From Xenofeminism to Domestic Realism: Some Notes on Helen Hester’s Writings Post-Laboria Cuboniks

Abstract

This paper discusses the recent texts of Helen Hester, a contemporary feminist theorist, in relation to the writings of Laboria Cuboniks, a feminist collective she was a member of. On the one hand, I critically discuss some of the main concepts underlying xenofeminism, a contemporary strand of feminism revolving around the refunctionalization of technology and the introduction of neo-rationalist tenets in feminist thought, developed by the collective Laboria Cuboniks in their 2015 Xenofeminist Manifesto. On the other hand, I want to propose that some of the shortcomings of these initial xenofeminist concepts are solved in the separate writings of one of the collective’s members, Helen Hester. I begin by situating xenofeminism in the context of left-accelerationism, a philosophy upon which they build their theoretical framework, comprising ontological anti-naturalism, neo-rationalism and a counter-hegemonic approach to politics. Then, I introduce the two key terms I engage from xenofeminism, hyperstition and technology, and demonstrate how Hester nuances their usage in her own works. Finally, I use the term mesopolitics to define Hester’s overall recent project and to help situate it in wider debates surrounding post-work politics and reproductive work.