How I Reconcile Activism and Academia as a Young Feminist

AUTHOR: SOFÍA PÉREZ

Sofía works as a Graduate Assistant in the Doctorate in Political and International Studies at Universidad del Rosario. Her main research interests revolve around the influence of gender as a variable in foreign policy and International Relations. She completed a Master's Degree in Political and International Studies and completed his undergraduate degree in International Relations in Bogotá, Colombia. Currently, she coordinates the research line on Human Trafficking, migration and prostitution of the Study Group on Gender and International Security of students at Universidad del Rosario.

Content warning: please be aware that this piece contains references to sexual harassment

There is great debate over how feminism should be performed: a dichotomy between “good” and “bad” feminism. This has made us believe that we, as women, have to choose between the tools and mechanisms we’ve found in our search for equality and the end of patriarchy. Narratives around “the feminists” will present radical activists and scholars as two separate groups of people who will never (or rarely meet).

I’m a young, lesbian, radical feminist activist present in the Colombian national strike of 2019 and an emerging academic. The two might seem hard to reconcile so I wanted to share how I’ve managed it so far and what academia can learn from direct action and the other way around. 

My Experience of Activism

In August 2019, I joined a feminist group that was fighting for women’s reproductive and political rights and bringing down the patriarchy. We joined protests against the issue of femicide and sexual violence that has existed in my country, Colombia, for decades. 

We started small. We started with social media posts helping students speak about their experiences as survivors of violence against women, hosted self-defence classes, which I led as a black belt in Taekwon-Do, and helped feminist study groups. However, our discontent towards violence against women in our country continued growing and we became angry, disgruntled and motivated to take our fight to the streets. 

At the same time, the Colombian population went on a national strike against the right-wing government that had been active for a year. President Iván Duque was elected as the successor of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, whose “strong hand” against rural guerrillas lead to the extrajudicial murder of more than 6,000 civilians, but who is loved by urban right-wing civilians because of his rigid stance in the Colombian armed conflict. 

In November 2019, students, women, farmers, workers, indigenous groups, and other marginalised communities marched through the streets of Colombia. My group met in front of our university, where we joined other students and walked towards the National University of Colombia. This was severely punished by local and national authorities. The ESMAD (the national riot squad) attacked the crowd with tear gas, rubber bullets and water tanks, but these actions only made the crowd grow stronger and angrier against the government. 

On the next day, we gathered at the Bolivar Plaza to protest in front of the Congress Building. Children, pregnant women, and senior citizens were present in a “cacerolazo”, a Latin American form of protest which consists of banging pots and pans together to make loud noises, when the ESMAD filled the plaza with tear gas and forced our evacuation. While we were evacuating, a police agent aimed his tear gas pump directly towards us, causing severe injuries. Later that night, as we were trying to run from these same police officers to get home before curfew, we had a group of five or six police agents throwing blunt objects at us while violently and sexually harassing us. 

As you can guess, these violent attacks against us did not scare or dissuade us. We were more than ready to keep protesting, even if this meant having to carry homemade defence mechanisms such as vinegar, baking soda and water to face the effects of tear gas or umbrellas to protect us from projectile weapons. 

On November 25, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, it was our turn to make people notice us. One of the easiest ways to get the media's attention in Colombia is through damaging property. Graffiti and “vandalism” have become strong tools - any woman crossing the street can read those messages, take a picture and post it online. Even traditional platforms were showing how angry we were, but there was a very strong stigma against us. Months later, a police station where a young woman was sexually assaulted by a police officer was burnt down by protesters, and we started getting afraid of legal repercussions. 

It is easy in Colombia for a government to silence opposition or even to kill individuals, which happened with Nicolás Neira, Dylan Cruz and many other young students who protested for an improvement in the quality of public education. This is when I started questioning whether it was a good idea to be framed as a criminal for protesting and engaging in direct action while trying to build a career in academics and education. On paper, I was writing about the marvels of democracy and bureaucratic institutions, but in practice, I was sharing the political tools of my anarchist colleagues. I started talking about anarchism and radical feminism to my classmates in my Master's classes but still felt this wasn't enough. 

My Experiences as an Academic

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, we had to think again about how we could take action. It became even more dangerous to continue our current activities because of the pandemic and the group slowly disintegrated. I was still motivated to draw attention to violence against women and inequality, but it was very hard to think of ways to do it from home. However, I had to write my Master's thesis and I wanted to take every single opportunity that life gave me as a tool against patriarchy. 

I started reading feminist theories of International Relations so I could understand the theory behind the patriarchy and the masculinised values that rule both the discipline and the practice of international affairs. I reunited some of my friends, colleagues and classmates and we created a group of young scholars to discuss and question the “boys’ club” in which we had decided to build a career. Before the pandemic started, we got together in empty classrooms or on campus and then had our meetings online.

In my Master’s thesis, I focused on the main characteristics of American masculinity and contrasted them with Trump’s foreign policy to describe it as a hyper-masculinised foreign policy strategy that was rooted in the abstraction between man and state. By May of 2020, I was promoting a feminist analysis of foreign policy and international relations among my classmates and teachers.

This was often perceived as annoying for some of my male listeners. Often, I had to reject mansplaining firmly. I even had a male friend mansplain basic research methodology while I was writing my research proposal for the PhD program I'm currently enrolled in. My dissertation for the PhD in Political International Studies will also take a feminist stance on foreign policy, but I still feel this won’t be enough.

How I Reconcile The Two

My work as an activist and as an academic can be hard to reconcile. After all, can you imagine seeing your research assistant half-naked on the news screaming a victim’s name? Can you picture your International Relations Theories teaching assistant writing phone numbers for legal assistance in cases of violence with paint on the walls of a bus? People might not read my academic papers or my dissertation, but I know for sure they'll see the signs written by my friends in bus stations and on walls saying “Amiga, hermana, si te pega no te ama” (“friend, sister, if he hits you, he doesn't love you”). 

Different forms of feminism will have different impacts on our society. For scholars, experimenting with direct action is a way of understanding how social movements work. Understanding the historical and sociological importance of riots, strikes, graffiti, and “vandalism” is key when describing and analysing political movements in Colombia. On the other hand, understanding the theories around patriarchy makes direct action more effective. Knowing which processes have been effective makes it easier to use the tools of activism towards change. We don’t have to choose which “kind” of feminists we want to be in this sense. Whether it’s through activism or academia, I know I’m having an impact and that’s enough for me.

Edited by Ashvini Rae

Published 8th June 2021