Johanna Rabindran

When I was a fresher scrolling through the DU Political Science Syllabus, I set my heart on a particular optional paper offered in the last semester. The paper in question? Feminism: Theory and Practice. Come third year, I found myself dreading the prospect of more feminist theory. Talking around to classmates, I realised I wasn’t the only one. In the end, I chose another optional.

Much has been said about feminist fatigue—being tired of perpetually struggling with patriarchy, arguing the same arguments, losing the same fights. In other words, burnout for feminists. Today I’m writing about a different kind of feminist fatigue—the intellectual exhaustion with reading feminism, studying feminism, talking feminism. That is, burnout for feminist scholars.

Now, learning about feminism has been life-changing. I deeply appreciate being able to understand and talk about gendered socialisation, intersectionality, the beauty myth, a room of one’s own. I’ve spent dozens of evenings telling my sister about the concepts we talked about in class, words for experiences and feelings I hadn’t been able to articulate before.

But it is also true that we social science students are expected to digest gratuitous amounts of feminist theory. To make my point, here are all the papers I’ve studied which have readings about women, gender, sex:

• India: Images and Realities
• Family and Intimacy
• Sociology of Media
• Rethinking Development
• Political Theory
• Indian Political Thought-I
• Indian Political Thought-II
• Classical Political Philosophy
• Western Political Philosophy
• Perspectives on Public Administration
• International Relations
• Dilemmas in Politics
• Global Politics
• Your Laws, Your Rights

After three years of appetisers, is it any wonder that I wasn’t hungry for the main course? My friends and I think there’s an over-saturation of feminism in undergraduate coursework. Every field has a feminist perspective, a gendered interpretation. Worse, much of the academic stuff is dry or repetitive. For example, Thinking Kink was an interesting read, but it told me that dommes are objectified and sexualised for the male gaze. I’ve heard this exact argument, oh, about a million times. A girl wants a break sometimes!

Here’s something I’ve learned the hard way: I am not obliged to keep tabs on Feminist theory just because I’m a woman. Misogyny is not endlessly fascinating. I’m tired of studying gender, sex ratio, feminist heterosexuality, women’s movements, political participation, affirmative action, feminist history. I want it all to just stop. I see enough of patriarchy in the real world. I don’t want to have to think about it in the classroom too.

I hasten to add that I don’t think feminist theory is unnecessary or stupid. Pioneering feminist scholars have made very real contributions to these fields, challenging the status quo, and shaking fundamental assumptions. Feminist theory is as relevant today as it was a hundred years ago. And it isn’t going anywhere. After all, I know plenty of people who chose to study it this semester. There’s a lot of theorising yet to be done (only it probably won’t be done by me!).