The “rolê feminista”: Autonomy and prefigurative politics in contemporary feminist field

Abstract

This paper concerns the context of contemporary social movements, by analyzing a young informal activist network called “rolê feminista” which takes autonomy, do it yourself and horizontality as its political orientation. Considering current forms of politicization of gender and sexuality, it aims to explore the native meanings attributed to the category of autonomy. Then, this paper examines the materialization of autonomy in the so called okupação and its contentious unfoldings in the public space. In doing so, it critically discusses the literature on prefigurative politics, pointing out its potentiality and limitations. At last, I highlight the analytical rentability of rolê towards the limits of social movements category in the 2000s.