Deconstructing the academic industrial complex of feminism

http://vimeo.com/20933283

Jessica Yee and contributors from her new book, Feminism FOR REAL: Deconstructing the academic industrial complex of feminism, celebrated the book's launch in front of a packed house on February 25 at the Toronto Women's Bookstore.

When feminism becomes its own form of oppression, what do we have to say about it? Western notions of polite discourse are not the norm for everyone, and just because we hear and use buzzwords like “intersectionality” in equity-seeking movements, doesn’t necessarily mean we're 'walking the talk' (i.e. actually being anti-racist).

Against a backdrop exposing a 500+ year legacy of colonization and oppression, Feminism FOR REAL explores the existence of 'feminism', who gets to decide what it is, and why. While addressing some uncomfortable truths and questions about feminism, the contributors to this book share their definitions, experiences and conflicts with the 'F word', and address the fraught relationship between feminism in academic theory and feminism FOR REAL.

With stories that shake the hallowed halls of academia, this book deals head-on with the the frustrations of trying to relate to definitions of feminism that never seem to fit, and the anger of changing a system from the inside out.

About the editor: Jessica Yee is a self-described “Two Spirit multi-racial Indigenous hip hop feminist reproductive justice freedom fighter.” She is the founder and Executive Director of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network—the only organization of its kind in North America that works within the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health by and for Indigenous youth across the continent.
- See more at: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/ourschools-ourselves/feminism-real#sthash.zyPAdTku.dpuf