and to ‘journey’ from one to another is sacrilege. Because our society sees sex as ‘natural’, and therefore self-evident, it has sex assignment: they recognise that throughout history, to be ‘female’ has often meant death, mutilation and oppression. Sex categorisation has been the starting point for well-known feminist theories. But the idea of sex as immutable became a focal point of radical, lesbian feminism in the West, and more specifically,

LO: I think constantly about the moments that bring people to politics and critical thinking. For me, that happened in the bounds of an institution – I was heavily involved in different kinds of organising as a student that continued after I left university. A lot of the book would not be possible without those experiences, committing yourself to any kind of transformative political project no matter where you are produces knowledge. As I’ve gotten older, I believe more in the possibility of transformative gender relations and crafting political ideas/demands that account for everyone. At a certain point I changed my mind about ‘work/careers’ being the most defining aspect of a person’s life, the necessity to ‘love’ your job and instead chose to think about work in terms of what capitalism does to our bodies and minds, what we are missing out on, what we don’t get to do. There are a number of scientific studies that point to the fact that human beings’ sexual biology is far more varied than we There is a dangerous liberal feminism that fetishises personal choice: Can you be a feminist and wear high heels? Can you be a feminist and shave your legs? But policing the way women present themselves distracts us from the more pressing issues at hand. Why are women the lowest paid workers? Why do women have the least access to the material resources necessary for survival? Are women free from violence? If not, then why not? The latter questions asks us to open our eyes and examine the way our society functions while the former are concerned with ‘choice’ as if choice exists in a vacuum. Our obsession with locating the singular universal cause of women’s oppression stops us from engaging with the mechanisms of that oppression that manifest in daily life: the economic, the political, the social. This narrow scope for thinking about our own oppression has undoubtedly led many feminists to fall prey to the myth that trans women pose a threat to feminist advancements. Legality does not equal access. There are many more complicated demands to be made: mainstream movements will always defeat their own purpose as long as they consider the law as the sole indicator of progress. Perhaps the most powerful thing that can be done is sabotaging the law-making project and refusing to concede that abortion is unlawful.LO: The book purposefully sits outside the realm of party politics. A big part of it was trying to make the case that it is possible and even necessary to think beyond the state and the narrow, often self-defeating cycles of electioneering. Those who rely on this kind of thinking are also the least likely to adopt an intersectional approach to feminist practice. These ‘feminists’ are not concerned with changing the material conditions of women’s lives so that subjugation and exploitation are no longer necessary parts of it. Instead, they direct their anxieties about the kinds of violence that all women experience in a patriarchal society towards trans women so that cis women become ‘oppressed’ by the existence of trans women or by expansive ideas of gender. Essentialist understandings offer a simple truth about ourselves that is easy to swallow. Pathologising trans people makes it easier to blame them for societal ills and to pit cis and trans women’s issues against one another. This merely distracts us from the most pressing issues at hand. But loosely, feminists have understood gender as our sense of self in the world, how we present our bodies, speak, move--anything that refers to our own bodies. A well-argued, no-nonsense account, and essential reading for anyone interested in the state of Feminism today' Olufemi starts from looking at “the sexist state” and its use of austerity and state violence. Here, she maintains a decisive focus on British cases — avoiding the all-too-common tendency for discussions of racist police violence to end up deflecting attention to the United States alone. The incarceration of asylum seekers in institutions such as Yarl’s Wood detention center is a crucial focus, here: feminist struggles which focus on citizenship-based rights neglect the fact that some of the most vulnerable women, most in need of solidarity, are denied access to those very rights. This demands an overhaul of a state system whose own structures perpetuate patriarchal violence.

Whilst a number of feminist collectives/groups did rationalise themselves through essentialisms during what what is called ‘the second wave’ – many did not and its important to note how those feminists, placed on the periphery, were also invested in questions of race, class and exploitation. There has and will always be a tug-of-war of groups making different claims about what feminism is under the term and for this reason, it is important to clarify what you mean and understand by it when you deploy it. A brave manifesto ... [Feminism Interrupted] unravels a silenced history of radicalism and points toward a truly just future' PDF / EPUB File Name: Feminism_Interrupted_-_Lola_Olufemi.pdf, Feminism_Interrupted_-_Lola_Olufemi.epub The fight for reproductive justice” explores the difference between legislative “rights” and actual “justice” through the lens of Repeal the 8th, a successful but flawed campaign to repeal the ban on abortions in Ireland. The chapter begins by noting that historical campaigns in favour of birth control and abortion access often cited “population control” as a benefit, specifically referencing marginalised groups when doing so, leading to a general mistrust of the reproductive rights movement by people of colour. Further, Olufemi examines the aftermath of Repeal the 8th along with other abortion rights campaigns in the UK and US, demonstrating that changes in the law do not automatically result in equal access to abortions. People still face healthcare barriers - from anti-migrant policies and extraneous requirements for medical advice, to pro-life protests outside clinics - underlining that there is a limit to the impact changing a single law can have on the sysem. The central argument here is that the focus on “abortion rights” from mainstream feminism can lead to the sidelining of broader healthcare issues for people of colour and the difficulties that many people still have in accessing reproductive healthcare. The chapter concludes by emphasising the urgent need for reproductive justice which goes beyond campaigning for legislation, instead focusing on systemic change, an argument echoed in a later chapter “The answer to sexual violence is not more prisons”. idea that women are born, and not made or named; that there is something inherent in biology that is crucial to womanhood.I’ve stopped viewing certain thinkers as infallible or their theories as impervious to critique. I really want to stress how crucial it is that people who are trying to craft a radical understanding of the world remain unashamed of the places that they began. I try to have empathy for those other versions of myself. I think remaining flexible in that way also helps us trace what it was that caused those shifts – affective experiences, reading, material conditions etc, which will matter a lot in a ‘post-COVID’ political moment when more people will begin to question state power.