FIn Sara Ahmed’s reading, Feminism is Sensational, she conveys the importance of wanting to address the individual process of coming to feminism. She revealed her personal experiences of feminism and what it means to her not only as a theoretical framework; however, as a way that feminism is acted upon an embodied “sensational” occurrence. For example, her experiences growing up of any unwanted attention from a man and exploring these individual moments to become a collective feminist history. This is something that can be identified as patterns or regularities whether it is a first-hand experience or something we see in the media. Ahmed explores the histories leading up to how feminism can or may leave people fragile. She accounts how feminism begins with a sense of things, as being wrong, and how we must acquire knowledge and understanding by comprehending that what does not at first make sense will make sense. Ahmed also discusses how in giving problems their names, we also make wrongs appear even more real. “Feminism is sensational.” It is an act of becoming alive to the world with our reactions to the world.
The moment/passage that I felt most familiar with is the unwanted male attention and how much I should expect it growing up especially with film/television shows that centers around male gaze. It made me become smaller.
I enjoyed this piece very much and I think that Sara Ahmed did an incredible job of explaining how feminism becomes sensational. I also liked how she explained the evolution of sensation in the realm of feminism, describing it through the history of her life and the various encounters that made her feel more vulnerable and on edge. I agree with you as well, in that I too felt most familiar when Ahmed brought up unwanted male attention and how one begins to expect it growing up, especially with film/television shows centered around the male gaze.