoor (2013) in the British context<\/a> \u2013 is helpful here. Racial neoliberalism refers to a process of de-politicisation of race from the 1980s onwards. Kapoor notes that while the publication of the MacPherson Report<\/a> in 1999 marked a historically significant moment in naming institutional racism within the Metropolitan Police, the definition of institutional racism \u2018stemmed from a post-1945 western definition of racism that completely dissolved links between liberalism, colonialism and racism\u2019 (Kapoor, 2013: 1034). Subsequently, the rise of the \u2018community cohesion\u2019 agenda and anti-terror legislation alongside the re-structuring of equalities law, has involved, in Kapoor\u2019s words, \u2018a drastic escalation of the muting of race, which makes it near impossible to name, to identify and thus to redress racisms\u2019 (1029).<\/p>\n

In other words, \u2018racial neoliberalism\u2019 in the British context promotes an ahistorical and decontextualized understanding of racial difference which silences the fundamental link between present-day racisms and Britain\u2019s history of colonialism and transatlantic slave trading. It reduces racism to individual acts of prejudice and denies its continued structural basis. This a-historicism produces a similar narrative to the neoliberal \u2018post-feminist\u2019 discourse which suggests gender equality has been achieved and thus that feminism is no longer needed. But while there is a strong feminist critique of neoliberal co-option, a form of racial neoliberalism has also been insidiously incorporated into white-centred feminist theorising. As my research<\/a> into dominant narratives within white-centred feminist theory suggests, racism within<\/em> feminism is often described as something which may have happened in the past, but which has now been dealt with, and thus does no longer require attention.\u00a0However, as black British feminists have consistently been arguing from the 1970s to the present day \u2013 from Hazel Carby\u2019s classic \u2018White woman listen!\u2019 in The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain<\/a> <\/em>(1982) to Reni Eddo-Lodge\u2019s chapter on feminism in her just published book Why I\u2019m No Longer Talking to White People About Race<\/a><\/em> (2017) – racism within feminism is unfortunately not a problem which has been resolved.<\/p>\n

One way in which this problem is repeatedly evaded within white-centred feminist theory is through the marginalisation of Black British<\/em> feminism. As Gail Lewis has spoken about<\/a>, when white feminist academics do engage with race, they are more likely to cite American feminists of colour than British ones, thereby distancing themselves from the racial structure of the British state, and challenges to their stakes in this structure. The legacy of Britain\u2019s colonial history on gender relations (significantly centred in Black British feminist analysis) is frequently ignored by white feminists, and an innocent feminist politics is presumed to exist which is free of racism and imperialism.<\/p>\n

Our current times demonstrate clearly the need for an understanding of Britain\u2019s imperial legacy (as Nadine El-Enany evocatively phrases it, Brexit has powerfully exposed Britain\u2019s \u2018nostalgia for Empire<\/a>\u2019), in feminist politics as much as in national politics. Thus within feminist struggles against neoliberalism\u2019s co-option, racial<\/em> neoliberalism within white-centred feminist theory and politics must equally be challenged.<\/p>\n

Terese Jonsson is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Portsmouth and is currently writing a book for Pluto Press on racism and whiteness in British feminism.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Terese Jonsson At a recent event organised by the Women\u2019s and Gender Studies research cluster at the University of Portsmouth, titled \u2018Feminisms, anti-racism, social justice: Theories and strategies for our times\u2019, the topic of feminism\u2019s co-option by capitalist and racist forces was much discussed. The co-option of feminist language and politics by a variety of nefarious forces is a recurrent topic of feminist concern, with some of the most common culprits identified as capitalism\/neoliberalism, racism, imperialism. For example, Nancy Fraser\u2019s and Angela McRobbie\u2019s analysis of the neoliberal co-option of feminist language and politics in the service of the market<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[36,37,27],"class_list":["post-654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-uncategorised","tag-feminism","tag-racial-neoliberalism","tag-racism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crab.port.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/topshop-feminist-jumper-web-2.jpg?fit=2032%2C1919&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8bhxC-ay","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":615,"url":"https:\/\/crab.port.ac.uk\/?p=615","url_meta":{"origin":654,"position":0},"title":"The dangers of British fundamentalism","author":"CRaB admin","date":"12th April 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Terese Jonsson Do you know your \u2018fundamental British values\u2019? 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