About the “Dissenting Feminisms” Issue
Welcome to the Spring 2025 issue of Rejoinder on “Dissenting Feminisms.” When we issued our call for submissions early last fall, we were interested in exploring the long and varied history of feminist dissent, from Egyptian feminist demonstrations against British colonial rule in 1919 to Indian feminist protests against sexual violence in 2012 and 2024 – or, framed from the perspective of the Global North, everything from the mid 19th-century movements for women’s suffrage in the UK and USA onward. Also on our minds, with a US presidential election on the horizon, were the January 2017 Women’s Marches, which spread rapidly worldwide after Donald Trump’s first victory at the polls.
But we did not want this special issue to be confined to addressing feminist dissent through the prism of public protest. Feminism is a complex and heterogeneous set of theories and activist practices, with some feminist narratives taking precedence over others. We also wanted to explore dissent that is internal to feminism, asking whose feminist voices are excluded from, or marginalized within, dominant feminist discourses.
From art by Ildikó Kalapács featuring topless women fighting a duel, to Jaime Cantrell’s sculptures suggesting the vulnerability of women’s reproductive health (presented here alongside her short essay, “The Writing Was on the Wall,” about her experiences defending a Louisiana abortion clinic), the contributors to this special issue of Rejoinder address the complexity of our theme in innovative ways. Articles explore subjects including feminist protest in Iran (Mahdiyeh Govah), trans feminism, pregnancy, and reproductive justice (Avik Sarkar), feminist labor organizing across national borders (Catherine A. Evans and Jessie B. Ramey), and resisting the legacy of racialized, gender-based violence (Sheila Shankar and Soo Young Lee). Rejoinder also features a short story by Vuyokazi Ngemntu about a group of feisty mothers, and four poems laced with anger and defiance: “Nombrar el Cosmos/Naming the Cosmos” (Tina Escaja); “Honeysuckle and High Water” (Destiny Crockett); “Choosing Beyond Choice” (Judy Rohrer); and “Remember” (Alexis Krasilovsky).
We hope you enjoy the thought-provoking collection of articles, poetry, fiction, and art in the tenth issue of Rejoinder. We thank all our contributors, and additionally Yanaisy Santana, Sarah Butler, Laura Gordon, and Nik Ianuzelli, for their help with this issue. Please subscribe to Rejoinder to receive future issues and join our email list to learn more about IRW.
Sarah Tobias
Editor