Punk feminism and #FEAS: A low-brow protest of academic sexism

Abstract

In this chapter, we reflect on several arts-based ‘pop-up’ interventions that were created and performed at educational conferences by #FEAS Feminist Educators Against Sexism, a feminist collective that was founded in Australia in 2016 that has international reach. The interventions under discussion here aimed at protesting the everyday sexism that women face in the university workplace. We make connections between these interventions and with a feminist punk ethos and a do-it-yourself (DIY) attitude that characterized the 1990s feminist punk music scene. In doing so, we are able to see traces of punk feminism in #FEAS interventions and argue they provide an important mode to mobilize and connect feminists to resist sexism in the academy.