Outraged/Enraged: The Rage Special Issue

Abstract

This introduction demonstrates the critical place of rage in our contemporary moment in the face of the catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic, the surge of protests against police killings and the global Movement for Black Lives, and ongoing dissent against rising authoritarianisms around the world. In her overview of the special issue, Carla Kaplan explores the rich tradition of feminist scholarship on rage from Audre Lorde to Adrienne Rich. Kaplan reflects on the essential work of Signs in this moment as a critical space for engaged feminist public scholarship in a time of protest and crisis. Sarah Haley traces how Black feminist theories of rage have been foundational to broad feminist critiques of state violence and visions for a sustainable, livable world. Yet, Haley argues, Black feminisms are too often treated as a “commodity fetish,” appearing primarily as a citation rather than as a subject of extended engagement and analysis. Durba Mitra analyzes how feminist protest defines our contemporary moment, with no single origin and no end in sight. Mitra highlights the diverse modes of feminist outrage in global protests, from singing and dancing to art making, through the example of the Shaheen Bagh protests against anti-Muslim laws in India. The final section highlights the wide-ranging feminist themes linked to rage in the issue: protests in Puerto Rico, trans politics, intersex protest, sex work, carcerality, the question of white womanhood, white women’s gun ownership, disability, transnational #feminisms against sexual violence and femicide in Kenya and South Africa, Black girlhood, Indigenous feminisms, and disobedient humor in the age of Trump.