(FEM6) Transnational Feminist Solidarities: Imagining and Demanding Shared Futures

Amidst the evolving geopolitical landscape, marked by the Taliban's ascendancy in Afghanistan, the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement in Iran, escalating femicides in Turkey, the increasing gender-based violence in Sudan amidst war, the genocide in Gaza coupled with criminalization of solidarity with Palestine, and gender-related adversities from the Arab region to Pakistan and India, there is an emerging paradigm shift in feminist alliances. A proactive younger generation is envisioning a progressive future, underpinned by collective mobilization against state-sanctioned gender violence. In the context of "Challenging Hate: Sustaining Shared Futures," in this session we focus on understanding the nature of solidarity, particularly where human rights violations intersect with gender inequalities. We invite theoretical and/or empirical papers that explore potential or existing transboundary gender equality movements, intersectionalities, and alliances, and the prerequisites for their emergence and growth. Centering critical and postcolonial frameworks on the sociological exploration of feminist solidarities, we invite papers offering new approaches that nuance our understanding of resistance and resilience and what “to be in solidarity” means and takes in the academic and/or activist contexts. Tags: Feminism, Social Movements

Organizers: Rezvaneh Erfani, University of Alberta, Hajar Soltan, University of Guelph, Benazir Shah, York University, Areej Alshammiry, York University; Chair: Rezvaneh Erfani, University of Alberta

Presentations

Jinman Zhang, Western University

Investigating stress, appraisal, and coping in Chinese anti-sexual violence feminist activism on social media: A platform comparison of Weibo and Zhihu

Feminist activists employ social media to advocate for various feminist causes and to foster solidarity (Mendes, Ringrose, Keller, 2019; Tan, 2017). Feminist activists have benefitted from the affordances of social media, yet research demonstrates that there are negative impacts resulting from trolling, hateful comments, and misogyny. These negative experiences together lead to high levels of stress, burnout, and emotional labor, which previous research has shown as prevalent among feminist activists on social media (Swanson and Szymanski, 2020; Blais, 2023). Past studies have examined feminist activists’ experiences of stress and their coping mechanisms in the Global North context. However, the stress resulting from feminist activism is not well understood in other regions of the world. Social, historical, religious, and political contexts shape the experiences of feminist activists, underscoring the need to expand research to encompass diverse perspectives. In China, paralleling the rise of anti-sexual violence activism globally, feminist activists have used social media to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual violence in Chinse society and advocate for social change (Zeng, 2020). Their engagement has met resistance with platforms censoring activist-related posts and activists often targeted with misogynistic messages. Because of the range of negative experiences that Chinse feminist activists have on social media, there is a need to investigate the types of stressors, the appraisal of those stressors, and the coping strategies. The present study has several objectives. It proposes to develop a theoretical framework of how feminist activists appraise and experience stressors resulting from their feminist activism on social media. The framework builds on the transactional model of stress and coping (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). Another objective is to understand stress in the historical and political context of feminist activism in China following calls to expand our understanding of feminist activism to non-Western contexts (Quan-Haase, et al., 2021). Finally, the study examines not only stress appraisal, but also the coping strategies activists develop. We conducted 19 in-depth interviews lasting 40 – 90 minutes with Chinese feminist activists. Activists were recruited from China’s two most popular social media platforms: Weibo and Zhihu. We also used a comparative approach that considers the nuanced characteristics and affordances of each social media platform (Matassi and Boczkowski, 2023). Data analysis consisted of qualitative content analysis of interview transcripts using NVivo 12. In alignment with the research objectives, we examined the range of stress experiences and stress appraisals. We found that feminist activists encounter an array of stressors. We found that activists’ appraisals of a stressor were not static, but rather adapt. In addition, we found that secondary appraisals played a crucial mediating role between identifying stressors and developing effective coping strategies. Feminist activists engaged in secondary appraisals, consisting of evaluating external conditions and self-efficacy. Lastly, we identified two main types of coping strategies: emotion focused coping and problem focused coping. Our comparative analysis showed that the number of participants reporting experiences of stress and developing coping strategies was greater on Weibo than on Zhihu. Our findings suggest that feminist activists may be adopting a more tempered advocacy approach to proactively mitigate the elevated risks of stressful encounters on Zhihu. This suggests that Zhihu is less conducive to feminist activism than Weibo. Our analysis identified platform-specific features that facilitate more effective coping strategies. In conclusion, the study shows agency is central to understanding how feminist activists cope with stress: spanning from how they appraise stressors, evaluate various coping options, to how they develop new coping strategies. In the interviews, there was an absence of collective coping strategies. We hypothesize that collective engagement is constrained due to the digital surveillance in China directed at identifying and suppressing collective action, wherein feminist collective action is a prime target.

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Non-presenting author: Anabel Quan-Haase, University of Western Ontario

Qingyan Sun, University of Alberta

In the Everyday–Emerging Thoughts on Care and Non-Hiearchization as the Ontological Foundation of Solidarities in the Corporate University

To explore decolonial practices, Hunt & Holmes (2015) describe the important and necessary conversations with family and friends in everyday settings. Following this line of thought, this paper argues that one conception of solidarity can emerge from the everyday, where collective practices of care performatively constitute the political foundations for larger solidarity movements that aim to undermine and dismantle the infrastructures of structural dominations (Butler, 2015). To substantiate this argument, I begin by situating myself as a gay man of East-Asian descent within the academia dominated by whiteness and white men, specifically in its more immediate physical context of the corporate university. I employ an autoethnographic approach to dissecting the commonplace yet normalized practices of trivialization that I experience, which speak to the marginal statuses of certain areas of study within the institution. I then highlight that this marginalization within the institution is intersectional and that it corresponds to and trades with our experiences beyond its walls as we go about our daily lives as marked subjects within the colonial state of Canada. In this way, I demonstrate that the division between personal life and work life is artificial and unable to be sustained; as subjects navigating on the margins, more importantly, we cannot afford to sustain such manufactured division that hinders our political alliance and mobilization. Thence, I explore points of departure for conceptualizing solidarity that may have a radical potential for transformation. This will be achieved through the notion of non-hierarchization based on which a different kind of care and willful coming-together can be imagined which extends beyond the terms of the (neo)liberal state. Ultimately, drawing upon intersectional feminism (Collins, 2019), feminist philosophy (Ahmed, 2006; Butler, 2001), queer Indigenous studies (Belcourt, 2016), and queer of colour critique (Muñoz, 1999), I wish to underscore the political urgency of thinking about a queer feminist solidarity in the everyday, in what appears to be mundane, obscure, and insignificant.

Rezvaneh Erfani, University of Alberta

Claiming the Space: Stories of Resilience and Resistance

This paper is based on interviews with five Iranian Canadian women who are faculty members in the fields of sociology and women and gender studies. These five women have received their undergraduate education from departments of sociology in major universities in Iran, where the majority of faculty are men and topics of gender and sexuality are highly monitored by the state. They are also from different generations of university graduates with different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. All of them have moved to Canada as international students at a young age and have received their PhDs from Canadian universities in the field of sociology. I ask them questions on their experiences of receiving sociological training in Iran and Canada. Through their narratives, I reflect on how their experiences of immigration to and integration in Canada and stories of resilience and resistance impacted and informed their socio-political thought and practice both in Iranian and Canadian academic spheres as all these women are actively participating in producing Persian academic literature. In my interviews, I invite these women to tell their stories of being a minority, once as a female sociology student in a male dominated sphere and now as a woman of color sociologist in a Canadian academic institution. I also invite them to reflect on their experiences of inclusion and exclusion, identity complexities, and their insights on the current women, life, freedom movement in Iran.

Laisa Massarenti Hosoya, University of Windsor

From Earth to Spirit: The Body-Territory in the Journey of the Indigenous Women's Association Kaingang from the Apucaraninha Indigenous Land in Northern Paraná, Brazil

This study addresses the dynamics of the Kaingang indigenous womens movement, focusing on the protection and defence of their territory in northern Paraná, Brazil, particularly the emergence of the Association of Indigenous Women from the Apucaraninha Indigenous Land (AMOTIA). The demarcation of indigenous land in Brazil remains a complex and contentious issue, navigating between constitutional protections and challenges posed by political, economic, and social pressures. Brazil has a primary export-oriented trajectory, and as a result, sectors such as agriculture, mining, and energy exert pressure, creating political, social, and normative mechanisms that aim to restrain the recognition and protection of indigenous lands. The environmental conflict between indigenous peoples and large investment projects is the result of the clash between two distinct rationalities: in the indigenous worldview, nature is an extension of the body, while for neo-extractivism, it is a resource and, consequently, a factor of production. As a result, land and territory are at the center of the disputes between neo-extractivism and traditional communities, as is the case with the Kaingang people in the Apucaraninha Indigenous Land. The study analyzes how indigenous women organize themselves for the protection and defence of their territory while they create the Association of Indigenous Women from the Apucaraninha Indigenous Land (AMOTIA) in Paraná. Central to this study is the concept of "Body-Territory" (Corpo- Território) that highlights a relationship of belonging with the territory and its collective, establishing a meaningful space for lived experiences that unfold through continuous learning, both about oneself and others and emphasizes a profound connection with nature and the Sacred. The paper then delves into the genesis and formalization of AMOTIA, shedding light on its ideation and development through dialogues within the community and aligns with the objectives and guidelines discussed and established by indigenous women throughout Brazil, endorsed by the National Association of Indigenous Women (ANMIGA). Therefore, the methodology employs a brief literature review based on the categories body-territory and land regularization, which ultimately serve as crucial elements for comprehending the territory, as well as the power dynamics established within it. The research concludes that despite the adversities and economic challenges faced by Kaingang women in Apucaraninha, they overcame obstacles and, with community-based organization, were able to create and officialize their womens association. They are focused on defending territory and revitalizing indigenous culture; the organization prioritizes the preservation of both the physical and cultural aspects of their land, and the community strives to strike a harmonious balance between environmental sustainability and cultural heritage. They recognize the fractures within existing power structures, and efforts are made to redefine and re-establish power dynamics, promoting inclusivity and empowerment within the community. The contact with the community highlighted two major issues for the Kaingang community in the Apucaraninha Indigenous Land: the lack of shamanic practices - the presence of Kujá (spiritual leader) - and the loss of their traditional language – (indigenous women who do not speak the Kaingang language and a significant number who do not have their original name on their identity documents). Based on these reflections, AMOTIA (Association of Indigenous Women) emphasizes indigenous knowledge and underscores its importance amid social dynamics. In its statute, it sought to preserve traditional knowledge while navigating the complexity of the contemporary scenario. Therefore, it materializes in the proposal for community-based territorial planning and in the pillars advocated by the plan, which simultaneously recognizes the need to preserve enduring elements while accessing windows of opportunity, especially concerning productive chains driven by public policies.

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Non-presenting author: Alessandra De Sant'Anna, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro