Living a Feminist Life

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Conclusions 1-2

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Conclusions 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Conclusion 1 Summary: “A Killjoy Survival Kit”

In the first conclusion, Ahmed explains both what items a killjoy should include in their own personal survival kit, and why this survival kit is necessary. In both her discussion of fragility in Chapter 7, and the need for lesbian feminism in Chapter 9, she highlights the struggle for survival against the many obstacles and walls that break the feminist killjoy over time. Building strategies for survival and “self-care” are their own kind of protest and resistance.

Building from Audre Lorde’s epilogue in A Burst of Life, Ahmed states that the struggle for survival is both a “life struggle and a political struggle” (237), insisting this kind of self-care is not self-indulgent but self-preservation. Ahmed then lists the items she recommends for a killjoy survival kit, offering examples from her personal life.

Item 1: Books. Ahmed refers specifically to “kick-ass feminist books” (240) that inspire, comfort, and sometimes fuel the flames of feminist rage. Ahmed’s books include the feminist philosophy texts she cites, such as The Cancel Journals by Audre Lorde; Talking Back by bell hooks; and Gender Trouble by Judith Butler; as well as works of feminist fiction such as Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown.

Item 2: Things. Ahmed paraphrases bell hooks from an interview with Gloria Steinem in which she talks about surrounding herself with “her precious objects, feminist objects, so that they are the first things she sees when she wakes up” (241). Ahmed recommends these kinds of feminist things that are a reminder of “shared struggles, shared lives” (241).

Item 3: Tools. These tools will differ from person to person but include those things that enable one’s work. Ahmed includes her computer for writing both her books and her feminist killjoy blog. This might also include intangible tools that are ready for “willful carpentry” to build feminist bricks for feminist structures.

Item 4: Time. Time is vital to both the work and survival of the feminist killjoy. Time for work, but even more importantly, time to take breaks, to rest, and to recover. As Ahmed states: “time out from being a killjoy is necessary for a killjoy if she is to persist in being a killjoy” (242).

Item 5: Life. By “life,” Ahmed means going out and connecting with the world, with natural life. Her examples include: “the rise and fall of the sun, the way the trees are angled like that, the smile of a friend when you share a joke, the cold fresh water; the feel of the sea as immersion; the familiar smells of spices cooking” (243). For Ahmed, the specific things that give her the most joy and support are a horse she had as a child, and her dog Poppy.

Item 6: Permission Notes. There is only so much one person can do or endure at any given moment. One must be able to recognize where those limits are for themselves and give themselves “permission notes” to take a step back when it becomes too much. This can include “sick days” as well.

Item 7: Other Killjoys. Ahmed is careful not to “assume a community of killjoys” as killjoys can often function as killjoys even against each other (as in the case of feminists of color critiquing and pushing back against white feminists). However, the company of other killjoys is important for this very reason—in order that each killjoy will not become too entrenched in their own beliefs and will recognize their own privileges and blind-spots.

Item 8: Humor. Precisely because the feminist killjoy is accused of being humorless, because she does not laugh at sexist jokes, the killjoy needs their own humor. Ahmed argues that “feminist laughter can lighten our loads. In fact, we laugh often in recognition of the shared absurdity of this world” (245).

Item 9: Feelings. The killjoy needs access to, and expression of, their emotions, in part because the feminist is accused of being “too emotional” and “letting your feelings get in the way of your judgment” (246). Contrary to this accusation, Ahmed states that the killjoy must be willing to access their emotions—especially the difficult ones, and especially when they are expected to do otherwise.

Item 10: Bodies. Since living a feminist life is wearing and draining, because the feminist is made fragile by coming up against walls, the feminist body must be cared for, nourished, and fed. Ahmed therefore suggests small things to nourish the body, including something as simple as dancing.

Conclusion 2 Summary: “A Killjoy Manifesto”

The second conclusion is Ahmed’s killjoy manifesto. She defines a manifesto as “a statement of principle, a mission statement [...] a declaration of intent of an individual or organization or group” (251). The word manifesto also connects to the verbal phrase “to make manifest,” as in to make something real or tangible. For Ahmed, a manifesto does not merely “cause a disturbance” (251), it actively intends to cause this disturbance. A killjoy manifesto, therefore, intends to kill the joy of oppressive institutions and structures, first and foremost by showing how these structures exist. Ahmed posits that feminist killjoys do not only possess a manifesto, they are a manifesto, as they are “assembled around violence” (252).

A killjoy is created as a manifesto because they are willing to accept this figure, “because the world that assigns this or that person or group of people as the killjoys is not a world we want to be part of. To be willing to killjoy is to transform a judgment into a project” (255). Ahmed builds her manifesto from 10 principles: the things she is and is not willing to do. These 10 principles are:

“I am not willing to make happiness my cause.” Ahmed clarifies this does not mean the killjoy does not care about the happiness of others, but rather that “she is just not willing to make causing happiness her political cause” (257, emphasis added).
“I am willing to cause unhappiness.” As an expansion of the first principle, Ahmed states that the killjoy does not necessarily always want, or take pleasure from, causing unhappiness, but is merely willing to do so (and face the consequences) when it is necessary.
“I am willing to support others who are willing to cause unhappiness.” As Ahmed suggests in her killjoy survival kit, killjoys need the company of other killjoys. This is partly in order to challenge their own perspectives, but it can also include supporting each other.
“I am not willing to laugh at jokes designed to cause offense.” Ahmed posits that “humor is such a crucial technique for reproducing inequality and injustice” (261), that the feminist killjoy must block all attempts to make light of this inequality and injustice. The killjoy may be viewed as “oversensitive” because they refuse to “get over things.”
“I am not willing to get over histories that are not over.” Following from principle 4, Ahmed argues that these oppressive histories are not over, and the killjoy must resist any attempt to pretend that they are. The killjoy thus refuses to “get over it,” and by doing so is seen as being the one who keeps the wound open. When the killjoy is told to be grateful for what they have been given, they must refuse.
“I am not willing to be included if inclusion means being included in a system that is unjust, violent, and unequal.” Expanding from principle 5, Ahmed states that the killjoy must acknowledge their own privilege and complicity when working from within systems that still routinely exclude or oppress others. They must be aware that their inclusion in an institution might be predicated on violence against someone else and refuse to be grateful for that inclusion.
“I am willing to live a life that is deemed by others as unhappy and I am willing to reject or to widen the scripts available for what counts as a good life.” The killjoy does not feel happiness for the things society dictates they should, and conversely finds joy in things society believes to be bad or wrong. The killjoy also needs to “tell each other stories of different ways you can live, different ways you can be” (265), so that those who follow can see all the possibilities before them.
“I am willing to put the hap back into happiness.” Calling back to Ahmed’s explanation that the word “happiness” comes from the root “hap,” meaning “chance,” she now advocates for opening up to chance and possibility. This will then widen the “scripts of happiness” (265) to a more fragile kind of happiness that cares for brokenness and finds value in each shattered fragment.
“I am willing to snap any bonds, however precious, when those bonds are damaging to myself or to others.” This principle encapsulates one of the main concepts in Chapter 8, that relationships and bonds are fragile and can be snapped. The feminist snap must be attuned to which relationships are worth preserving and which are damaging and should be snapped.
“I am willing to participate in a killjoy movement.” Though this principle may seem self-evident in the manifesto itself, Ahmed argues that the killjoy must make the conscious decision to be willful and rebellious. More importantly, the killjoy needs to build individual moments into a collective movement to succeed.

Conclusions 1-2 Analysis

Structurally speaking, these two conclusions function more as supplemental material for those who want to turn the concepts and themes of the book into actionable steps. The first conclusion, “A Killjoy Survival Kit,” suggests specific “tools” that a feminist might gather around herself to support both herself and other feminists in her community. One might criticize Ahmed’s call for “self-care” as playing into capitalist culture and the current scramble for self-care products and luxuries (such as bubble baths, spa days, expensive vacations, and other luxury items that the self-care industry touts as vital to one’s wellbeing). However, Ahmed situates her concept of self-care with Audre Lorde’s assertion that “caring for [oneself] is not self-indulgence, its self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare” (237). This ties Ahmed’s image of self-care neatly to her theme of Living as Feminist Resistance, echoing her earlier argument that if the world wants to destroy some lives, then merely insisting on survival is a form of political resistance.

Some of the items in Ahmed’s survival kit are tangible, such as feminist texts, and objects that offer comfort and reminders of common struggle. Others are intangible, such as time, humor, and feelings. Ahmed, however, does not make any distinction between these items—they are all equally important to her survival. In this way, Ahmed again refuses to separate the material from the theoretical. The feminist killjoy needs comfort as well as anger, food as well as critical theory.

The second conclusion, “A Killjoy Manifesto,” likewise does not distinguish between the material and the theoretical. Some of Ahmed’s principles are intangible, matters of thought and emotion, but many of them are concrete roles that she believes a feminist killjoy must enact. Ahmed asserts that a feminist killjoy does not merely have a manifesto but also is a manifesto. This is a layering of the multiple meanings of “manifest.” The feminist killjoy is a manifesto manifested—made perceptible and real.

This conclusion also highlights the power of intentionality. A feminist killjoy does not do things merely by accident, but with intention. She does not cause a disturbance by accident; she fully intends to cause that disturbance. This recalls willfulness, which is for Ahmed a choice. In fact, the entire manifesto is about willfulness, as each principle describes what the feminist killjoy is and is not willing to do. Importantly, these principles clearly encapsulate the main concepts Ahmed has explored throughout the book, compressed down to their essence. Therefore, each principle and its explanation is already highly familiar by the time one reaches the conclusion.

Ahmed’s final principle, “I am willing to participate in a killjoy movement” (267), is a logical conclusion to the book. One can experience the process of feminist consciousness, and still refuse to inhabit the role of feminist killjoy. Or, if one inhabits the role, they may still refuse collective action. Therefore, one must choose to be involved. Each individual killjoy moment can become collective rebellion only if each killjoy makes the conscious decision to participate.