On the paradoxes of feminist praxis

Abstract

This essay is part of a forum on Srila Roy's (2022) book, Changing the Subject. I suggest that Roy's book offers a way to sit with the paradoxes of feminist praxis by engaging with its everyday messiness and conflict. I read Roy's book through the lens of my research with sex worker activists in India, focusing on how Roy's attention to ambivalence helped me to rethink my analysis. Through ethnography, the book shows how her interlocutors strategize creatively under disempowering conditions, challenging narratives of loss and depoliticization in feminist movements. Finally, I reflect on questions the book raises about the practice of feminist research.