Wave, rhizome and “sorority” as feminist metaphors: representation of women and feminisms (Paris, Rio de Janeiro: 1970s and 1980s)

Abstract

This article analyses the conceptions of wave, rhizome, and “sorority” as metaphors for the representation of women and their movements in different places and historical periods. It joins critical efforts already made towards analytical trends highlighting circumstantial feminist experiences and thus turning out invisible other social projects, but without taking into consideration possible breakdowns that come from tensions within generations of women and feminists. It also questions the “sorority” metaphor: by its solidarity assumed on the grounds of the shared experience of maternity, it also conceals contingencies that secretly gather women and feminists for different causes in different periods. Finally, it admits the long term historical perspective and the multiple timings as a way of perceiving the history of women and of feminism throughout its continuities and breakdowns.

Keywords

• Feminismos
• Ondas
• Rizomas
• Sororidade
• Rupturas
• Continuidades