Crisis Feminisms: How Convenient Forgetting, Feminist Ambivalence, and Racial Gaslighting Maintain the Status Quo

In this paper, we interrogate what are considered feminist issues for feminist sociologists, prodding us to expand our definition of ‘feminist sociology’ considering what we are still learning from global crises. We take our cue from Black, indigenous, women of color, and transnational feminisms, who highlight the importance of the self, center gender, sexuality, racialization, class, power and transnational processes, and have a commitment to feminist praxis. In doing so, we introduce the concept of ‘crisis feminisms’ as a theoretical tool to unpack how and why feminist practices and processes re-enact epistemic violence and maintain the status quo, despite rhetorically declaring otherwise. These processes, we argue, occur through three intertwined mechanisms: convenient forgetting, feminist ambivalence, and racial gaslighting. Documenting how these processes are enacted, we argue that radical potentialities for change are possible, but only if we embrace and practice what such feminist knowledges teach us.