The relation between different forms of oppressive structures has been an object of dispute throughout the history of feminism. One of the most influential debates devoted to this issue is the one between Judith Butler and Nancy Fraser during the 1990s. Although the debate attracted a great deal of attention, and both thinkers have subsequently developed their theories by introducing novel concepts to describe oppression as well as the conditions of contemporary emancipatory movements, they have not continued to engage in each other's work. This article offers a critical reading of the positions that Fraser and Butler took in the 1990s debate, as well as an identification of shifts in their thinking ensuing from the debate. A particular interest of the article is their conceptualisations of the grounds for political alliances among groups with distinct experiences of oppression. The article not only offers a critique of both Butler's and Fraser's positions in the 1990s debate but also argues that the way in which Fraser's trajectory has come to directly address the issue of the capitalist social order, and which can also be read as an implicit self-critique, is more satisfactory than Butler's later work on precarity. © The Author(s) 2023.
Sugar dating has gained extensive media coverage over the last couple of years, often being depicted as a veiled form of prostitution / sex work. While similar dating arrangements encompassing some sort of economic compensation are well researched in an African and Asian context, sugar dating has only garnered attention from researchers in the Global North during the last decade, in the wake of a proliferation of websites facilitating the practice. In light of the contested nature of the phenomenon, in this article we critically assess how knowledge about sugar dating is constructed in the emerging literature on the topic in the Global North, with a particular focus on the role attributed to sugar daters’ own experiential accounts. Alongside furthering the discourse on sugar dating by unravelling the epistemological underpinnings of existing research, we utilise the case of sugar-dating research to elaborate on the continued relevance of feminist debates on the epistemological status of experience. We call for a more comprehensive theoretical examination of experience in sugar-dating research and posit that some versions of feminist standpoint theory, as well as strands in feminist phenomenology, provide valuable theoretical tools for navigating between understanding experience as an ideological construct and/or as a privileged foundation of knowledge. © The Author(s) 2023
Om Martin Hägglunds "Vårt enda liv"
In recent years feminist movements have increasingly employed the form and rhetoric of strikes in framing their protests. The rise of the women’s strike movement has been seen as an indicator of an invigorated wave of feminist activism that focuses, to a greater extent, on structural economic injustices. The aim of this article is to provide a historical aspect to the growing research on strikes as a multifaceted form of protest. The article analyses articulations of collective identity, solidarity, and sisterhood in two different kinds of ‘women’s strikes’ that took place in the Nordic region during the mid-1970s; the ASAB cleaners’ strikes in Sweden during 1974–1975 and the Icelandic Women’s Day Off that took place on October 24, 1975. The article explores how the relationship between gender and class was conceptualized by participants, organizers, and bystanders. We employ these cases to study how solidarity and sisterhood across differences among women might have appeared in practice while at the same time reflecting internal tensions and varying interests. Moreover, the article reflects on the specific form of the strikes and the potential impact their respective form might have had on the political articulations that came out of them.