Movements and moving: thinking feminist practices with rivers

engaging with moments

“But a river moves through time as well as space.” (Laing, 2017, p. 7)

Feminism is often described as a movement. Inherent in the word ‘movement’ is the notion of motion and changing position, but to speak of feminism as a single entity is akin to speaking of rivers as just a ‘river’. Feminism is always feminisms and feminist practice is always feminist practices. There are specific, unique, and multiple rivers, just like there are specific, unique, and multiple feminisms and feminist practices.

Reading the first two chapters of Olivia Laing’s (2017) book, To the River, instigated a process of highlighting allusions to movements. This then provoked a conversation about movements as feminist practices.  

“Rivers, with their uncertain and multiple beginnings, myriad tributaries, some massive, some bare trickles, have much in common with the feminist practices we think with. For a start, like rivers as they relentlessly make their way towards the coast, feminist practices are always on the move.”

“Being on the move, however, does not mean that either rivers or feminist practices are without boundaries. On the contrary, both have their margins, edges, borders, but they also have a tendency to seep, overflow, or burst through in order to find a way to keep moving.” 

“Movements are a feminist practice because they value and respond to shifts, flows, forces, trickles, rhythms, and speed. It is not about trying to contain or pin-it down.” 

“Through their endless moving, rivers and feminist practices must negotiate obstacles they encounter. Movement values a different kind of logic.”

Laing, Olivia. (2017). To the river: A journey beneath the surface. A & U Canongate. 

This entry was inspired by the presentation Deep mapping a river: Water relations, by Jo Jones at the Ediths Roundtable Series 2021