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.
Let go the past, let go the future, and let go the present (front, back, middle). Crossing to the farther shore of existence, with mind released everywhere, do not further undergo birth and decay.
Animals have a much better attitude to life and death than we do. They know when their time has come. We are the ones that suffer when they pass, but it's a healing kind of grief that enables us to deal with other griefs that are not so easy to grab hold of.
Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.
Where liberty is, there is my country.
Can you nominate in order now the degrees of the lie? I will name you the degrees. The first, the Retort Courteous; the second, the Quip Modest; the third, the Reply Churlish; the fourth, the Reproof Valiant; the fifth; the Countercheck Quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with Circumstance; the seventh, the Lie Direct. All these you may avoid but the Lie Direct; and you may avoid that too, with an If. . . . Your If is the only peace-maker; much virtue in If.
Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country's ruin!
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