Feminism, Antifeminism, and the Mobilization of Regret
Feminism is forward-looking and world-building. Feminists everywhere can call to mind the manifestos, mobilizations, solidarities, creative inspirations, legal propositions, and revolutionary paradigms that inspire us to action and move us toward more just futures. At the same time, we may also be haunted by obstacles encountered, losses experienced, and regrets felt along the way.... Signs seeks essays that delineate both how feminists may experience, theorize, and productively apply the concept of regret and how it may, alternatively, thwart the development of feminist futures. As Andrea Long Chu asserts, “Where there is freedom, there will always be regret. . . . Regret is freedom projected into the past.” Janet Landman, similarly, has conceptualized regret as signifying the “persistence of the possible.” On the one hand, how can feminists engage these generative qualities of regret—freedom and possibility—in our thinking and action? If there are choices that we, individually or collectively, regret, how might our regrets motivate political or personal choices? On the other, how do false narratives deployed by the Right, such as threats of regret over abortion or gender transition, act to undermine individual transformation and broader social change? [...] The deadline for submissions is May 1, 2025. Laura Green (Northeastern University) and Chris Bobel (University of Massachusetts Boston) will serve as guest editors. Read the full call for papers at https://signsjournal.org/for-authors/calls-for-papers/#regret