Abstract

This article develops an analytical lens for examining feminist activism grounded in a theoretical reflection on processes of embodiment within feminist experience. It centers on the notion of embodied tensions, understood as the conflicts, contradictions, and ambivalences that emerge through the dialectical interplay between an instituted form of femininity-interpreted within a gender binar and the (co)construction of a feminist political project aimed at autonomy and self-affirmation. The analysis pays particular attention to how these tensions take shape across four domains that have been especially relevant to feminist theory and activism: sexuality, aesthetics, performance, and emotions. It also considers how such tensions are handled and expressed at different levels-individual, group, and public-recognizing that the body concentrates the contradictions involved in navigating between femininity and a feminist project. This experience becomes more layered when approached from an intersectional perspective. A key contribution of the article is its emphasis on the empirical significance of embodiment processes within feminist activism, highlighting that these are shaped by social dynamics structured around multiple, overlapping axes of power (including gender, social class, and race/ethnicity). In this sense, tensions experienced in and through the body may intensify, be reinforced, softened, or alleviated depending on how they intersect with other power relations that generate privilege or oppression for the bodies engaged in feminist practice. These embodied tensions ultimately shape activism in both intimate and collective contexts, enabling bodies to build alliances, form political friendships, and create specific spaces of solidarity.