Foglet Feminism: Keeping Intersectionality in Tension with Assemblage and Learning from Utility Fog

• In Event: 324 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. RGC and Theory

Abstract

In this paper, I consider intersectionality theory in tension with assemblage theory. The former offers a way to understand how a variety of social axes intersect while the latter helps rethink social axes and linear movements whether in time or in space. According to Jasbir Puar, the tension between intersectionality and assemblage can be fruitful but what does that tension look like? Utility fog, an active polymorphic material made up of microscopic robots (Foglets) that can morph into any object by communicating with its neighbors is a good example of what activism born out of the above theoretical tension may resemble. Feminists can be like Foglets, coming together for various causes without atomizing any particular identity and the movement's direction and strength can be in its ability to address a variety of personal and political ends. A real-world example of Foglet Feminism is the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, its morphing into other responses and current incarnations. For example, the OccupySandy response has been successful in showing what community organizing and activism can do in times of need, which includes maintaining feminist principles, but does not just take up gender-based work. I offer Foglet Feminism as a model of feminism that can address several anti-oppressive ends while continuing to learn from communities and recognizing ongoing internal contradictions.

Author

• Simone Alexandra Kolysh, City University of New York-Graduate Center