Let’s take this figure of the feminist killjoy seriously. Does the feminist kill other people’s joy by pointing out moments of sexism? Or does she expose the bad feelings that get hidden, displaced, or negated under public signs of joy? Does bad feeling enter the room when somebody expresses anger about things, or could anger be the moment when the bad feelings that circulate through objects get brought to the surface in a certain way?
Interpretation
The feminist killjoy challenges societal norms by shedding light on underlying sexism, disrupting the facade of happiness to address real issues.
In this quote, Sara Ahmed explores the role of the feminist killjoy, questioning whether such individuals ruin joy by highlighting sexism or actually reveal the hidden discomforts associated with societal happiness. By doing so, she suggests that confronting these often-neglected negative emotions can lead to a more genuine and transformative dialogue around issues like sexism, prompting reflection rather than mere acceptance of public joy.
In practice
In a seminar on gender studies, this quote can spark a discussion about how feminism confronts societal norms.
Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future. Solidarity involves commitment, and work, as well as the recognition that even if we do not have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we do live on common ground.
The minor choices we make are themselves a kind of vote. Our words and gestures, or their absence, count very much.
What do you say we lighten things up and talk about abortion?
People talk of the pathos and failure of plain women; but it is a more terrible thing that a beautiful woman may succeed in everything but womanhood.
What is the fear inside language? No accident of the body can make it stop burning.
I think about never losing my voice, never giving in, never selling out, always keeping black, always sticking to the street. Staying neighborhood and not Hollywood.
How could I share with you how I felt when two towers that I loved, two pieces of steel and glass and concrete fell down, when actually they took with them thousands of human lives? That is the actual tragedy. But those towers were almost human for me. I was in love with them, and that's why I married them with a tight rope.
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