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Feminist Cultural Activism

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Feminist cultural activism, which includes, but is not limited to: art, music, literature, poetry, performance, and theatre, has made significant contributions to the development of the women's movement globally. Yet, at the same time, the arts and culture are often dismissed as ineffective forms of activism, or merely an appendage to more 'serious' activities such as mass mobilisations or lobbying for specific policy changes. Moreover, when women's politically-engaged cultural productions have been analysed, their activist nature is often taken for granted, rather than analysed in depth. Nevertheless, the relationship between culture and feminist activism is a complex one that can be looked at from several angles. Broadly, there are those …show more content…

First, there are those who work from a more general definition of culture. For example, Leistyna defines cultural activists as those who 'recognize how material conditions, politics, and culture are interlaced and how subordination, resistance, and opposition take place in both the physical and symbolic realm' . Whereas Swidler sees culture as a 'toolkit' that activists can use which 'consists of such symbolic vehicles of meaning, including belief, ritual practices, art forms, and ceremonies, as well as informal culture practices such as language, gossip, stories, and rituals of daily life' . Similarly, Yúdice sees cultural activism as that which uses broadly defined cultural practices 'in the pursuit of social justice' . These definitions of culture are wide-ranging, which can make them harder to study as specific or individual …show more content…

Therefore, for the purposes of this essay, 'cultural activism' will be defined as: uses of the arts for politically-involved purposes. I will use 'culture' and 'the arts' interchangeably to mean visual art, performance, theatre, dance, literature, and poetry, however, I will also look at a number of non-traditional activities that I consider to fall under this definition of culture. Perspectives on cultural activism There are a number of perspectives on cultural activism: on the one hand, there are those who have looked at it from the viewpoint of social movement theory, and on the other, there are those who examine it from an art history angle. Furthermore, there are some uses of the arts as activism that have been ignored by both of these approaches. Cultural activism and social

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