Confronting privileges within the Catalan feminist movement: intersectionality, emotions, and solidarity

Feminist movements have widely embraced intersectionality, yet its adoption does not always translate from discourse to actual intersectional practices that challenge power dynamics within activist circles. Existing research shows how intersectionality is employed by movements, either as a collective identity, a repertoire for inclusion, to create coalitions, or to expose cases where privilege needs to be contested. It also unveils the ways in which movements employ intersectional solidarity as a means to redress power imbalances. However, intersectional discourses and practices within feminist movements are not the only aspects that facilitate or hinder the participation of minoritized women in these moments. An essential dimension that needs to be emphasized to better understand how women work across difference are emotions. In that regard, research reveals that emotions and the emotional culture of movements play a key role in shaping feminist relations, work, conflict, and identities. For instance, it unveils how some emotions may be prioritized over others, or how members of dominant groups may feel entitled to certain emotions and for them to be unquestioned. Hence, this paper analyzes the emotional dimension in relation to intersectional discourses and practices. In particular, it aims to unveil which emotions surface when the feminist movement employs intersectionality in discourse and in practice, how these emotions shape the possibilities of building solidarity among activists, and how activists acknowledge and address the intersectional wound. In order to explore such questions, this paper builds on interviews with activists from the Catalan feminist movement.