Staging Bodies
Learning through feminist activism. Analysis of points emerging from actions by La Barbe and Femen in France
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.ojs150Keywords:
transformative learning, feminist activism, empowerment, performative activism, staging bodiesAbstract
Women do not engage in feminist activism with an educational objective. However, activism has a transformatory effect on the participants, through forms of informal learning that are mainly recognized by the concerned in retrospect. Our research tries to identify which elements of the activist process have the highest informal learning potential in terms of empowerment. We analyse and compare the learning effect of activism in two feminist movements—« La Barbe » and FEMEN—based on the transformative learning concept. «La Barbe» is a French network of women seeking to denounce male domination in official institutions, private and public decision making bodies or important public events (conferences, etc.) concerning the political, financial and other “high level” spheres. FEMEN is a radical feminist protest group founded in Ukraine in 2008, now based in Paris. The organization is highly mediatised for organizing controversial topless protests against sex tourism, religious institutions, sexism, homophobia and other social, national and international topics. This research analyses the informal learning effect of these forms of activism, according to the activists’ own perception, taking into account the ways in which the networks, the public appearances and their preparatory processes are organised.
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