Required Radicalism—Lola Olufemi’s Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power

Reclaiming ‘feminism’ from mainstream media and neoliberalism’s white-washed commercialization, Lola Olufemi’s Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power explores a wide variety of feminist issues, such as state violence against women, reproductive justice, transmisogyny, gendered Islamophobia, and solidarity with feminist struggles around the globe. Throughout the book, Olufemi emphasizes the link between feminist work and grassroots organizing, showcased through her interviews with various feminist organizations and activists. Her (re)imaginative world-building highlights that the fight for gendered liberation can change the world, for the better, for everyone. 

Beginning with Olufemi recounting her discovery of feminism, she discusses what it meant for her as well as why she was drawn to it. She then moves onto her critique of neoliberal “girl boss” feminism, discussing the very distinct differences (as she does through the text) between it and radical feminism, and a reimagining of the world, all of which really sets the foundation for this book–“reimaging the world we live in and working towards a liberated future for all” (6). Olufemi follows her introduction, a truly wonderful, brief introduction to radical feminism, with the history of feminist movements, particularly those in the UK, with specific attention to what has been left out of that history, emphasising Black feminist action, and the feminist work that is not directly correlated with legislation.

Legislation, legality, and their deficiencies are a central feature throughout the book, especially in chapters two, three, seven, and eight. Chapter two focuses on the shortcomings and oppressive, harmful nature of ‘the state’. After discussing the equality illusions perpetuated by the media and government and the systematic removal of women–specifically women of color–from the public through violence at the hands of the police. Chapter three is about feminist activism for reproductive justice. She focuses heavily on the difference between rights, in a legal sense, and true justice. She examines the very recent decriminalization of abortion in Ireland and the concessions that feminists there had to make to get that and how far there is still left to go until we see true reproductive justice. In chapter seven, she discusses how to support sex workers by expanding the definition of consent, understanding how political and oppressive structures in society influence the meaning and weight of that consent, and arguing for the decriminalization of sex work. And, chapter eight focuses on the short comings and, more often that not, detrimental effects of prison systems, arguing for an abolitionist feminist stance “to focus on the root causes of problems that plague society. . .beginning with an end to prison expansion” (115).

Other chapters in the book address transmisogyny and moving beyond binary notions of genderand denaturalizing the rigid constructs of biological sex; the treatment of and rhetoric about Muslim women by both the ‘state’ and white saviour feminists and  “the collusion of racism and violent misogyny” (76); the power and possibility of feminist, consciousness raising art as well as the politics of who gets to create it; food as it’s concerned with the production, preparation, and distribution of food and the exploitation of labor, most often women’s, that accompany that; and the need for feminist solidarity. 

Olufemi masterfully weaves scholarship and theory with riveting interviews and impeccably crafted prose to create a work that is nothing short of revolutionary. Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power is brilliant and breathtaking and an absolute “must-read”, not just for those doing feminist and activist work, but for everyone bold enough to (re)imagine a more joyful, more just world and brave enough to do what’s necessary to make it a reality.

(2022)