Online feminism as performative : an autoethnography of positionality

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This thesis is a critical exploration of my positionality as a migrant woman in France who occupies a position of privilege in society. As a feminist working to advance women’s rights, specifically for the rights of migrant women in Europe, this interrogation is necessary. It is an autoethnography. The purpose of this research is to help me understand the self-reflexivity process that all development facilitators undergo, or should undertake, in order to adopt a critical praxis when it comes to acting upon pressing current issues. I contextualise this thesis against the backdrop of an ongoing pandemic and how it has affected a specific group of people in Europe, migrant women. In this thesis, I use the term “migrant women” inclusively, referring to women who have moved from one destination to another within Europe, and encounter border regimes and integration policies. This context arose out of my role as an intern at a feminist network organisation which works towards the advancement of women‘s rights. In my role as an intern, I am a co-lead in a lobby campaign to advocate for more EU-level funding for migrant women associations. It is within this role that I had to confront my own misgivings and hopes as a facilitator in the complex field of gender and development. Due to the pandemic, all advocacy work and collaborations have shifted online, giving me the opportunity to learn and observe how feminism manifests in the digital space. Using feminist critical discourse analysis, I examine the problematic of representation and voice in online feminism, acknowledging the online space as a site imbued with power asymmetries and discourse, and can be monopolised by dominant groups. In exploring the complexities of voice, I also attempt to “de-centre voice” by engaging with different sets of “performative text” where text is regarded as “research participant”. Through the interrogations of my personal experiences and the conscious manipulation of the chosen performative texts, I hope to uncover some valuable lessons to guide me in grounding my positionality and feminism better.