Transversal and Postmodern Feminist Praxis in Everyday Politics

Abstract

Feminist praxis is usually a conscious, reflexive, process of  moving from theory to application in order to create transformation. We want to expand the scope of feminist praxis, however, to include moments in which feminist theory explains political transformations that may not be deliberate, but that result in a feminist outcome:  the pursuit of gender equality through personal and political transformation.  This paper uses a dataset of online comments generated after the Supreme Court of Canada decision in R. v. N.S. as a case study, and it sits in conversation with postmodern and transversal feminist theorists, particularly the recent work of Patricia Hill Collins (2017) that builds on Nira Yuval-Davis (1997) and others, to argue that political action is most effective when transversal practice is layered onto intersectional politics; and that, despite Hill Collins’ concern that political practice has yet to move to effective transversalism (2017, 1471), transversal feminist praxis can be found in examples of everyday politics which offer hope for social transformation.