A matrix of feminist futures
Feminist Utopias
In the summer of 2020, in the first year of the pandemic, we, activists from Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Belarus, got together and understood that we lacked the space of cross-border feminist solidarity. The feeling of belonging to the global feminist movement gives strength to move on and the ability to radically dream and invent new things. This is the feeling this platform should create. Dots on the matrix are the opportunity to see each activist within the network of others. For easier orientation, a list of all statements is also available.
Why utopias?
Researcher Sasha Shestakova, quoting Madina Tlostanova, calls the neoreactional turn in politics "the process of canceling the future." The climate crisis, ongoing wars, racial and gender-based violence, conservative government policies - in such conditions, it may seem that it is easier not to think about the future at all. Sasha, however, says that there is a place for utopian projects in the world. The future is a cultural fact, and to wish for the best is a social and collective ability. In the modern world, this ability is distributed unevenly. Dominant visions of the future are based on gender, racial and class discrimination. As a result of centuries of colonialism and slave trade, while some parts of the world are rushing into the future, others are forced to catch up forever. For example, the researcher Oksana Shatalova writes how the countries of the region called Central Asia after the collapse of the USSR were ousted from the "periphery" of the Soviet empire to the global "periphery", having lost the right to an equal place in the future.
Could there be other utopias that exist in spite of oppression? As the creator of the “Utopian Circle” Anastasia Kalk writes, feminist mobilization takes place around utopias. Anthropologist Soph B. Petzelberger, quoting Jennifer Wagner-Lovelor, says that in feminism, the future is always an action, a process of creation through an act of imagination. According to Margaret Atwood, imagination is not an idle pastime, but a necessity: if we can imagine it, we can do it. The creators and authors of "Сyberfemzine" Lika Kareva and Yozhi Stolet, referring to science fiction, describe how utopias were elaborated by such authors as Donna Haraway, Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler. These writers weaved a picture of the world in which there is no place not only for gender-based violence, but also for racism, colonialism, ableism, and class oppression. From decolonial feminism to cyberfeminism and caring theater, our matrix contains many routes to utopias.
Could there be other utopias that exist in spite of oppression? As the creator of the “Utopian Circle” Anastasia Kalk writes, feminist mobilization takes place around utopias. Anthropologist Soph B. Petzelberger, quoting Jennifer Wagner-Lovelor, says that in feminism, the future is always an action, a process of creation through an act of imagination. According to Margaret Atwood, imagination is not an idle pastime, but a necessity: if we can imagine it, we can do it. The creators and authors of "Сyberfemzine" Lika Kareva and Yozhi Stolet, referring to science fiction, describe how utopias were elaborated by such authors as Donna Haraway, Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler. These writers weaved a picture of the world in which there is no place not only for gender-based violence, but also for racism, colonialism, ableism, and class oppression. From decolonial feminism to cyberfeminism and caring theater, our matrix contains many routes to utopias.