Apparently xenofeminism is “one of the most exciting intellectual trends in contemporary feminism” and I’ve certainly experienced a number of enthused individuals excitedly recommending the XFM to me over the past few years (warning! long thread)
*DISCLAIMER*: not to say I don’t appreciate how XFM pushes for an ambitious & uncompromising vision of feminism which can contend w/ current&future challenges in the politics of technology- I was enthused when i first encountered it that others were doing things w/ cyberfeminism
However, I’m uncomfortable in particular with the name and use of the prefix “xeno,” most commonly defined as ‘relating to foreigners’. This “xeno” is used as a stand-in for ‘alien’ but what kind of feminist politics is this xenofeminist ‘politics for alienation’?
They say: “XF seizes alienation as an impetus to generate new worlds. We are all alienated – but have we ever been otherwise? It is through, and not despite, our alienated condition that we can free ourselves from the muck of immediacy” (0x01)
Who is the ‘we’ who XFM speak from/about? It seems to imply that “we” are somehow all equally alienated. If the ‘we’ is white womxn, there’s a whole lot of complexly entangled power relations which are being flattened here. Who are the bodies who can so easily free themselves...
...from the ‘muck of immediacy’ anyhow? What about the racialized, classed, differently able, non-heteronormative bodies (including combinations of all of these) who can’t simply transcend the “immediacy” which constitutes how they are necessarily categorized in/by the world?
XFM purports 2b an ‘intersectional’ feminism which seeks to abolish race,gender,class by reworking ‘the universal’.It sides w/ recent neo-rationalist trends in proposing that ‘feminism must be a rationalism’(0x04).It wants (hi)technologies to be used for emancipatory means.But….
…in doing so it overlks whole fields which refute the centrality of W European rationalist thought (which developed contemporaneous w/ histories of colonialism trans-atlantic slavery to justify the systematic subjugation of racialized Others theorized to be genetically inferior)
it overlks the uneven material & social relations which underpin the Eurocentric myth of a homogenous & linear development of technological progress
it overlks critiques of the whiteness of these technological discourses which often function as stand-ins for racist ideologies of progress vs primitivism (e.g. M. Wright 2002); it overlks the consistent articulation of the term ‘alien’ as racialized Other in many fields
*IF* this was a manifesto authored by radical women of colour/Black/3rd world feminists, reappropriating the obvious assoc. of ‘xeno’ w/ ‘xenophobia’, XFM would have a v different resonance. However, all of its authors are white/white-passing womxn from the Global North
But this is not all about identities! It’s about the kind of feminist politics being advocated when implying that those who are shackled to their “mucky” embodiment r supposedly engaged w/“puritanical politics of shame–which fetishizes oppression as if it were a blessing” ...
...XFM speaks sceptically about “‘social justice’ and ‘privilege-checking’”. YES, identity politics has historically and presently many problems, but hoping to simply erase identities as a solution is a fantasy only the privileged few can entertain.
I get that what XF proposes is supposedly a version of universalism ‘from below’ - they say XFM “hinges on a profound reworking of the universal. The universal must be grasped as generic, which is to say, intersectional” (0x0F)...
But tbqh I’m stumped how this “non-absolute, generic universality” from below *can* function at all intersectionally.How can the vast diversities of intersectional identities be amalgamated into a generic universalism w/o violent reductionism? Either way, more clarity is ness!
Oh yes, ofc the ‘xeno’-prefix is additionally troubling as there is a theoretical inheritance from one particularly problematic cult-figure N**k L**d, who has consistently favoured all things ‘xeno’...
this is someone who has authored a piece called ‘Hyper-Racism’ published on the known neo-Nazi Richard Spencer-founded blog The Alternative Right. Some people call it crypto-fascism…
But as the far-right is growing(as the 1000s at the racist D*F*L*A* protest in London last Sat demonstrates)& fascist ideologies r utilising the protection of white women, feminist politics - now of all moments - needs to be clear what kind of politics it does/doesn’t support
There’s something about the ambiguity of the XFM too-its language is seductive & tantalising, but its v hard to discern an actual political position. This wd be fine but it is being touted as a manifesto for a “politics for alienation” w/o really detailing what this really is
Whilst the prose impresses and its snappy indictment to “change Nature!” is appealing, the XFM has gained the status it currently has due to its genesis (as they admit) as a feminist answer to the accelerationist manifesto....
and its rise to fame has undoubtedly been greatly aided by the theory-bro illuminati of the Urbanomic-Merve axis.
XFM is case in point for what Sirma Bilge has called ‘the whitening of intersectionality’ - the whitening, disciplining and diluting of intersectionality which obscures its firm roots in Black feminist thought & activism (Bilge 2014). A flippant use of “xeno” really doesn’t help
In summary: I’m just really not sure the XFM should so easily be given centre-stage. There are LOADS of awesome feminist initiatives doing great things at the moment s/o to @SistersUncut, @Women_Strike, @SWARM, @lgsmigrants, @londonlatinxs & many many more
... in the realm of art there’s great stuff like #GlitchFeminism, #BlackQuantumFuturism @AfroFuturAffair & so much more.
Before teachers/artists start using XFM in classrooms/art galleries all over the world - some of these issues need to be clarified. The carelessness of “xeno” reveals the lack of political substance but appeals to the mystifying allure of art-speak. Phew! Rant over- article soon
