Chapter 9: Feminisms and Diverse Genders and Sexualities
Finally, let’s explore realms of feminism, narrative practice and expansive gender and sexuality. The relationship between feminist and queer movements has often been fraught, particularly in relation to matters of embodiment and the gender binary. And yet it has also been immensely generative. The wisdom of intersectional feminism is in its refusal to fracture or flatten people’s lives. This is especially valued by queer folks who are religious, exist outside the gender binary, or are not white or able bodied. In this chapter, we will hear from practitioners and from queer and trans folks who are artfully navigating liminal space and intentionally embracing multi-storied identities and existence.
Our host Sekneh shares some of her extensive, groundbreaking work in Australia at the intersection of homophobia, transphobia, racism and Islamophobia – work she has grown in a rich soil of cultural humility and intersectional feminism. In this paper, Sekneh shares examples of collective and individual narrative practice, drawing together the failure map and the queer art of failure and conversations to discover nuanced unique outcomes.
Intersectional narrative practice with queer Muslim clients by Sekneh Hammoud-Beckett (she/her)
Yasna Mancilla Monsalve(she/her) describes how a group of lesbian feminist and dissident activists in Abya Yala (South America- Chilé) came together to respond therapeutically to the impacts of anti-lesbian hatred through different forms of collective documenting; the creation of a patchwork quilt, a video and a fanzine.
This article is also available to read en Español.
Tiffany Sostar (they/them) reviews Trans bodies, trans selves: A resource by and for transgender communities, edited by Laura Erickson-Schroth (she/they) and distilling the rich invitations it offers for narrative practitioners and weaving the lessons into the history of trans and queered narrative practice. Trans bodies, trans selves, edited by Laura Erickson-Schroth — Tiffany Sostar
Next we’ll hear about a narrative oral history project which explored the intersectionality of grief for queer, trans and Black, Indigenous and people of colour communities in Naarm (Australia). The project documents multi-storied accounts of grief that resist the individualisation and isolation of grieving that is common under settler colonialism and capitalism.
In this video, Aaron Munro, a trans man from Canada/Turtle Island, describes how his relationship with feminisms has evolved across time and gender in nuanced and unpredictable ways.
Aaron Munro (he/him) and Vikki Reynolds (she/her) in conversation about feminisms [14:47]
Now for a unique exposition of practice, we hear from both corners of the therapy room. Manja, our host from Chapter 8, and Indi Wishart describe their co-discoveries about what narrative practice can make possible in work with trans and nonbinary folks. Their work together unveils the relational nature of gender and the role that played in their therapeutic relationship.
Nonbinary Superpowers: travels through gender space and time by Manja Visschedijk (undecided pronouns) and Indi Wishart (they/them) [36:55]
In this keynote address, Amy Ralfs describes the way that growing up in a queer family cultivated and shaped her relationship with feminism.
Reflection questions
- What are the dominant ideas about gender, sexuality, family, bodies and relationships in the cultural and political context you live or work in?
- What are the ways that you or others resist these ideas? What alternatives or counter stories do you know about?
- In going through this chapter, which assumptions that you have previously been captured by were challenged?
- Where will this take you? What will you do differently in your life or practice after completing this chapter?
If you are interested in taking a deeper dive, check out our other free online course ‘Sexualities, genders and narrative practice: A narrative therapy queer space’.
