User:Catherine.lehmkuhl/Decolonial feminism

Decolonial feminism, also referred to as feminism of the marginalized, is a form of feminism that originated in Latin America. It emphasizes the intersection of the conflicts between gender, sex, race, and class in relation to institutions and categories that are culturally imposed by colonialism and neocolonialism, as well as questioning feminism that is Eurocentric and westernized. Among its main proponents are Argentinian María Lugones, Karina Bidaseca, Rita Segato, Ana Marcela Montanaro, Dominican Yuderkys Espinosa Miñoso, Mexican Karina Ochoa, Guatemalan Gladys Tzul Tzul, Bolivian Adriana Guzmán, Columbian Diana Gómez Correal, and Ochy Curiel, among others.

Decolonial feminism in Latin American incorporates the contributions of postcolonial thinkers and scholars of coloniality and the suggestion of decoloniality. It also considers other complexities that aim to establish a school of thought based in the epistemologies of the south. Above all, because decolonialization is a central concept present in current discussions within rural, indigenous, feminist social movements and in the construction of intellectual and academic theory. It has its theoretical roots in the development of critical, counter-hegemonic positions that stem from postcolonialism and coloniality. It is used to elaborate and establish a new feminist project that creates a perspective situated historically and geopolitically in the coloniality of power. It assesses the process of imposition and the structural domination of the culture of another, a process that involves economic, social, and political practices by means of the internalization of someone else's values, practices, and norms by those who are colonized.

Decolonial feminism is a concept that was developed in the framework of neoliberal governments and profoundly unequal, racist societies that are working to address the issues that affect women of color disproportionally, especially those of disadvantaged intersectional identities (Montanaro, 2017). Decolonial feminism more precisely emphasizes the tension that exists between the eradication and continuity of colonialism that still regulate identities of sex, gender, race, and politics in neocolonial contexts. It criticizes hegemonic, westernized feminism that is embedded in the institutions and academia of Latin America, while also pointing out categories and practices that reproduce racism and the ideologies of colonialism and contextualizing structural violence exercised by individuals and governments in a neoliberal capitalist context.

These forms of feminism emerged as a part of postindustrialism and are also called post-colonial feminisms or feminisms of the third world.

Decolonial feminism is about instruments of analysis that aim to better comprehend how the categories of sex, class, and gender (as well as ethnicity) relate in different fields of analysis, historical moments, and distinct disciplines (Rodríguez, 2011).

The proponents that give meaning to this concept are women who populate the social periphery: poor women, women who are disabled, women with different sexual orientations, and especially, self-proclaimed immigrants (Rodríguez, 2011).