Activism and Radical Self-Care

Introduction

Capitalism has co-opted self-care as a vague concept that prioritises the individual self as opposed to community and intermingles it with the need to purchase and spend. It appropriates self-care as some sort of ‘sideline luxury’ rather than as a central tenet of humanity and one which we need to live and live well. We need to liberate the practice of self-care by applying the lens of decoloniality and radical feminism without apology. Taking lead from poet, author and one of the most radical thinkers of our time, ‘Audre Lorde’, we will examine the necessity to not only survive, but to thrive in a world that continuously exploits women’s labour and is abundantly hostile to most things outside a heteronormative patriarchy. 

Rather than partaking in a multi-billion-pound industry that harms us and the planet, we will examine how valuing ourselves, our activism and creating communities of care and solidarity can be the transformative shift we need to survive relationships, exploitation, and oppressive systems. 

Within this topic, we will explore self-care as a key component of resistance against the expectations of neo liberal capitalism. Expectations which exploit our bodies to sustain ‘productivity’, which deny our ‘pleasures’ in pursuit of endless profits and which replace our communities with the ‘free market’, as if it was central to human existence, when it is anything but. In the words of Audre ‘Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self- preservation, and that is an act of political warfare’. 

You can explore these issues by completing an online learning course. There’s also a collection of learning resources for you to explore including activities, presentations, essays, and interviews.  Enjoy and remember none of us heal in isolation!

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