Rebel bodies: feminism as resistance in the Catalan pro-independence left

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the political potentialities of embodied feminist resistance in a nationalist setting like contemporary Catalonia. It strives to provide a better understanding of the body-gender-nation assemblage and pave the way for different formulas of resistance. I study how feminist nationalism in the Catalan pro-independence left opposes far-right populism through embodiment (rebel bodies), affects such as solidarity and companionship, and other visual, linguistic and political strategies. In this context, embodied feminism becomes a sentiment attached to a value system as well as a political strategy that produces particular gendered bodies that are political and confront and resist far-right populism and other forms of anti-genderism through feminism, affects and alternative ideals of the nation. Since anti-gender has become a key element in holding together various demands of right-wing populism (nationalism, religious fundamentalism and so on), it is urgent to study the connection of gender, nationalism and current politics in order to explore its effects in different ideological positions.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• nation
• feminism
• body politics
• resistance
• affects
• solidarity
• Catalonia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. All informants’ names have been changed in order to protect their identity.

2. Extracted from Andrea d’Atri’s words at Arran’s training school on feminism (“Feminist Debates: from thought to action,” 6 April 2019, published on Arran YouTube channel). All translations are the author’s.

Additional information

Funding

This article is a result of the research project “Knitting Sovereignty and Secessionism: Politics, Emotions and Affects”, funded by the Institute for Self-Government Studies (Institut d’Estudis de l’Autogovern), Government of Catalonia-Generalitat de Catalunya (ref. 2018 IEA5 00008).

Notes on contributors

Begonya Enguix Grau

Begonya Enguix Grau is an associate professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). She is the author of Sexualities, Gender and Violence (Nova Publishers, 2020, with Cristina Pereira) and Orgullo, negocio, protesta y otras derivas LGTB (Doce Calles, 2019). She has published on gender (particularly masculinities and other gender expressions), bodies, sexualities, affects and identities, as well as their assemblage with the media, activism and politics.