Abstract

This paper advances a theoretical debate concerning the political representations of the figure of “the victim”, situating the discussion in the context of the feminist activism of the past five years. As part of this analysis, we discuss a variety of authors and themes, such as the place of social suffering within contemporary politics, the victim as part of an affective approach to understanding politics, and the problem of victims as political figures within the feminist movement, along with the controversies that this has sparked. We conclude that careful consideration that acknowledges the dynamism of the figure of the victim is both possible and necessary. Feminist activism has acquired a performative dimension that involves more complex representations of the victim, confirming the inadequacy of a single semantic characterization. This points to empirical challenges in exposing the complexity of this figure within recent political action.