Feminist agency for dismantling patriarchy and violence in Greek society

Research and activism on gender identities, equality and sexuality concur that in Greece the timespan 2010-2021 saw a remarkable and refreshing resurgence of feminist and LGBTQI+ theory and action after two decades of relative quiescence. Massive protests, on the streets, through mass media, on-line and in institutions, various forms of gender-related interventions framed a broader positive agenda which demanded institutional and legislative reforms but exceeded them, agitating for deeper transformations of heteronormative patriarchal gender stereotypes challenged from intersectional and queer perspectives. As a result of three factors -movement pressure, EU and other international policy directives, progressive initiatives in the political system taken by left- and center-left parties-, the institutional framework to promote gender equality, to enshrine LGBTQI+ rights and to combat gender violence was considerably amplified during these years. It becomes evident that state policies and institutional action do not suffice to dismantle the deeply embedded, centuries-long patriarchy and violence in Greek society. To this end, feminist and LGBTQI+ agency responds in the following ways which take aim at the very social construction and reconstruction of gender identities and sexualities across diverse social relations and levels: ▪️ a new scheme of grassroots, non-bureaucratic and non-hierarchical mobilization takes shape which is made of small radical groups dispersed across the country that critically engage with gender and sexuality, highlighting gender power relations, and contesting them in practice; ▪️ a close interaction between gender and sexuality movements, on the one hand, and the Greek academia, research and gender studies, explores the social construction of gender and sexuality in all its complexity and searches for effective means of fight and change across social relations; ▪️ intersectionality, the recognition of the tight imbrication of gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality and ability in the re-production of different forms of inequality, and queer, an understanding of gender identity and sexuality as fluid, contestable, complex and exceeding the heteronormative canon, become main angles in grappling with gender-based violence, labor, health and reproductive rights, LGBTQI+ and migration especially in collectives and movements which merge theory and activism; ▪️ personal and collective experiences are positioned in their socio-political conditions and become subject to political re-elaboration, reflecting the second wave slogan ‘the personal is political’ but also foregrounding the plurality of identities, the body, gender and sexuality understood in non-heteronormative logic that reveal the influences of third wave post-structuralist feminism. ▪️ new ‘activist’ research and education centres are established at universities and beyond, reclaiming and making use of the more open institutional space of public universities. ▪️ as a consequence of the dire socio-economic and political crisis in Greece from 2010 onwards, massive anti-austerity mobilizations, new grassroots community initiatives and multiple ventures in the social and solidarity economy mark the period of reference. Although they mostly lacked an explicit feminist and LGBTQI+ agenda, feminist agency and issues of care and reproduction were prominent and consequential, opening up new territory for women’s participation and emancipatory practices.