"Living a Feminist Life" Author: [UK] Sarah Ahmed Publisher: Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House

Introduction · · · · · ·
☆This Book = Feminist Survival Kit

☆Dismantle patriarchal logic and be a feminist spoiler

☆Bring feminist theory home and make feminism work in where we live and work.

☆To the many, many feminist killjoys out there doing your thing: This book is for you.

-Editor's Recommendation-

★Everyone should read this book. ——Bell Hooks

Write for those who are destined to be voiceless. -Judith Butler

★Sarah Ahmed, one of the most important feminist theorists of our time, gives us a feminist "survival kit"

In 2016, Sarah Ahmed resigned from her teaching position at Goldsmiths College in London to protest the college's inaction on sexual harassment. Living a Feminist Life is her first book for the general public since leaving academia. Ahmed uses poetic language to expound on the daily experiences, objects, encounters, emotions and embodied experiences of being a woman, presenting the long-standing work of feminism - work that takes place in the streets, homes and workplaces, weaving an embodied feminist theory, and providing a practical survival kit for "feminist spoilers" everywhere.

★Dismantle patriarchal logic and break down institutional brick walls

Why are feminists often viewed as sensationalist lunatics, nasty killjoys, and annoying troublemakers?

Why do organizations always cover up perpetrators of sexual harassment and rape?

Why does the unjust system remain unchanged?

Why does the promise of happiness become the root cause of unhappiness?

Why is gender a limitation on human possibilities?

Why are privileges an “energy-saving device”?

Why is violence always associated with women?

Why do sexism and racism continue to be reproduced?

…

Ahmed uses this book and the act of writing to demonstrate how to dismantle this patriarchal world. She encourages us to resist institutional and interpersonal injustice, live a feminist life, and jointly undertake a project to deconstruct the world, connecting with each other and attracting each other. "We are dismantling it bit by bit, even if it is slow, but we are indeed dismantling it!"

★Feminist freedom is the freedom of all people, and the struggle of feminism is a struggle for existence

“For me, feminist freedom must be freedom for all, not the transference of one person’s exhaustion onto another. It must be freedom from violence. It must be freedom to decide how to organize our lives; freedom to come and go and live with others; freedom to express our gender identity in our own way; freedom to create the conditions that allow us to share our freedom with each other. Therefore, a feminist vision of freedom and justice must be close to the ground, close to reality: our vision comes from the struggle for survival.” - Sarah Ahmed

★Without citing any writings of white men, we build our feminist home with feminist bricks!

Ahmed turns her attention to her predecessors and fellow travelers on the path of feminism: Virginia Woolf, George Eliot, Simone de Beauvoir, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, Lauren Berlant, Gloria Anzaldúa - she uses the texts of her feminist predecessors to string together a feminist inheritance path and uses feminist bricks to build a feminist residence.

★ Feminist theory classics originating from daily life

Ahmed re-examines daily life with a phenomenological perspective, making those experiences, languages, and norms that we have never paid attention to present a different look, and abstract theories become vivid and intuitive. This book integrates Ahmed's long-standing reflection on the tradition of feminist theory. For any reader who tries to understand the gender issues, feminist theoretical trends and debates of the current era, this book is a perfect introduction.

★Let's be a willful feminist killjoy

I will not make happiness my end;

I am willing to cause unhappiness;

I am willing to support those who wish to cause unhappiness;

I am not willing to laugh at jokes that are meant to offend;

I don't want to forget the history that has no past;

I am not willing to be included if inclusion means being included in a system of injustice, violence, and inequality;

I am willing to live a life that others would consider unhappy, I am willing to reject the script that defines a good life, and I am willing to broaden it;

I would like to return "hap" (chance) to "happiness" (happiness);

I am willing to sever any precious bond when it becomes harmful to myself or others;

I'd like to join a "killer movement"!

-Content Introduction-

This book presents the subtle experiences of being a feminist in life and work, and then weaves a feminist theory that comes from and is directed to everyday life. How do feminists alienate themselves from the world they criticize? How do they understand the world while trying to transform it? In the face of numerous difficulties, how do they build their own support system and survive the oppression surrounded by high walls? Sara Ahmed dismantles and restates these questions in a very personal and poetic language, providing us with practical tools for living a feminist life, and making the bond between the creation and innovation of feminist theory and the feminist life that nourishes theory closer and more resilient.

Living a Feminist Life is both an uncompromisingly radical call for social change and a frank acknowledgement that in a seemingly endless struggle, we need to take a break. Rather than spreading false hope, Ahmed offers us practical reassurances: choose your battles wisely, sometimes there is only so much you can do, and when things get too much, you can quit, you can leave, you can grieve.

-Media Recommendation-

From the moment I got this book I couldn't put it down...Everyone should read this book. It presents us with new ideas and offers a wonderful way to discuss feminist theory and practice. More than that, this book is endless fun. As the song goes, "your love makes me high", Ahmed makes us high. - bell hooks

Ahmed is committed to describing the world as it is… She writes to bring us together—not just for herself, but for women, women of color, and those who are destined to be voiceless. —Judith Butler

Being a feminist is not about escaping patriarchy and other structures of domination overnight. It is a lifelong endeavor: chipping away at and undermining the very order that continues to exert power over people. Practicing feminism, therefore, means disappointment, frustration, and being rejected at every turn. It means being seen as selfish, mean, and unsatisfied—a spoiler at the family dinner table and at work meetings. For those of us who are willing to pay that price, this book is a shot in the arm: we are in good company. —Susan Fryman

For any reader who is trying to understand contemporary feminist theory, this book is tailor-made for you. Ahmed draws on the research results of feminist scholars of color, talks about practical cases and personal experiences, and thus brings critical theory into life. If you want to establish feminist consciousness, practice feminism, and survive in the world as a "feminist spoilsport", this book is a necessary survival toolbox. - WATER

Living a Feminist Life encourages readers to fight against institutional and interpersonal injustice. Ahmed's feminism places rupture and contestation - whether speaking up in public or rolling your eyes - at the core, refuting the institutions' desire for conflict-free "equality" and is refreshing. --Mary Thompson

I felt a deep sense of identification as I read Living a Feminist Life. Feminists will find this a deeply illuminating book—sometimes painful, but often deeply insightful. Sarah Ahmed’s signature writing style is on full display, as she evokes the reader’s emotions and memories, and all concepts, experiences, words, thoughts, structures, and bodies are observed and considered from every possible angle. This book records what it means to “understand and advocate for everyday life as a feminist.” “Concepts of sweating” and “feminist poopers” are the gems that pop up one after another, making the reader stop and think—she makes reading a “sensational” thing, stopping us from moving forward step by step in our own tracks, and making theory come alive and become flesh and blood. This vivid, wise, and touching book should be on our bookshelves, in our classrooms, and in the hands of our daughters. —Chandra Talpade Mohanty

Anyone who disagrees with the world—and we all should—owes it to themselves, and to a better tomorrow. —Maryam Rahmani

Ahmed's Living a Feminist Life revitalizes the old feminist slogan "The personal is political." She uses a unique and poetic language to illuminate everyday experiences, objects, encounters, emotions, and embodied experiences... This book accompanies readers and shows them the way to find their own survival kit for the spoilsport. -- Gulchia Hamidi-Manish

Living a Feminist Life is a work of embodied political theory…Living a Feminist Life presents us with the work of feminism over the long term, whether it is work happening on the street, in the home, or in the workplace. This witty and well-organized book attempts to construct a feminist life that is neither essentialist nor universalist. —Melissa Gira Grant

Living a Feminist Life is both an uncompromisingly radical call for social change and a frank acknowledgement that in a seemingly endless struggle, we need to take a break and admit that we cannot achieve our goals 100%. It is - and understandably so - sometimes a book of anger and sometimes a book of joy. - Barbara Fortner

A book about breaking free and expressing oneself, a book that taught me how to write and how to think. - Karen Belling

Ahmed has given us a vocabulary that we might have difficulty finding on our own...Her book offers a vision of a radically political feminist ethic, one that has applications far beyond the traditional realms of feminism. —Mahvesh Ahmed

Living a Feminist Life offers something between the timely and impactful blog and the richly thoughtful academic article; it is the most politically engaged, complex, and personal book on gender politics I have seen this year. —Bidisha

I always felt like the book was within my reach - a quality that is lacking in most feminist academic discourse. Everyone was able to grasp, understand and absorb the book's message, proving once again that writing accessible theory does not require sacrificing depth. Quite the opposite. - Travis Alabazza

Fans of bell hooks and Audre Lorde will find Ahmed's frequent references and tributes familiar and reassuring. This book goes far beyond Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique and hits on the crucial intersectionality of modern feminism. --Abby Hargreaves

Living a Feminist Life is both a proxy for Ahmed’s work and something of a guide for other feminist killjoys – a term Ahmed reclaims to refer to feminists who willfully reject social and gender norms, no matter what. Ahmed reflects on her earlier work (including the Feminist Killjoy blog) and is thoughtful in her usual way, but here she shares more personal experiences than ever before – whether it’s growing up as a brown person in a white Australian community, embodying “diversity” in the contemporary neoliberal university, or being a lesbian feminist. Living a Feminist Life is also a useful book for reflecting on the aims and processes of feminist writing (including Ahmed’s own). —Zora Simic