Sunday November 13, 2011 – 8:00am - 9:15am at the Sheraton Atlanta Downtown Hotel (Level 1, Georgia 10)

“Beyond Ambivalence: Contemporary Young Women’s (Post-)Feminist Expressions and Enactments in their Everyday Lives”

Young Women's Sexual Agency: What does Feminism Have to do with it?
*Elisabeth Morgan Thompson (University of Arizona)*

“Fighting Spirits” and “Warrior Women”: Continuity and Transformation in APIA Daughters’ Feminist Matrilineal Heritage
*Victoria Eunkyung Nam (University of California, Santa Cruz)

Feminisms in Motion: Girls’ Acceptance of Feminist Values and Identities in Junior Roller Derby *Cynthia Lynn Konrad (Purdue University)*

Moderator: Alison Quaggin Harkin (University of Wyoming)

Panel Organizer: hara bastas (University of Cincinnati)

Writing in the 1970s, Adrienne Rich marveled how the then nascent women’s movement was bringing together “women of all ages and economic levels, many of whom would not call themselves feminist” (1976, p.78). The history of the feminist movement and its underlying values, cultures, and political ideologies have rendered the term “feminist” a highly contestable social identity and label. In a contemporary social landscape that boasts ever changing sexual norms and that is often thought of as ‘post-feminist’ and ‘post-race,’ young women express reluctance to remain moored to a history that they feel does not speak to their everyday realities. Using transdisciplinary theories and methods and young women’s personal narratives, four panelists will address the contested meanings and reach of feminism, as well as the formations and everyday practices through which feminism is being deployed by the current and future generations of girls and young women.