Theory & Event, Vol. 20, No. 1 Supplement, January 2017: 53-67.
Abstract
Feminists have criticized the election of President Trump as a failure of and for feminism, obscuring how his election signals the success of neoliberal feminism. Such feminist criticisms of Trump amplify rather than displace the dominance of neoliberal feminism, which is troubling because this is a deeply anti-political feminism that discourages the practice of political habits among feminists. I show how Pantsuit Nation and the Women’s March on Washington, while widely taken as signs of resurgent feminist organizing, exposed feminist political incapacity. Feminists should counter neoliberal feminism with an explicitly political feminism, one that embraces political judgment and collective action.