Personal self-improvement in contemporary youth feminist and queer activist discourses

Abstract

The popularization of feminism and the acceptance of sexual and gender diversity among the young population has gone hand in hand with an expansion of feminist and queer youth activisms that deploys a range of collective and individual activist practices. Through the analysis of 31 interviews carried out with young feminist and queer activists from the Valencian territory, we identify the discursive elements that connect with the neoliberal logic of action. We analyze the practices that affect the individual dimension and how they are crossed by the neoliberal discursive apparatus. Through the processes of self-reflection, long-life learning and self-surveillance, emerges an activist practice focused on deploying work on the self to become subjects liberated from the structures of gender oppression. These practices require a complex framework of self-management.