Affective travels of popular feminism: Negotiation of feminist ideas

This article proposes questioning how some popular feminism products travel and how they are negotiated in local contexts. Rather than simply stating that there is popular feminism in the ‘non-West’ too, it invites us to think about the complexities of what popular feminist narratives can do. It is based on fieldwork conducted with people who engaged with feminism mostly through popular media, not feminist movements themselves, in Ankara, Turkey. Some popular feminist digital series classified as ‘women’s empowerment’ category are used as the starting point of the interviews, with the aim of unpacking how such narratives are negotiated. My analysis of these interviews shows how popular feminism, although often seen as depoliticising, can take on diverse forms. It can articulate with a political engagement through the feeling of being ‘unfairly restricted’, prompting talk about violence against women and triggering affective (political) memories. This does not mean that popular feminism is bad or good in one context or another, but invites critical understanding of the articulations of popular feminist narratives in local contexts.