Living a Feminist Life

As I listened to my feminist colleague espouse the daily challenges involved living true to her values and convictions as she encounters moments of thinly veiled misogyny and sexism, I found myself reaching into my briefcase and slowly sliding my well ear-marked copy of Living a Feminist Life across the table and uttering: “You need to read this book”.Every person who feels isolated in the righteous and often lonely fight for equality would benefit from Ahmed’s book. The volume combines deeply personal anecdotal (and often painful) stories of feeling like an outsider, even while surrounded by her closest family members, with easily digestible feminist theory. She ends the book with two practical survival guides to endure the onslaught of injustices feminists of conscience are sure to encounter as they navigate through patriarchal society.Raised in a conservative Muslim family, Ahmed delicately and heartbreakingly details her strained relationship with a father who clearly loves her as a daughter, yet is disdainful of her non-compliant willfulness. Ahmed views willfulness as consciousness brimming at the surface: questioning and challenging social mores that prescribe happiness in a predetermined set of criteria. “Being estranged from one’s own life can be how a world reappears, becoming odd…to become conscious of possibility can involve mourning for its loss” (Ahmed, page 47).Once feminist consciousness is turned on, evidence of injustice seems to rear its head at every turn, leaving the feminist killjoy feeling like an alien in a world full of people who seem incapable of breathing the same air she does. Ahmed states that feminist killjoys become a problem when we describe a problem: (Ahmed, pg 38, 39, 62): Through feminism you make sense of wrongs; you realize that you are not in the wrong. But when you speak of something as being wrong, you end up being in the wrong all over again. The sensation of being wronged can thus end up magnified; you feel wronged by being perceived as in the wrong just for pointing out something is wrong. It is frustrating….Feministconsciousness can be thought of as consciousness of violence and power concealed under the languages of civility, happiness, and love, rather than simply or only consciousness of gender as a site of restriction of possibility.Ahmed also takes aim at diversity and inclusion initiatives instituted at organizations. She sees them as simply a ruse – a way of looking like something is being done, when really nothing is being done. It is a doubly violent exercise of giving the appearance of doing something, but really doing nothing, and exploiting an oppressed person as the lead in the futile exercise. She utilizes a metaphor of a wall that she encountered in diversity work that keeps the master’s residence standing. Her metaphor conjures memories of feminist Audre Lorde’s contention that you cannot tear down the master’s house with the master’s tools.Ahmed’s description of feminist snap, that point when the pressure of the cumulative injustices ruptures one’s ability to be complacent any longer, is a powerful metaphor. She describes it as the basis for feminist revolt and the gathering of an army willing to stand for feminist hope. It is why, when I hear my feminist sister lost in a sea of despair I slide Living a Feminist Life to my comrade and suggest: “You need to read this book”.

This book put together so many thoughts, feelings, emotions, and experiences about life as a "feminist killjoy." From expertly crafting narratives that you can feel yourself around "diversity" work and becoming the problem when you bring up a problem. Accessible to read for new readers of Ahmed (if Queer Phenomenology had your head spinning like mine was). My self care and activism is so much better off from reading this tet

This is a wonderful book and taught me a lot about the struggles for women, especially those who have largely been marginalized due to ethnicity or sexual orientation. Everybody should read this book.

This is a fantastic book and opened my eyes to how patriarchy works on an emotional and personal level. As a man I found it useful, as a business leader I found it useful as a human I found it useful. Everyone should read this book.

Ahmed's work is wonderful. This book was enjoyable to read, and it's working as part of the theoretical basis for my dissertation.

Arrived on time and the price was perfect!

Excellent book. Highly recommend.

Useful book

such a great book. Really important read for feminist scholars and activists. Highly recommend. While Ahmed is a scholar, I found the language relatively accessible but will require a basis in feminist thought.

I bought this for my daughter's college Women studies class and it was what she needed as it was required

Kindle version has no page numbers

Excellent livre, à lire absolument

This book a calming and comforting essay. It feels like having coffee with Ahmed and embracing feminist herstory, with Audre Lorde's words along the journey.

This is an outstanding feminist book, and one that deserves to be more widely read. It gets past the often impenetrable academic feminist discourse to something that is more relevant to everyone.

A must read for everyone. Accessible language, not only intended for the exclusive Academic sphere), very relatable and enlightening. Incredibly powerful as it resonates with so many personal experiences regarding feminist-killjoying. Such a thought-through book, I love it.

Ahmed at her brilliant, subtle best. Deeply moving, funny, wise, & an absolutely necessary book for any feminist activist in these trying times. Read it, teach it, lend it out....

Must read.

A good good.

Amazing book, very good quality and arrived on time. Can't fault it.

good