This paper reviews the book 'Living a Feminist Life' by Sara Ahmed (2017). The book analyses the struggle of the feminist woman who cannot find a place in this world, as she is looking around and sees something that other people cannot see. This book will take a young feminist into a journey of discovery, a manual that becomes crucial in all those moments we feel lonely and not appreciated because of our activism.
Introduction
'What do you hear when you hear the word feminism?' With this question, Sara Ahmed brings her readers into an important subject. The book analyses the struggle of the feminist woman who cannot find a place in this world, as she looks around and sees something that other people cannot see. She lives in a parallel world, unable to bear all the injustice she identifies around herself that other people do not seem to notice. This book takes a young feminist on a journey of discovery, a manual crucial in the moments we feel lonely and unappreciated because of our activism.
A project that comes from the critique of what is
Ahmed introduces the figure of the feminist killjoy, or 'a project that comes from the critique of what is' (2017). It starts from everyday life: a sexist comment, being touched non-consensually. You start noticing the space men occupy and the space women try to make for men, and it becomes really hard to stay silent in front of a sexist or racist comment. Before you know it, you become the problem: you expose an issue and become one. Once you embrace the figure of the killjoy, there is no coming back.
Ahmed's killjoy manifesto, developed across ten principles, opens with: 'I am not willing to make happiness my cause'; 'I am willing to cause unhappiness'; 'I am willing to support others who are willing to cause unhappiness'; and 'I am not willing to laugh at jokes designed to cause offence' — naming a problem can and will cause discomfort, but the gain of exposing offensive behaviour outweighs the pain caused.
Intersectionality
The second part of the book, Diversity Work, discusses the struggles of a diversity worker appointed by an institution to change its policies — often without the institution being genuinely willing to be transformed. The diversity worker, usually a member of a minority, is constantly in question, creating pressure to 'pass' as something they are not.
Ahmed constantly raises questions of disability and race alongside gender: 'privilege is an energy-saving device' (2017) — a privileged person needs to be less inventive and might struggle to notice the world outside the path created for them. In the sub-chapter Fragile Bodies, Ahmed describes fracturing a bone and realising how the opportunities depending on it broke with it, forcing her to see the world from an unfamiliar perspective.
The manifesto continues: 'I am not willing to get over histories that are not over', and 'I am not willing to be included if inclusion means being included in a system that is unjust, violent, and unequal' — we need to dismantle systems that do not share these values, starting by refusing association with them.
The survival of a feminist killjoy
The last chapters, together with the book's two conclusions/survival kits, offer tools to survive as a feminist killjoy. Ahmed draws on Audre Lorde to describe 'survival' not just as continuing to live, but as 'keeping going with one's commitments' — in this case, the causes of equality and inclusivity.
Ahmed recommends killjoys assemble their own survival kits: material objects as well as abstract things like time, humour, and human connection with other killjoys. Killjoys need to allow themselves to feel sad and angry to start a revolution, but joyful about their achievements along the way.
The manifesto continues: 'I am willing to live a life that is deemed by others as unhappy'; 'I am willing to put the hap back into happiness' (recalling that happiness once meant 'chance'); and 'I am willing to snap any bonds, however precious, when those bonds are damaging to myself or to others' — even significant relationships, if they prove toxic to a feminist killjoy's wellbeing.
Conclusion: I am willing to participate in a killjoy movement
The final killjoy manifesto principle, 'I am willing to participate in a killjoy movement' (2017), sums up Ahmed's argument: recognising inequality and becoming a feminist is only the first step toward a much bigger state of activism. As feminists, we need feminism to survive, and feminism needs feminists — without our work and commitment, change would not be possible. We need to work on both a micro and macro level, from pointing out a sexist comment to applying diversity and inclusivity policies. We owe it to everyone, but most importantly, to ourselves.
About the Author
Sara Ahmed is an independent scholar and feminist writer whose work focuses on the intersection of feminist, queer, and race studies. Previous works include Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (2006) and The Cultural Politics of Emotions (2004). Ahmed was a professor of Race and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London until 2016, when she resigned 'in protest against the failure to address the problem of sexual harassment' (2016). She now works as an independent scholar, with influences including Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Judith Butler, and Virginia Woolf.
