What do you think?
Rate this book
A Decolonial Feminism
For too long feminism and multiculturalism have been co-opted by the forces they seek to dismantle. However, in this manifesto, Francoise Verges argues that feminists should no longer be handmaidens of capitalism, colonialism and imperialism and fight the system that created the boss, built the prisons and polices women's bodies. Attuned to the temporalities of contemporary struggles, the book incorporates issues such as Eurocentrism, whiteness, power, inclusion and exclusion, within feminist discourse. Throughout we touch upon feminist and anti-racist histories, as well as assessing contemporary activism, including #MeToo and the Women's Strike. Centring colonialism and imperialism within intersectional Marxism, this is an urgent demand to free ourselves from the capitalist, imperialist forces that oppress us.
110 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 2019
About the author
Françoise Vergès
45 books89 followersFrançoise Vergès (born 23 January 1952) is a French political scientist, historian, film producer, independent curator, activist and public educator. Her work focuses on postcolonial studies and decolonial feminism.
Vergès was born in Paris, grew up in Réunion and Algeria, before returning to Paris to study and become a journalist. She moved to the US in 1983, studying at the University of California, San Diego and Berkeley.
Vergès was born in Paris, grew up in Réunion and Algeria, before returning to Paris to study and become a journalist. She moved to the US in 1983, studying at the University of California, San Diego and Berkeley.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 228 reviews
October 9, 2023
„Kolonijalnost je ta koja uspostavlja politiku potrošnih života, ljudi kao otpada – humans as waste.” (31)
Strastveno napisana, inteligentna knjiga, koja se vatreno obračunava sa nepravdama, pokrećući prekopotrebne korekcije u okvirima samog feminizma. Autorka, štaviše, prilično kolebljivo upotrebljava taj termin i to prvenstveno zbog toga šta je sve, decenijama unazad, primao u sebe; mnoge feministkinje, umesto da se bave nečim suštinski emancipatorskim, podležu lukavstvima neoliberalnog kapitalizma i evrocentrizma, koji ih grle i tetoše. A kakva je to borba za jednakost ako su neki jednakiji od drugih, ako se naš udobni život zasniva na ekspolataciji miliona ljudi, čiji životi bivaju potpuno podređeni funkciji kretanja globalnog kapitala i to prvenstveno onoga što Veržes naziva globalnim Severom, koji bez i dalje vrlo živog iskorišćavanja globalnog Juga ne bi mogao opstati. Kolonijalizam, jasno je, nije završen, on je samo dobio drukčiju formu, a to što Francuska i dalje radi Africi van svake je pameti! Kao što je duboko pogrešno, a što je takođe sjajno istaknuto u knjizi, da se ženama uporno prodaje priča da će biti samostalne i ravnopravne ukoliko pristanu na određeni tip poslova, pogotovo onih koji se tiču usluga i to prvenstveno usluga i negovanja. S tim u vezi, preporučujem zaista sjajan film Emanuela Karera „Ouisterham” sa Žilijet Binoš u glavnoj ulozi spisateljice koja odlučuje da, ne rekavši nikom, postane čistačica kako bi na svojoj koži osetila kako je živeti neprivilegovanim životom.
O ovoj knjizi mogu se, siguran sam, organizovati čitavi seminari i inspirativne polemike, što pokazuje i odličan pogovor Maje Solar, gde, osim pregleda ključnih gledišta Veržes, možemo uočiti da je imaginacija jedna od najvažnijih strategija otpora dekolonijalnog feminizma. Savremenost nas uporno odbija od ideje da mislimo utopije, ali tek ono što se može zamisliti, može dobiti priliku da bude ostvareno. Nekad je, verujem, a na umu mi je ona čuvena odrednica Marksovih „Teza o Fojerbahu” da su filozofi svet samo različito interpretirali, a da se on treba izmeniti – da ponekad, ipak, treba da se vratimo interpretacije da bismo ubojitije uplovili u izmene. Živimo u vremenu ne priča, nego hiperpriča, mitova koji nas svakodnevno usisavaju, hipnotišućih, razbokoravajućih diskursa i štit od utapanja moglo bi biti promišljanje. I promišljanje i akcija i uvek kritika. Kritika je kiseonik misli.
„Ne smijemo podcijeniti brzinu kojom je kapitalizam u stanju apsorbirati pojmove i pretvoriti ih u parole ispražnjene od značenja. Zar stvarno mislimo da kapital ne bi mogao ugraditi u sebe ideje dekolonizacije i dekolonijalnosti? Kapital jest kolonizator, kolonija je s njime konsupstancijalna, a da bismo razumjeli kako on opstaje, potrebno je osloboditi se pristupa koji u koloniji vidi isključivo oblik kakav mu je dala Europa u devetnaestom stoljeću.” (30)
Strastveno napisana, inteligentna knjiga, koja se vatreno obračunava sa nepravdama, pokrećući prekopotrebne korekcije u okvirima samog feminizma. Autorka, štaviše, prilično kolebljivo upotrebljava taj termin i to prvenstveno zbog toga šta je sve, decenijama unazad, primao u sebe; mnoge feministkinje, umesto da se bave nečim suštinski emancipatorskim, podležu lukavstvima neoliberalnog kapitalizma i evrocentrizma, koji ih grle i tetoše. A kakva je to borba za jednakost ako su neki jednakiji od drugih, ako se naš udobni život zasniva na ekspolataciji miliona ljudi, čiji životi bivaju potpuno podređeni funkciji kretanja globalnog kapitala i to prvenstveno onoga što Veržes naziva globalnim Severom, koji bez i dalje vrlo živog iskorišćavanja globalnog Juga ne bi mogao opstati. Kolonijalizam, jasno je, nije završen, on je samo dobio drukčiju formu, a to što Francuska i dalje radi Africi van svake je pameti! Kao što je duboko pogrešno, a što je takođe sjajno istaknuto u knjizi, da se ženama uporno prodaje priča da će biti samostalne i ravnopravne ukoliko pristanu na određeni tip poslova, pogotovo onih koji se tiču usluga i to prvenstveno usluga i negovanja. S tim u vezi, preporučujem zaista sjajan film Emanuela Karera „Ouisterham” sa Žilijet Binoš u glavnoj ulozi spisateljice koja odlučuje da, ne rekavši nikom, postane čistačica kako bi na svojoj koži osetila kako je živeti neprivilegovanim životom.
O ovoj knjizi mogu se, siguran sam, organizovati čitavi seminari i inspirativne polemike, što pokazuje i odličan pogovor Maje Solar, gde, osim pregleda ključnih gledišta Veržes, možemo uočiti da je imaginacija jedna od najvažnijih strategija otpora dekolonijalnog feminizma. Savremenost nas uporno odbija od ideje da mislimo utopije, ali tek ono što se može zamisliti, može dobiti priliku da bude ostvareno. Nekad je, verujem, a na umu mi je ona čuvena odrednica Marksovih „Teza o Fojerbahu” da su filozofi svet samo različito interpretirali, a da se on treba izmeniti – da ponekad, ipak, treba da se vratimo interpretacije da bismo ubojitije uplovili u izmene. Živimo u vremenu ne priča, nego hiperpriča, mitova koji nas svakodnevno usisavaju, hipnotišućih, razbokoravajućih diskursa i štit od utapanja moglo bi biti promišljanje. I promišljanje i akcija i uvek kritika. Kritika je kiseonik misli.
„Ne smijemo podcijeniti brzinu kojom je kapitalizam u stanju apsorbirati pojmove i pretvoriti ih u parole ispražnjene od značenja. Zar stvarno mislimo da kapital ne bi mogao ugraditi u sebe ideje dekolonizacije i dekolonijalnosti? Kapital jest kolonizator, kolonija je s njime konsupstancijalna, a da bismo razumjeli kako on opstaje, potrebno je osloboditi se pristupa koji u koloniji vidi isključivo oblik kakav mu je dala Europa u devetnaestom stoljeću.” (30)
March 23, 2021
Une lecture absolument nécessaire. Malgré sa brièveté (mon édition compte 126 pages), Vergès accomplit la tâche titanesque de passer en revue ce qu'est le féminisme décolonial, à quoi il répond et s'oppose, et quels sont les acteurs (comme notamment le féminisme civilisationnel dit "mainstream" mais pas que) qui tentent de le discréditer de la même manière qu'ils ont tenté de cacher et de dénigrer les luttes de féministes racisées depuis des décennies. C'est un petit livre compacte où aucune phrase n'est superflue. Vergès possède un don pour aller droit au but et met en lumière les connexions entre genre, classe et racisme pour une approche multidimensionnelle du féminisme, portée par des femmes racisées et marginalisées et leurs alliés. Ce livre aurait pu certes être plus long pour explorer en profondeur certains aspects du féminisme décolonial mais je comprend parfaitement pourquoi l'auteur a choisi une approche introductive, puisque c'est un sujet encore très mal compris et souvent calomnié en Europe, qui a plusieurs crans de retard sur des discours féministes internationaux qui semblent à ce stade rudimentaire. Je ne peux que recommender de lire et de relire cet ouvrage, qui ouvre les portes vers d'autres textes et les yeux vers des réalités qui sont particulièrement dérangeantes pour ceux qui bénéficient de discours racistes, classistes et misogynes.
October 27, 2021
"This pacification of our militant past contributes to our domination in the present, and power exploits this pacifying narrative to teach contemporary movements a lesson. Norms of respectability are enacted to stifle anger, to make anger dishonorable and fraudulent. There are "subjects worthy of defending and being defended." This strategy of erasure makes these icons dispossessed of their own struggles and separated from the collectives of which they were members—into calm, gentle, and peaceful heroines."
Academic but accessible without losing out on complexity, A Decolonial Feminism by Françoise Vergès (from French with Ashley J Bohrer) provides an intersectional (although she never uses that term) framework to examine feminism from a distinct anti-racist and anti-colonial perspective and reclaiming the movement from neoliberal white feminism she terms "civilizational feminism" as it seeks to emulate Global North structures in the South without consideration. Central is the question of racialized labour: "who cleans the world?"
The first essay, "Taking Sides: Decolonial Feminism", looks at how women's rights have been co-opted by imperialism as well as bourgeois, white feminism where Global South becomes a place that must be saved from itself and where women are shackled. The second, "The Evolution towards 21st Century Civilizational Feminism" explores the clashes of French politics and feminism with Islam, constructed in direct opposition to women's rights instead of the structural inequalities running rampant. The repeated suggestion is to focus on racialized women & let their voices take the lead.
(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
July 9, 2021
Un court livre sur le féminisme décolonial et sur l'histoire du féminisme. Intéressant mais pas révolutionnaire, si vous avez déjà lu quelques livres traitant du sujet, vous n'y trouverez rien de nouveau. Mais c'est un livre court et c'est toujours intéressant de se remettre ces idées en tête. J'ai personnellement apprécié certains faits historiques évoqués, la plupart des livres sur le féminisme que je lis viennent des USA ou de Grande Bretagne, du coup j'ai souvent peu d'illustrations françaises quand on parle Histoire. J'aurais aimé que Françoise Vergès aille plus au fond des choses, mais c'est sûrement parce que j'ai lu pratiquement tous les auteurs qu'elle cite.
March 31, 2020
Le livre ne vise pas tant à définir ce qu'est le féminisme décolonial qu'à plutôt s'attaquer au féminisme occidental, ou civilisationnel. Il y a une véritable critique de l'ethnocentrisme des féministes blanches qui s'accaparent la lutte, en excluant les féministes racisées (dans une dichotomie Nord/Sud, pas juste une exclusion des racisées occidentale). Elle étend le raisonnement à la question trans, des travailleuses du sexe , qu'il ne s'agit plus d'aider sous une tournure paternaliste, mais de lier sa lutte à celle des autres et enrichir le front féministe.
Elle produit une analyse féministe anti-capitaliste, dans le sens où le féminisme libéral, c'est à dire un féminisme de l'égalité et non un féminisme qui critique le genre et les structures, ne vise qu'à créer du consentement au sein d'institutions racistes et sexistes. Elle précise que le racisme des institutions découle d'une construction de ces dernières sur la base de la colonisation. Frantz Fanon (<3) est cité ici pour rappeler que l'Europe est la création du Tiers-Monde, du fait que l'exploitation de ce dernier est nécessaire à l'équilibre de l'Europe en terme de richesse et de ressources. Ainsi, et là c'est mon interprétation, la décolonisation et la lutte féministe ne peuvent pas coexister avec la société dans son état actuel, du fait qu'elle porte des résidus racistes et sexistes en elle, la révolution est nécessaire à tous les instants, et doit être un processus continu. Sans révolution, l'État, le capitalisme et le patriarcat peuvent toujours s'adapter, ainsi, Vergès critique le fait que le féminisme puisse être utilisé à droite voire à l'extrême droite, évoquant le femonationalisme, ce qui montre le problème de "laisser" le féminisme être défini par des dominants, ou plutôt uniquement par des dominants. Vis à vis du capitalisme, Vergès rappelle que le capitalisme est un système qui produit des déchets qui sont gérés de manière majoritaire par les femmes, racisées qui plus est, et que cette gestion se veut et se revendique comme étant invisible. S'appuyant sur la publicité d'un groupe de nettoyage Français, l'autrice illustre le propos avec une femme blanche qui est heureuse de naviguer dans une société propre et qui, surtout, ne voit jamais les mains qui rendent cette société propre.
Derniers points que j'ai trouvé intéressants :
- Le fait que la colonisation a créé la femme racisée, dans le sens où la définition du genre occidental, dans les mains des féministes blanches, est devenu un outil colonialiste construit comme étant "libérateur"et a créé des femmes au sens occidental, arrachant les personnes concernées au genre qui était le leur dans leurs propres sociétés. Si vous allez dans une société où il existe 5 genres différents et que vous assignez de force les individus aux deux genres de la société occidentale, forcément, vous produisez de l'aliénation. C'est peu ou prou la même chose vis à vis du voile, Vergès rappelant que le slogan "Plus belle sans son voile" était un slogan des colons pour forcer les personnes concernées à retirer leur voile, et quand c'est forcé, c'est rarement par féminisme.
- Le fait qu'être une femme ne suffit pas à être féministe. En effet, comme le concept de genre n'est pas universel, que ce soit au sein de la métropole elle même, au sein de la colonie elle même et entre la métropole et la colonie, être une femme ne suffit pas. Ce qui est nécessaire pour être féministe, c'est la conscience de classe des questions qui touchent toutes les femmes, en particulier la question raciale au sens sociologique, mais vu que l'œuvre s'appelle "Un féminisme décolonial" c'est plutôt logique.
Je recommande très chaudement cet ouvrage, court (118 pages) et qui contient 50 tonnes de références qui permettent d'approfondir le sujet, je pense que je vais bientôt lire "La matrice de la race" d'Elsa Dorlin, dont j'avais déjà lu "Se défendre". De plus, le livre est gratuit pendant le confinement sur le site de La Fabrique donc profitez en.
Elle produit une analyse féministe anti-capitaliste, dans le sens où le féminisme libéral, c'est à dire un féminisme de l'égalité et non un féminisme qui critique le genre et les structures, ne vise qu'à créer du consentement au sein d'institutions racistes et sexistes. Elle précise que le racisme des institutions découle d'une construction de ces dernières sur la base de la colonisation. Frantz Fanon (<3) est cité ici pour rappeler que l'Europe est la création du Tiers-Monde, du fait que l'exploitation de ce dernier est nécessaire à l'équilibre de l'Europe en terme de richesse et de ressources. Ainsi, et là c'est mon interprétation, la décolonisation et la lutte féministe ne peuvent pas coexister avec la société dans son état actuel, du fait qu'elle porte des résidus racistes et sexistes en elle, la révolution est nécessaire à tous les instants, et doit être un processus continu. Sans révolution, l'État, le capitalisme et le patriarcat peuvent toujours s'adapter, ainsi, Vergès critique le fait que le féminisme puisse être utilisé à droite voire à l'extrême droite, évoquant le femonationalisme, ce qui montre le problème de "laisser" le féminisme être défini par des dominants, ou plutôt uniquement par des dominants. Vis à vis du capitalisme, Vergès rappelle que le capitalisme est un système qui produit des déchets qui sont gérés de manière majoritaire par les femmes, racisées qui plus est, et que cette gestion se veut et se revendique comme étant invisible. S'appuyant sur la publicité d'un groupe de nettoyage Français, l'autrice illustre le propos avec une femme blanche qui est heureuse de naviguer dans une société propre et qui, surtout, ne voit jamais les mains qui rendent cette société propre.
Derniers points que j'ai trouvé intéressants :
- Le fait que la colonisation a créé la femme racisée, dans le sens où la définition du genre occidental, dans les mains des féministes blanches, est devenu un outil colonialiste construit comme étant "libérateur"et a créé des femmes au sens occidental, arrachant les personnes concernées au genre qui était le leur dans leurs propres sociétés. Si vous allez dans une société où il existe 5 genres différents et que vous assignez de force les individus aux deux genres de la société occidentale, forcément, vous produisez de l'aliénation. C'est peu ou prou la même chose vis à vis du voile, Vergès rappelant que le slogan "Plus belle sans son voile" était un slogan des colons pour forcer les personnes concernées à retirer leur voile, et quand c'est forcé, c'est rarement par féminisme.
- Le fait qu'être une femme ne suffit pas à être féministe. En effet, comme le concept de genre n'est pas universel, que ce soit au sein de la métropole elle même, au sein de la colonie elle même et entre la métropole et la colonie, être une femme ne suffit pas. Ce qui est nécessaire pour être féministe, c'est la conscience de classe des questions qui touchent toutes les femmes, en particulier la question raciale au sens sociologique, mais vu que l'œuvre s'appelle "Un féminisme décolonial" c'est plutôt logique.
Je recommande très chaudement cet ouvrage, court (118 pages) et qui contient 50 tonnes de références qui permettent d'approfondir le sujet, je pense que je vais bientôt lire "La matrice de la race" d'Elsa Dorlin, dont j'avais déjà lu "Se défendre". De plus, le livre est gratuit pendant le confinement sur le site de La Fabrique donc profitez en.
April 7, 2021
achei super bacana pra organizar algumas ideias que eu tinha a partir de leituras esparsas na internet. Gostei muito de como a autora aborda a apreensão do feminismo pelo neoliberalismo e da distorção que o capitalismo realiza no movimento pra tornar ele rentável. Também curti a leitura que ela faz acerca da economia do desgaste dos corpos racializados, apesar de ser super breve (o que me deixou super a fim de procurar mais sobre). Suuuper recomendo, leitura super didática pra se introduzir no tema!
June 3, 2024
Gros livre coup de coeur et gros coup de poing, françoise vergès nous amène quasiment avec du suspense dans sa pensée élaborée jusque dans les détails les plus précis pour répondre à deux questions : comment tout le mouvement féminisme n'est pas proprement dit féministe (car colonial) et comment être de ce féminisme dit décolonial. Une lecture que je juge maintenant essentielle aussi par sa radicalité. je compte absolument en lire plus de vergès, et pour tous les intéressés il y a une tonne d'entrevues avec elle sur youtube!
May 29, 2024
Réunioninlais-ranskalaisen Vergèsin pamfletti dekoloniaalisen feminismin tärkeydestä jälkikoloniaalisessa maailmassa muistuttaa piinallisen suoraan siitä, kenen varaan valkoinen ja länsimainen tasavertaisuus on rakentunut: globaalin etelän rodullistettujen naisten. Angela Davisin, Amia Srinivasanin sekä Audre Lorden mustan/ruskean feminismin kaanoniin yhtyvä teos kuuluu nykyfeminismin ehdottomasti luettaviin kirjoihin.
January 4, 2020
Des points très intéressants et une vraie leçon de morale sur le féminisme blanc bourgeois actuel. Cependant, je trouve que le travail de recherche - s'il y en a - est bâclé, que le but du livre n'est certainement pas d'être objectif, que la nuance est entièrement absente et que les concepts se mélangent à une vitesse alarmante. Bref, j'ai appris beaucoup de choses, mais Françoise Vergès a un peu fait du travail de cochon.
August 12, 2021
I was pleased to read a book that combines feminism with anti-colonial critique from a standpoint outside an Anglophone country. Besides these two theoretical / methodological approaches, the book also has a Marxist, anti-capitalist ideological approach: it starts with an account of the strike by black and brown women who clean Parisian train stations, and goes on (in the preface to the translation) to link this to the vulnerable racialised bodies during the covid-19 pandemic. 'capitalism inevitably creates invisible work and disposable lives' (2).
The key term of Vergès's book (and a term I was not familiar with) is 'civilizational feminism'. The author links 'civilizational feminism' to the white women's movement of the 1980s and onwards and its theories. She argues that civilizational feminism aligns itself with a counter-revolutionary post-Enlightenment view that criminalises Islam and the veil, and is close to left-wing 'rational' politics, and she contends that the cultural argument associated with this approach 'hides racist and imperialist interests' (vii).
Another term she uses is 'heteropatriarchy', a nice portmanteau of two related ideological institutions.
Part I is entitled 'Taking Sides: Decolonial Feminism.'
Vergès exposes how the issue of women's rights has become 'one of the trump cards played by the state and imperialism, one of neoliberalism's last recourses, and the spearhead of the civilizing mission of white, bourgeois feminism' (4). This view sexualises racialised men and victimises racialised women (5). Neoliberal feminism reduces 'women's revolutionary aspirations' to the ability to sit at the white man's table and take part in the privileges of the white capitalist heteropatriarchy. Vergès uses the nice word 'epistemicide' to describe how some orders of knowledges are imposed by the West while others are suppressed; she calls for a 'struggle for epistemic justice' (13). She is very critical of the discourse of European feminists who compare(d) themselves to slaves (17). I liked another port-manteau she uses (invents?): femoimperialism (17).
A great quote from the Australian Indigenous activist Lilla Watson, voicing a collective awareness among Queensland activists: 'If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.' (19; quoting Watson's speech at the 1985 UN World Conference on Women in Nairobi).
Vergès does not use the term (and current buzzword) 'intersectionality'; she captures the layeredness of struggles thus: 'A multidimensional approach makes it possible to avoid a hierarchy of struggles based on a scale of urgency whose framework often remains dictated by prejudice. The challenge is to hold several threads at once, to override ideologically induced segmentation...' (20-21) There is a subtle difference here to Kimberlé Crenshaw's intersectionality concept: not so much the overlapping of oppression, more the solidarity among the oppressed and the conviction that 'justice for women means justice for all' (23).
On whiteness: 'White women do not like to be told they are white. To be white is to be constructed as a being so ordinary, so devoid of characteristics, so normal, so meaningless...' (25) And this resistance to be racialised leads to the belief that there is no white feminism, 'only a universal feminism' (25). One example that complicates the idea of whiteness not mattering and of all women sharing the same universal oppression is that of the Réunion Island enslaver Madame Desbassyns 'who had neither the right to vote not to sit for the baccalaureate ... but she did have the right to own human beings' (30).
Part II is entitled 'The Evolution towards Twenty-First Century Civilizational Feminism'.
Vergès here targets French politics and policies against Muslim women. She summarises the debates around the veil in France and argues that French arguments demonstrate 'the persistence of orientalism, the conviction that "in our country" (France), "women are equal to men", and that therefore ... the veil is "a fundamental political problem that affects the status of women, our national identity, and the very future of our national community."' (44, quoting MP Louise Moreau). I had read about French anti-hijab laws in the news and it was interesting to read about them here, from an informed inside critical point of view. Arguing that 'secular fundamentalism [is] tinged with orientalism' is nicely formulated. And I drew an angry face next to the passage: 'Patriarchy was no longer a term associated with a global (and thus also a European) form of masculine domination; it became consubstantial with Islam.' (45) She very astutely demonstrates how an obsession with the veil avoids confronting political and ideological contradictions. (51)
On top of the term 'femoimperialism', Vergès now introduces 'femofascism' (interesting) (52). I am German and found the brief discussion of German feminist Alice Schwarzer to the events in Cologne of New Year's Eve 2015 particularly interesting. I felt immediately uneasy at the speed with which commentators and politicians and the media jumped on the alleged Muslim male menace to women, and am relieved to find unease also in Vergès, plus astute critique.
An excellent summary of the critique (discussing the white-washing of US Black activist Rosa Parks): 'Turning an activist into a heroine of Western democracy helps to mask enduring inequalities and makes racism into a disease of the few. Racism and sexism are no longer structural, but accidents to be repaired by the courage of a few individuals.' (62)
She argues that attention must be shifted onto the actual enslaved and maroon women themselves, the Indigenous women and Black women who struggled against racism and colonialism from the sixteenth century onwards (63-64). This reminds me of the #ownvoices hashtag. Useful to keep in mind; 'The idea that women do not have a past, and do not have a history, means .. that they have one but that it has been buried, hidden, and masked...' (82)
With the particular emphasis on secularism in the French state in mind, I found Vergès' discussion around the burkini ban interesting; in civilisational feminsim to be feminist IS to be secularist. And maybe the suspicion of religiosity as a potential ingredient of feminism goes beyond the French context, too.
Vergès insists on the systemic nature of racism (as do other anti-racist writers whom I have read): '"I did not mean to... I am not racist" -- are symptoms of a racist discourse that has nothing to do with individual opinion and everything to do with a structure' (70). One cannot repeat and remember this enough in the dominant individualist ideology we operate in.
Many of the ideas here resonate with ideas in Anglophone anti-racist and feminist texts that I've read. But it was refreshing to me to read them from a non-Anglo European perspective and to see non-Anglophone authors cited beyond the usual Anglo suspects: Véronica Gago, Aimee Césaire, Elsa Dorlin, Boaventura de Souza Santos, Virginie Despentes, Khola Maryam Hübsch.
This was published in the original French in 2019 (Un féminisme décolonial) and translated very well by Ashley J. Bohrer with the author.
Format: Creamy smooth pages, pleasant serif font (uncredited), velvety flimsy cover typical of print-on-demand services. An ugly cover: vomit-like clashing colours and letraset-esque rectangle design by Tree Abraham.
Chosen for the #readingwomen challenge 2021: a book about a social justice issue.
The key term of Vergès's book (and a term I was not familiar with) is 'civilizational feminism'. The author links 'civilizational feminism' to the white women's movement of the 1980s and onwards and its theories. She argues that civilizational feminism aligns itself with a counter-revolutionary post-Enlightenment view that criminalises Islam and the veil, and is close to left-wing 'rational' politics, and she contends that the cultural argument associated with this approach 'hides racist and imperialist interests' (vii).
Another term she uses is 'heteropatriarchy', a nice portmanteau of two related ideological institutions.
Part I is entitled 'Taking Sides: Decolonial Feminism.'
Vergès exposes how the issue of women's rights has become 'one of the trump cards played by the state and imperialism, one of neoliberalism's last recourses, and the spearhead of the civilizing mission of white, bourgeois feminism' (4). This view sexualises racialised men and victimises racialised women (5). Neoliberal feminism reduces 'women's revolutionary aspirations' to the ability to sit at the white man's table and take part in the privileges of the white capitalist heteropatriarchy. Vergès uses the nice word 'epistemicide' to describe how some orders of knowledges are imposed by the West while others are suppressed; she calls for a 'struggle for epistemic justice' (13). She is very critical of the discourse of European feminists who compare(d) themselves to slaves (17). I liked another port-manteau she uses (invents?): femoimperialism (17).
A great quote from the Australian Indigenous activist Lilla Watson, voicing a collective awareness among Queensland activists: 'If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.' (19; quoting Watson's speech at the 1985 UN World Conference on Women in Nairobi).
Vergès does not use the term (and current buzzword) 'intersectionality'; she captures the layeredness of struggles thus: 'A multidimensional approach makes it possible to avoid a hierarchy of struggles based on a scale of urgency whose framework often remains dictated by prejudice. The challenge is to hold several threads at once, to override ideologically induced segmentation...' (20-21) There is a subtle difference here to Kimberlé Crenshaw's intersectionality concept: not so much the overlapping of oppression, more the solidarity among the oppressed and the conviction that 'justice for women means justice for all' (23).
On whiteness: 'White women do not like to be told they are white. To be white is to be constructed as a being so ordinary, so devoid of characteristics, so normal, so meaningless...' (25) And this resistance to be racialised leads to the belief that there is no white feminism, 'only a universal feminism' (25). One example that complicates the idea of whiteness not mattering and of all women sharing the same universal oppression is that of the Réunion Island enslaver Madame Desbassyns 'who had neither the right to vote not to sit for the baccalaureate ... but she did have the right to own human beings' (30).
Part II is entitled 'The Evolution towards Twenty-First Century Civilizational Feminism'.
Vergès here targets French politics and policies against Muslim women. She summarises the debates around the veil in France and argues that French arguments demonstrate 'the persistence of orientalism, the conviction that "in our country" (France), "women are equal to men", and that therefore ... the veil is "a fundamental political problem that affects the status of women, our national identity, and the very future of our national community."' (44, quoting MP Louise Moreau). I had read about French anti-hijab laws in the news and it was interesting to read about them here, from an informed inside critical point of view. Arguing that 'secular fundamentalism [is] tinged with orientalism' is nicely formulated. And I drew an angry face next to the passage: 'Patriarchy was no longer a term associated with a global (and thus also a European) form of masculine domination; it became consubstantial with Islam.' (45) She very astutely demonstrates how an obsession with the veil avoids confronting political and ideological contradictions. (51)
On top of the term 'femoimperialism', Vergès now introduces 'femofascism' (interesting) (52). I am German and found the brief discussion of German feminist Alice Schwarzer to the events in Cologne of New Year's Eve 2015 particularly interesting. I felt immediately uneasy at the speed with which commentators and politicians and the media jumped on the alleged Muslim male menace to women, and am relieved to find unease also in Vergès, plus astute critique.
An excellent summary of the critique (discussing the white-washing of US Black activist Rosa Parks): 'Turning an activist into a heroine of Western democracy helps to mask enduring inequalities and makes racism into a disease of the few. Racism and sexism are no longer structural, but accidents to be repaired by the courage of a few individuals.' (62)
She argues that attention must be shifted onto the actual enslaved and maroon women themselves, the Indigenous women and Black women who struggled against racism and colonialism from the sixteenth century onwards (63-64). This reminds me of the #ownvoices hashtag. Useful to keep in mind; 'The idea that women do not have a past, and do not have a history, means .. that they have one but that it has been buried, hidden, and masked...' (82)
With the particular emphasis on secularism in the French state in mind, I found Vergès' discussion around the burkini ban interesting; in civilisational feminsim to be feminist IS to be secularist. And maybe the suspicion of religiosity as a potential ingredient of feminism goes beyond the French context, too.
Vergès insists on the systemic nature of racism (as do other anti-racist writers whom I have read): '"I did not mean to... I am not racist" -- are symptoms of a racist discourse that has nothing to do with individual opinion and everything to do with a structure' (70). One cannot repeat and remember this enough in the dominant individualist ideology we operate in.
Many of the ideas here resonate with ideas in Anglophone anti-racist and feminist texts that I've read. But it was refreshing to me to read them from a non-Anglo European perspective and to see non-Anglophone authors cited beyond the usual Anglo suspects: Véronica Gago, Aimee Césaire, Elsa Dorlin, Boaventura de Souza Santos, Virginie Despentes, Khola Maryam Hübsch.
This was published in the original French in 2019 (Un féminisme décolonial) and translated very well by Ashley J. Bohrer with the author.
Format: Creamy smooth pages, pleasant serif font (uncredited), velvety flimsy cover typical of print-on-demand services. An ugly cover: vomit-like clashing colours and letraset-esque rectangle design by Tree Abraham.
Chosen for the #readingwomen challenge 2021: a book about a social justice issue.
August 4, 2023
Mega banger!!!
Excelente contributo para o meu ódio à sociedade neoliberal
Por favor leiam
Excelente contributo para o meu ódio à sociedade neoliberal
Por favor leiam
May 2, 2021
Cannot recommend this book enough, its sub 100 pages and communicates a decolonial perspective, and the delineation between a decolonial feminism and a "civilizational feminism" so so well.
Centring the question "who cleans the world" is such a smart way to get to the heart of racial capitalism.
Centring the question "who cleans the world" is such a smart way to get to the heart of racial capitalism.
April 11, 2021
Consigli di lettura collegati: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNIBG5AHF...
June 22, 2024
O capitalismo não hesita em adoptar o feminismo corporate (aquele que pretende ser integrado no seu mundo) ou o discurso dos direitos das mulheres segundo o qual as desigualdades entre mulheres e homens são uma questão de mentalidades e de falta de educação, e não de estruturas opressivas. Não que a transformação das mentalidades e uma educação anti-racista e anti-sexista sejam negligenciáveis, longe disso. Mas é preciso denunciar a obstinação em não admitir que se trata de uma questão de estruturas, que sem racismo o capitalismo racial se desmorona, e com ele todo um mundo construído sobre a inviabilização, a exploração e a espoliação. Essa ideia de que o mundo mudaria se mudássemos as mentalidades, se aprendêssemos a aceitar as diferenças, assenta numa concepção idealista das relações sociais. Mas a ideia seduz porque nos dispensa de agir relativamente a essas estruturas.
April 13, 2022
J'ai trouvé ce court essai très pertinent. Je vais d'ailleurs le suggérer aux autres personnes blanches dans mon entourage qui souhaitent décoloniser leur féminisme et surtout, mieux comprendre la convergence de diverses luttes, notamment les luttes anti-racisme, l'abolitionnisme pénal, etc. Malgré que l'essai propose souvent des exemples de la France, les parallèles avec la situation politique au Québec sont nombreux (je pense notamment aux perceptions de l'islam et du port du voile, par exemple) et l'autrice présente également des événements clés à l'échelle internationale. J'ai aussi beaucoup apprécié l'accent sur les luttes des femmes du Sud et sur l'hypocrisie du "white feminism" ou du "mainstream feminism". D'ailleurs, cet essai m'a permis de mettre des mots/concepts sur des phénomènes clés tels que le patriarcat libéral, les stratégies de pacification et le féminisme civilisationnel. Finalement, j'ai beaucoup apprécié les exemples concrets utilisés pour illustrer certains arguments, incluant l'exemple de Rosa Parks pour décrire le processus de pacification ainsi que l'exemple des travailleuses domestiques, qui sont surtout des femmes racisées, afin de dénoncer le capitalisme racial et patriarcal. Bref, un essai court mais stimulant qui centre enfin le point de vue des femmes racisées plutôt que celui des féministes blanches.
February 12, 2022
J'ai été particulièrement déçue par cet "essai", qui n'en est pas un en réalité. La forme n'est pas bonne selon moi. L'ouvrage persiste à lister des concepts, sans les définir, et le lecteur doit les prendre pour argent comptant. Il n'y a que très peu de sources précises. Des maladresses sur le fond (la prostitution, la question des femmes blanches comme si celles-ci représentaient une masse monolithique alors que ce n'est pas le cas, la confusion que donne le terme de "féminisme blanc bourgeois", la question du genre...). Néanmoins, l'essai gagne en qualité à la toute fin avec la question du travail ménager, et "l'usure des corps" qu'entraîne ces métiers, dans lesquels les personnes non-blanches (immigrées surtout) sont sur-représentées. Cet essai a la vertu de répondre à une non-représentation des "racisées" dans le féminisme, mais il s'y prend mal, mais cet essai permet surtout de donner une voix à une certaine colère, et à une émotion.
December 4, 2021
Excellent, short text that interrogates the contradictions and limitations of "civilizational feminism", femonationalism, state feminism, and feminisms that refuse to grapple with the colonial question. Loved the attention given at the end to racial capitalism and care work.
November 21, 2020
Essentiel et indispensable.
November 29, 2020
Primeiro eu gostaria de dizer que aprendi bastante com este livro: as discussões trazidas por Françoise referente às mulheres que “limpam o mundo” (empregadas domésticas, as mulheres que limpam os metrôs, ruas, enfim, toda a cidade—as mulheres que cuidam—) e às muçulmanas foram extremamente enriquecedoras pra mim. Inclusive eu adorei que havia todas as referências de artigos no rodapé do livro, porque já salvei alguns para eu conseguir me adentrar mais ainda em um assunto que é tão importante. Eu recomendo ele de olhos fechados pra quem gostaria de entender mais sobre tudo isso.
No entanto, fiquei incomodada com algumas coisas ditas por Vergès: A primeira questão *pra mim* é que eu não vi diferença alguma entre feminismo liberal e o feminismo civilizatório falado por ela. Para mim eles são exatamente a mesma coisa. Se a autora fez referência ao feminismo radical e deu-o o nome de feminismo civilizatório eu acredito que não deu certo, já que o falado feminismo branco liberal é individualista (aquele clássico *meu corpo, minhas regras*), e o radical é uma luta coletiva. Se não for isso, perdoem a minha (talvez má) interpretação do feminismo civilizatório explicado por Françoise, mas eu sinceramente acho que o libfem e o civilizatório são a mesma coisa.
Algo que me deixou realmente fatigada foi a seguinte frase: “da vereadora queer e negra Marielle Franco”. Queer???? Qual o problema em falar lésbica? Ela ao decorrer do livro fala isso pelo menos duas vezes. A palavra negrofobia também surge algumas vezes e eu me pergunto: porque não falar racismo?
Ela fala sobre a Simone em certas passagens do livro também de um jeito que achei talvez desnecessário? Eu cheguei até a escrever um parágrafo imenso sobre essa questão que >me< deixou incomodada, mas sinceramente eu não tenho mais cabeça pra ficar preocupada em receber hate, aí prefiro simplesmente deixar esse tópico assim em aberto e, se alguém quiser discutir comigo sobre isso, sou total aberta.
Por fim, Vergès e eu temos pensamentos conflitantes sobre gênero, e isso durante a leitura foi também algo que me deixou aflita, e acho que não tem palavra melhor. Foi assim que acabei escrevendo vários pensamentos meus enquanto eu ia lendo, e mesmo que nós tenhamos alguns pontos em comum, em outros eu me sentia o próprio meme da Nazaré: mas ué??? Um exemplo: o título do primeiro texto é “por um feminismo radical”, só que tipo, não é feminismo radical, então porque falar feminismo radical? kkkkk entre outros......
No entanto, fiquei incomodada com algumas coisas ditas por Vergès: A primeira questão *pra mim* é que eu não vi diferença alguma entre feminismo liberal e o feminismo civilizatório falado por ela. Para mim eles são exatamente a mesma coisa. Se a autora fez referência ao feminismo radical e deu-o o nome de feminismo civilizatório eu acredito que não deu certo, já que o falado feminismo branco liberal é individualista (aquele clássico *meu corpo, minhas regras*), e o radical é uma luta coletiva. Se não for isso, perdoem a minha (talvez má) interpretação do feminismo civilizatório explicado por Françoise, mas eu sinceramente acho que o libfem e o civilizatório são a mesma coisa.
Algo que me deixou realmente fatigada foi a seguinte frase: “da vereadora queer e negra Marielle Franco”. Queer???? Qual o problema em falar lésbica? Ela ao decorrer do livro fala isso pelo menos duas vezes. A palavra negrofobia também surge algumas vezes e eu me pergunto: porque não falar racismo?
Ela fala sobre a Simone em certas passagens do livro também de um jeito que achei talvez desnecessário? Eu cheguei até a escrever um parágrafo imenso sobre essa questão que >me< deixou incomodada, mas sinceramente eu não tenho mais cabeça pra ficar preocupada em receber hate, aí prefiro simplesmente deixar esse tópico assim em aberto e, se alguém quiser discutir comigo sobre isso, sou total aberta.
Por fim, Vergès e eu temos pensamentos conflitantes sobre gênero, e isso durante a leitura foi também algo que me deixou aflita, e acho que não tem palavra melhor. Foi assim que acabei escrevendo vários pensamentos meus enquanto eu ia lendo, e mesmo que nós tenhamos alguns pontos em comum, em outros eu me sentia o próprio meme da Nazaré: mas ué??? Um exemplo: o título do primeiro texto é “por um feminismo radical”, só que tipo, não é feminismo radical, então porque falar feminismo radical? kkkkk entre outros......
October 3, 2021
This book deserves 5 stars actually, but gets 4 because the writing was a bit inaccessible for me (meaning I'm not smart enough to understand a lot of it).
A lot of what was discussed in this book took me several minutes and a couple of pages of rereading to understand because... wow it's just that good. The author talks in depth about white feminism - which they call "civilizational feminism" because it seeks to "civilize" women from the global south - and how it's become the definition of feminism now simply because it stomped on and stood over feminist movements from the global south.
The book starts with the question "who cleans the world?" and ends on the same note and it's just... an incredibly loaded question that's opened up so many avenues of thinking for me. This question really is the crux of the entire book. I just want to share three quotes from the book that talk about this and let you decide for yourself:
"The anthropologist David Graeber has spoken of the need to reimagine the working class as what he calls “the caring class,” the social class where “work is about taking care of other humans, plants, and animals.” He proposed the following definition of care work: “work in which the goal is maintaining or expanding the freedom of another person.” Or “the more your work helps others, the less you get paid to do it.”
"Capitalism is an economy of waste, and this waste must disappear before the eyes of those who are entitled to enjoy a good life: it must be disposed of without being seen. (...) this economy of waste production is inextricably linked to the production of human beings as ‘scum,’ as ‘waste.’ An entire humanity is condemned to undertake invisible and overexploited work to create a world suitable for hyper-consumption and maintaining institutions."
"White women can be assured of finding everything clean, but without confronting the reality of who is doing the cleaning, and therefore of the presence and existence of those who do it. This is one of the fundamental principles of cleaning: it must remain invisible. Through this invisibilization, the person doing the cleaning disappears not only from the screen, but the violence and disdain they encounter on the job are legitimized."
Overall, this is an absolutely "big brain energy" book written with an anti-racist and anti-imperialist viewpoint that I'm obsessed with, and will definitely be recommending to my feminist friends for years to come.
A lot of what was discussed in this book took me several minutes and a couple of pages of rereading to understand because... wow it's just that good. The author talks in depth about white feminism - which they call "civilizational feminism" because it seeks to "civilize" women from the global south - and how it's become the definition of feminism now simply because it stomped on and stood over feminist movements from the global south.
The book starts with the question "who cleans the world?" and ends on the same note and it's just... an incredibly loaded question that's opened up so many avenues of thinking for me. This question really is the crux of the entire book. I just want to share three quotes from the book that talk about this and let you decide for yourself:
"The anthropologist David Graeber has spoken of the need to reimagine the working class as what he calls “the caring class,” the social class where “work is about taking care of other humans, plants, and animals.” He proposed the following definition of care work: “work in which the goal is maintaining or expanding the freedom of another person.” Or “the more your work helps others, the less you get paid to do it.”
"Capitalism is an economy of waste, and this waste must disappear before the eyes of those who are entitled to enjoy a good life: it must be disposed of without being seen. (...) this economy of waste production is inextricably linked to the production of human beings as ‘scum,’ as ‘waste.’ An entire humanity is condemned to undertake invisible and overexploited work to create a world suitable for hyper-consumption and maintaining institutions."
"White women can be assured of finding everything clean, but without confronting the reality of who is doing the cleaning, and therefore of the presence and existence of those who do it. This is one of the fundamental principles of cleaning: it must remain invisible. Through this invisibilization, the person doing the cleaning disappears not only from the screen, but the violence and disdain they encounter on the job are legitimized."
Overall, this is an absolutely "big brain energy" book written with an anti-racist and anti-imperialist viewpoint that I'm obsessed with, and will definitely be recommending to my feminist friends for years to come.
March 28, 2020
4 🌟
Très bonne, quoique courte, introduction au féminisme décolonial, qui permet de mettre en lumière les défaillances du féminisme dit « universel », et ce qui se cache derrière la popularisation d’un mouvement aujourd’hui presque « mainstream ».
I’m not a huge non fiction reader, much less in french, but gosh — this was such an important read. If you are interested in feminism, intersectionality and diversity, then I highly recommend you pick this up. This essay sheds light on the deficiencies of “mainstream” feminism, and its central role in the daily erasure of women of colour, their history, as well as their future. This is the perfect introduction to a multidimensional approach on feminism, and I am looking forward to reading more books analysing the deep ties between capitalism, ‘universal’ feminism and post-colonialism. ⠀
Très bonne, quoique courte, introduction au féminisme décolonial, qui permet de mettre en lumière les défaillances du féminisme dit « universel », et ce qui se cache derrière la popularisation d’un mouvement aujourd’hui presque « mainstream ».
I’m not a huge non fiction reader, much less in french, but gosh — this was such an important read. If you are interested in feminism, intersectionality and diversity, then I highly recommend you pick this up. This essay sheds light on the deficiencies of “mainstream” feminism, and its central role in the daily erasure of women of colour, their history, as well as their future. This is the perfect introduction to a multidimensional approach on feminism, and I am looking forward to reading more books analysing the deep ties between capitalism, ‘universal’ feminism and post-colonialism. ⠀
October 30, 2021
Muito diferente de tudo que li sobre feminismo. Gostei da ideia de que não teríamos “ondas” de feminismo, que acabam contribuindo para o apagamento de lutas de mulheres racializadas ao longo da história. Crítica feroz ao “feminismo civilizatório” (não conhecia essa expressão, é mais do que o lib fem).
Muito interessante o ponto sobre o trabalho doméstico (uma classe cuidadora).
“… Os feminismos decoloniais estudam o modo como o complexo racismo / sexismo / etnicismo impregna todas as relações de dominação, ainda que os regimes associados a esse fenômeno tenham desaparecido” (p. 41)
Muito interessante o ponto sobre o trabalho doméstico (uma classe cuidadora).
“… Os feminismos decoloniais estudam o modo como o complexo racismo / sexismo / etnicismo impregna todas as relações de dominação, ainda que os regimes associados a esse fenômeno tenham desaparecido” (p. 41)
December 28, 2020
Un essai nécessaire pour comprendre en quoi la lutte féministe a évincé les femmes racisées.
J’ai appris beaucoup de choses avec cette œuvre et je me suis trouvée un peu naïve de ne pas avoir réfléchis à toutes ces questions avant.
J’ai appris beaucoup de choses avec cette œuvre et je me suis trouvée un peu naïve de ne pas avoir réfléchis à toutes ces questions avant.
May 11, 2020
Un livre succinct, facile à lire, éloquent et essentiel.
July 13, 2020
Un livre hautement pertinent qui a transformé ma vision du monde.
March 22, 2021
Vittorie che non (ra)accolgono tuttx.
Read
December 4, 2021This book really puts together why The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a foofoo musty piece of antifeminist revisionist literature💔. Never compliment France in front of me because I will bite. 💚
August 19, 2024
"Essa narrativa apresenta mulheres privadas de direitos, que progressivamente os vão obtendo até por fim beneficiarem daquele que é o emblema das democracias europeias, o direito ao voto. Ora,se as mulheres brancas, durante um longo período, não puderam de facto usufruir de muitos direitos cívicos, tiveram no entanto o direito de possuir seres humanos; foram donas de escravos/as e de plantações, e depois, após a abolição da escravatura, estiveram à frente de plantações coloniais onde imperava o trabalho forçado."
3.5/5; boa crítica ao feminismo branco burguês mas acaba logo após levantar as questões que mais me interessavam, rip ig
3.5/5; boa crítica ao feminismo branco burguês mas acaba logo após levantar as questões que mais me interessavam, rip ig
October 23, 2022
"Le monde disloque nos vies et les menaces s’accumulent. Tout doit entrer dans le grand supermarché global, racial, criminel et misogyne et devenir marchandise. L’appropriation culturelle se déguise sous les habits de la diversité. L’histoire devient un vaste bric-à-brac et le postcolonial un monde enchanté où on se promène pour faire son marché d’images, de sons, de mémoires, de corps, et d’objets que l’on dispose à sa guise dans les institutions culturelles sans tenir compte des histoires enfouies, des mémoires meurtries, des génocides oubliés"
July 26, 2022
WOW👏 everything written in this book is so educational and poignant
Displaying 1 - 30 of 228 reviews