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CONTEMPORARY FEMINIST RESEARCH
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
 Also Available

Handbook of Arts-Based Research

Edited by Patricia Leavy

Handbook of Emergent Methods

Edited by Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber
and Patricia Leavy

Method Meets Art, Second Edition:

Arts-Based Research Practice
Patricia Leavy

Research Design: Quantitative, Qualitative,

Mixed Methods, Arts-Based,
and Community-Based Participatory
Research Approaches
Patricia Leavy
 Contemporary
Feminist
Research from
Theory to Practice
Patricia Leavy
Anne Harris

THE GUILFORD PRESS

New York  London
 To all those around the globe
who are standing up for gender equality through speaking out,
marching, activism, art, and scholarship;
and to those committed to microactivism in their homes,
workplaces, and everyday lives—we salute you

Copyright © 2019 The Guilford Press

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ISBN 978-1-4625-3628-3 (hardcover)
 Preface

F eminist research is not like many other forms of research, because it holds
explicit social commitments at the forefront. Beginning with the status
of girls and women, but not ending there, feminism is an engaged human
rights position that seeks to expose and remedy gender inequities. Feminist
research suggests ways forward to a better world in which critical scholar-
ship plays an active role in inspiring and enacting social change. We use the
term “feminism” as opposed to a general “human rights” label to acknowl-
edge, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie does, “the specific and particular
problem of gender” and how female humans are targeted by these inequali-
ties (2015, p. 42). However, working from an intersectional approach cou-
pled with a nonbinary understanding of gender, we provide a layered view
of the problem of “gender” as it is lived by diverse individuals and groups.
Contemporary Feminist Research from Theory to Practice offers a
comprehensive inter- and transdisciplinary introduction to contemporary
feminisms. This book provides a historical context for understanding femi-
nist research, presents the major theories feminist researchers develop and
use globally, describes methods for conducting research and practical strat-
egies for “doing” feminist research, and provides information on writing
and publishing feminist research in various forms, and on incorporating
social activism and advocacy into feminist practice. The literature on fem-
inist research practice often focuses narrowly on traditional approaches
to research and Western perspectives. We sought to offer a different kind
of text, one that highlights the multiperspectival and socially constructed

v
vi Preface

nature of contemporary feminist research, including global feminisms,

transnational collaboration, digital media and virtual embodiment, and
feminist “publics.”
Our perspective is grounded in critical scholarship, intersectionality,
and a nonbinary understanding of gender. This book understands con-
temporary feminist research as that which addresses inequality with an
agenda for social change. We believe that critical scholarship—that which
problematizes social conditions as they are—can only be addressed inter-
sectionally, or, in other words, in the interwoven ways that it gets played
out in real life. Not only are we in bodies that are gendered, but, rather,
we simultaneously occupy race, ethnicity, social class, sexuality, and other
positionalities. In order to be wide awake as feminist researchers, we must
not only ask about gender, but we must also ask: What about race? What
about sexuality? What about ableism? What about class (socioeconomic)
inequity? How do these conditions and positions work together or against
one another? This book asks you to think about doing research that is
embedded in and accountable to “real life,” and making real life better—
not just for women, but for all—and to realize that these are not separate
projects but interconnected ones.
Further, contemporary feminist research is concerned not only with
the conditions of girls and women, but with all gender-based inequities,
and today particularly with the highly visible but contested terrain of trans-
gender and noncisgender human rights and the ways in which changing
definitions of gender impact all genders and all who fall outside the “gender
spectrum” or somewhere fluid within it. In this vein, we are troubling the
common he/she binary and instead using he/she/they in this text.

Why This Book Is Needed

We wrote this book because we are both committed to the promise and
practice of contemporary, inclusive feminist research. We also believe
that it’s difficult to find a comprehensive overview and guide to feminist
research. Many books focus either on theory or methods, or on particular
genres of feminist research. In writing this book, we hope to offer a robust
introduction to feminist research that inspires you to delve further into top-
ics of interest. We also wrote this book because as the world has changed
rapidly, so too have the academic and social/cultural landscapes. In turn,
feminisms have changed. From increasingly nonbinary understandings of
gender to the digital landscape that increasingly impacts our personal and
research lives, great changes have occurred. We felt a feminist text that
 Preface vii

pays homage to the past, but is firmly grounded in contemporary concerns

and practices, was needed.

Special Features of This Book

Key Terms Highlighted with Call‑Out Bubbles

Throughout this book, we have identified a number of key terms as central
to contemporary feminist research. Throughout this text when there are
examples of a specific term, we provide call-out bubbles highlighting the
term. We review the significance some of these highlighted terms in Chap-
ter 1, but the box below previews the list.

Ally Girls and women

Cisgender Intersectionality
Critical theory/approaches Methodologies
Ethics Ontology
Feminist digital media Power sharing
Feminist epistemologies Reflexivity
Gender Representation
Genderqueer, gender-creative, gender-fluid Socially constructed (gender) categories

Profiles of Prominent Feminist Researchers

and Online Video Interviews
In Part I, we offer profiles of prominent feminist researchers, addressing
both their overall body of work and individual approaches, and their more
recent work. Links to short online video interviews with the researchers
themselves accompany the written text.

Discussion Questions and Activities

Discussion questions and more engaged activities are provided at the end
of every chapter to help you review the chapter material and take it further.

Suggested Resources
While we have attempted to draw on a wide range of feminist voices in
this text, we fully recognize that not all voices can be included. Our own
viii Preface

voices, those of two White, Western feminists, have shaped every aspect
of this text. Therefore, we’ve included a list of suggested resources at the
end of each chapter so that you can invite more authors into your study of
feminist research.

Audience for the Book

This book is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate courses in

feminism(s), feminist research, research methods, qualitative inquiry, the-
ory, and women’s or gender studies. It may also be of value to individual
students and researchers working on a thesis, a dissertation, a research
study, or public writing, or those who wish to engage in activism.

Organization

This book is divided into three parts. Part I focuses on the historical con-
text of feminist research and the major theoretical frameworks, analyzed
from a global perspective. Part II focuses on research praxis, offering chap-
ters on ethics, research with participants (quantitative, qualitative, and
community-based), and research with nonliving data in the case of content
or media analysis and evaluating programs or other interventions. Part III
addresses what happens after research has occurred. We detail the process
of writing and publishing feminist research, offering writing instruction for
formal academic writing as well as artistic and popular forms. We conclude
with a chapter on public scholarship and what it means to be a feminist
researcher in the world. Chapters can be read out of order, and chapters not
of interest can be omitted.
 Acknowledgments

F irst and foremost, we are grateful to our brilliant publisher and editor,
C. Deborah Laughton. Thank you for your unwavering support of this
project.
We extend a spirited thank you to the entire team at The Guilford Press.
In particular, thank you to Seymour Weingarten, Bob Matloff, ­Katherine
Sommer, Jeannie Tang, Judith Grauman, Katherine Lieber, ­Marian Rob-
inson, Lucy Baker, Martin Coleman, Rosalie Wieder, Paul Gordon, Carly
DaSilva, Andrea Sargent, Oliver Sharpe, and Robert Sebastiano.
Thank you to the leading feminist scholars who graciously shared their
time and wisdom with us. To be able to sit down with you, face to face, and
understand, person to person, once again why this work is so very impor-
tant, we thank Professor Cynthia Dillard, Associate Professor Eve Tuck,
and Professor Aimee Carrillo Rowe, as well as Professor Jack Halberstam,
Professor Jessica Ringrose, Dr. Amy Shields Dobson, and others whose
expertise and passion informed this text but were not captured on video.
Thank you to the formerly anonymous reviewers: Stacie Craft ­DeFreitas,
Department of Social Sciences, University of Houston–­Downtown; Venus
E. Evans-­Winters, Department of Educational Administration and Founda-
tions, Illinois State University; and Angela J. Hattery, Women and Gender
Studies Program, George Mason University.
We also thank Patricia’s awesome assistant, Shalen Lowell, for their
assistance with locating literature, formatting, and more. And we deeply
thank the incomparable Alta Truden, whose brilliance in film editing is

ix
x Acknowledgments

matched only by her commitment and passion for social inclusion and cre-
ative projects—thank you, Alta!

Patricia’s Personal Acknowledgments

Anne Harris, thank you. This book was a do-over for me and I’m truly
grateful for the opportunity. Thank you for your understanding when the
world made it hard for me to put pen to paper. I’m proud of what we
wrote. Sincere thanks to my friends and colleagues for lending their sup-
port during the process. Special thanks to Melissa Anyiwo, Celine Boyle,
Pam DeSantis, Sandra Faulkner, Ally Field, Jessica Smartt Gullion, Libby
Hatlan, Monique Robitaille, and Adrienne Trier-Bieniek. I’m also grateful
to my family for their support during the long process of putting this book
together. Thank you, Mark, for all of the advice along the way. Having a
thoughtful and wise springboard for ideas is a rare and priceless gift. Last,
but never least, thank you, Madeline, for reminding me why our generation
has to do better for your generation. You fueled this writing.

Anne’s Personal Acknowledgments

Thank you, Patricia, for being that writer friend of whom I always dreamed,
the one that I could go stay with and actually write with through the day,
and cook with at night—I love and respect you, especially when we get to
do do-overs, on the page and in life. This book is for Stacy, because you
inspire me to be a better scholar, activist, and researcher, and because you
remind me every day that research without heart is not research that mat-
ters. I also dedicate this book to Haddie, because you don’t yet know how
much you need these feminist histories, and how much they have made it
possible for you to be who you are right now, and perhaps who you will
be able to become tomorrow. But I also rejoice in thanking the feminist
artists, activists, herstorians, and scholars who have touched my life per-
sonally, and made me realize why I needed feminism, even after my well-
meaning mother made me promise to never become one when I came out
to her as a dyke in 1983: first and foremost, the steadfast Sarah Schulman,
who is a modern-day Cassandra—even when it makes the blind hate her,
she always speaks the well-informed truth, #Respect; Lesbian Herstory
Archives cofounder and femme fatale Joan Nestle, who taught me about
the first out lesbian on Broadway, Eva Le Gallienne; the women of WOW
 Acknowledgments xi

Café and Dixon Place, even when you broke my heart; the feminist gay-
boys on Broadway (Craig Lucas, Tony Kushner, Christopher Durang, and
others); my beloved and brilliant theater guru and intersectional activist
fairy godperson Morgan Jenness; Young Playwrights comrades Sheri M.
Goldhirsch (rest in power) and Brett Reynolds—a couple of badass feminist
theater bitches; Lola Pashalinski, who inspired our first LOLA Awards; the
5 Lesbian Brothers; all the trans* and nonbinary others who put their lives
on the line for gender equalities every single day; and all the people who got
off their asses in my formative years in 1980s and ’90s New York City and
showed me that marching and resistance mean something. Because they do.
I salute you all.
 Contents

PA R T I . Feminist Theoretical Frameworks

1. Introduction 3
Learning Objectives 3
What Is Feminist Research? 3
What Is an Ally? 7
What Is Gender? 7
What about the Digital? 8
What about Representation? 9
Conclusion 9
Discussion Questions 10
Activities 10
Suggested Resources 10
Books 10
Digital Resources 10

2. The Feminist Research Landscape 12

Learning Objectives 12
Feminist Research Similarities and Differences 13
Setting the Scene 13
Feminist Research Methods and Disciplines 14
BOX: FEMINIST RESEARCH ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES 15
A Brief History of the Field 16
The Early Years 17
Feminist Research Leaps Forward 18
To Wave or Not to Wave 20
First-Wave Feminist Research/Feminism (1900–1950) 22
Second‑Wave Feminist Research (Early 1960s–1980s) 23
Third‑Wave Feminist Research (1985–Present) 25

xiii
xiv Contents

Feminist Theory or Gender Theory? 25

BOX: FEMINIST SOLIDARITY 26
Beyond the Waves: Feminisms across the Globe 27
Why Is Feminist Scholarship Political? 27
What Does Critical Theory Have to Do with Feminist Research? 29
New Paradigms for Doing Feminist Work? 30
The Activist and Public Nature of Feminist Research 32
Vlogging and Sex‑Positive Camgirls 33
PheMaterialisms (Feminist Posthumanism and New Materialism),
Postfeminisms, and Post‑Postfeminism 33
Ecofeminism 34
Conclusion 34
Discussion Questions 35
Activities 35
Suggested Resources 35
Books 35
Articles and Chapters 36
Digital Resources 37

3. Intersectionality, Feminist Epistemology, 38

and Standpoint Feminism Theoretical Frames
Learning Objectives 38
Why Do Feminist Research? 39
Feminist Foremothers and Their Foundational Ideas 40
What Is Feminist Theory? 41
Major Fields and Disciplines 42
Intersectionality and the Move Away from Whiteness 43
Intersectionality beyond Gender Binaries 45
What Is Essentialism? 45
Two Traditions/Two Streams 46
What Do Different Streams of Thought Have to Do with Me? 47
How to Use This Chapter 47
Section One: Foundations 48
Feminist Empiricism 48
Critiques of Feminist Empiricism 50
Section Two: Differentiation and Standpoint Feminism 51
Standpoint Epistemology (Feminist Standpoint Theory) 52
Endarkened Feminist Epistemology 54
Critiques of Standpoint Feminism 56
Conclusion 57
Discussion Questions 57
Activities 57
Suggested Resources 57
Books 57
Articles and Chapters 58
Digital Resources 59

4. Postmodern/Poststructuralist Theoretical Frames 60

to Feminist Research
Learning Objectives 60
What Is Different about the “Posts”? 60
“Post‑ What?” 61
 Contents xv

Who Are the Foundational “Post‑” Scholars? 62

A Defining Moment: The Combahee River Collective Statement 63
Giving Everyone a Chance to Speak 64
The Power of Language 64
Postmodernist Feminism 65
Moving beyond Biological Determinism in Gender Orientation 66
BOX: CRITIQUES OF BUTLER’S THEORY OF GENDER 70
The Long Legacy of Colonialism: Alive and Well in Feminist Studies 70
Feminist Psychology Scholarship 72
Critiques of Postmodern Feminism 73
BOX: THE POSTMODERN TURN 74
Chicana Indigenous Feminisms 75
BOX: CHICANA INDIGENOUS FEMINISMS 75
Maori Feminist Knowledges 76
Poststructural Feminism 76
The Crisis of Representation 77
Feminist Sociology 79
Cyborg Feminism and the Posthuman 80
Trans* Feminisms 80
BOX: TRANS* FEMINISMS 82
Genderqueer Diversity Theory: Jack Halberstam 82
Girlhood Studies 84
Postfeminism 85
Angela McRobbie on Postfeminism 87
Critiques of Poststructural Feminism 88
Conclusion 88
Discussion Questions 89
Activities 89
Suggested Resources 89
Books 89
Articles and Chapters 91

PA R T I I . Feminist Approaches to “Doing Research”

5. Feminist Ethics 95
Learning Objectives 95
Ethics as Moral Reasoning 96
A Historical Glance at Ethics in Research Practice 98
The Exploitation of Research Subjects 98
The Effects of the Social Justice Movements 102
Ethics in Research Practice 105
Topic Selection 105
Balancing Roles and Relationships during Data Generation 112
Analysis and Interpretation 121
Representation and Dissemination 122
Conclusion 126
Discussion Questions 126
Activities 127
Suggested Resources 127
Book Chapters 127
Select North American Professional Organizations
with Online Ethics Codes 127
xvi Contents

6. Feminist Methods for Working Directly with Participants 128

Learning Objectives 128
Quantitative Methods 129
Survey Research 130
Analysis and Interpretation of Quantitative Data 135
Qualitative Research 137
Interview Research: In‑Depth Interviews, Focus Groups,
and Oral History 137
Ethnography 146
Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data 155
Community‑Based Participatory Research (or Participatory
Action Research) 158
Design, Data Generation, Analysis, and Interpretation in Feminist
Community‑Based Participatory Research 160
Conclusion 165
Discussion Questions 166
Activities 166
Suggested Resources 166
Article 166
Books 166
Digital Resources 167

7. Feminist Methods for Studying Nonliving Data, 170

Organizations, and Programs
Learning Objectives 170
Content Analysis (or Unobtrusive Methods) 171
Genres 174
Designing Feminist Content Analysis 180
Data Collection, Analysis, and Interpretation 180
Evaluation Research 182
Designing Feminist Evaluation Research 190
Data Collection, Analysis, and Interpretation 192
Conclusion 195
Discussion Questions 196
Activities 196
Suggested Resources 196
Books 196
Digital Resources 197
Films 197

PA R T I I I . Being a Feminist Researcher: Getting the Work Out

8. Writing and Publishing Feminist Research 201

Learning Objectives 201
The Personal Is Political 202
The Craft of Writing 203
BOX: AN EXAMPLE OF SHOWING, NOT TELLING 205
Formats 206
Traditional Academic Forms 206
BOX: THE COMPONENTS OF RESEARCH ARTICLES 207
Arts‑Based and Literary Forms 208
Public Forms 210
 Contents xvii

BOX: THE COMPONENTS OF LITERARY STORIES 211

Representational Formats, Visibility, and Feminists
as Public Intellectuals 214
BOX: TIPS FOR WRITING OP-EDS 214
Publication and Dissemination 217
Publishing Theses or Dissertations 218
Archival 218
Conclusion 219
Discussion Questions 219
Activities 219
Suggested Resources 220
Books 220
Articles and Chapters 221
Digital Resources 221

9. Public Scholarship and Critical Perspectives 222

Learning Objectives 222
Pussy Hats and Nasty Women 222
Where Does 21st‑Century Feminist Research Praxis Happen? 223
Crunk, Punk, and Hip‑Hop Feminisms 227
Pussy Riot, Femen, and New Digital Feminisms/Feminist Activism 228
“Revenge Porn” in/as Postfeminist Spaces 231
Feminist Vloggers 232
Sexting, Selfies, and Other Digital (Post) Feminist Practices 233
Slut‑Shaming, SlutWalks, and Digital Feminisms 235
Ecofeminism and 21st‑Century Critical Feminisms 236
Conclusion 238
Discussion Questions 238
Activities 238
Suggested Resources 239
Books 239
Articles and Chapters 240
Digital Resources 241

APPENDIX. Feminist Scholars by Discipline or Area of Study 243

References 247

Author Index 279

Subject Index 287

About the Authors 301

Purchasers of this book can access online videos

at www.guilford.com/leavy-harris for personal use
or use with students.
 PA R T I

Feminist Theoretical
Frameworks
 CHAP TER 1
Introduction

I think of feminism as poetry; we hear histories in words;

we reassemble histories by putting them in words.
—Sarah Ahmed (2017, p. 12)

L E A R N IN G O B JE C T I V E S
• To introduce you to the idea of feminist research from a critical,
intersectional perspective
• To foreshadow what is coming in this text

What Is Feminist Research?

The gun massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on June 12,
2016, which killed 49 people and wounded 52, was the deadliest attack on
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning (LGBTQ) people in U.S.
history. On July 22, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton visited the site of
the attack and rightly acknowledged that “it’s still dangerous to be LGBTQ
in America,” calling the massacre a “targeted attack on the Latino LGBTQ
community” (Ogles, 2016).
Clinton also acknowledged that members of the LGBTQ community
“are more likely than any other group in our country to be the targets of
hate crimes” (Ogles, 2016). People of color still constitute a majority of
those victims—a fact that should build ally solidarity between feminist,
queer, and people-of-color activist movements, but

3
4 F e m i n i s t T h eo r e t i c a l F r a m e w o r k s

single-issue media coverage seems incapable of bringing intersectional

attention to the racist and anti-trans*/queer violence that Orlando repre-
sents. Since the shooting, most of the coverage has been about Omar
Mateen and his motivations, his history, his orientations, his thoughts
and feelings. He was quickly proven to have no formal links with ISIL or
other terrorist organizations, yet the coverage continues to focus on him
and the specter of terrorism, rather than the victims as minoritarian sub-
jects, on homophobic and transphobic violence, or on gun violence in the
U.S. more generally. (Harris & Holman Jones, 2016)

Beginning with the status of girls and

Gender, according to
Judith Butler (1990a), is a women, but not ending there, feminism is
repetition of stylized acts, an engaged human rights position that
which challenges earlier seeks to expose and remedy gender ineq-
research claiming that uities. The study of gender, as a starting
there is some “essential”
point for approaching feminist research,
pre-existing gendered self
that is then communicated cannot be understood without consider-
or “revealed” socially; ation of other aspects of human existence
rather, Butler theorized that influence the ways in which human
that gender is a co-con- beings interact socially, including race,
structed and ephemeral physical ability, class, geolocations, and
performance of emergent
sexuality. We are not bodies that are only
selves. Gender is impor-
tantly significantly differ- gendered, but rather, we simultaneously
ent from sex and sexuality. occupy race, ethnicity, social class, sexu-
ality, and other positionalities. Feminist
research recognizes the inescapable need
to approach the study of gender in a way that recognizes the simultaneous
nature of our complex selves, and the ways in which multiple aspects of
privilege or oppression are being exercised at once.
Such multithreaded oppressions require collaboration between the
minorities who suffer and allies to the cause. (Adopting the position of
“ally” reminds us that we are not the authority on other people’s experi-
ences.) The response to the Orlando tragedy exemplifies just such inter-
sectionality and “allyship,” and a commitment to intersectionality is what
is different about this text: while contemporary feminist research texts
abound, this one invites readers to engage with the rapid and diverse evo-
lutions of feminism today, as well as to participate in the kind of intersec-
tional critical scholarship that feminism was established to address.
As you might imagine, gender is central to defining what feminist
research does and believes, yet gender is not the only focus of feminist
research. These intersectional commitments of feminist research as a field
constitute a feminist research ethics—the political, methodological, and in
some cases spiritual beliefs that underpin this area of scholarly research.
 Introduction 5

But this feminist research ethics is not just an abstract idea—it points to
additional feminist concerns, including ontology (the nature of knowledge
itself), epistemology (what counts as knowledge and how that knowledge
is represented), and methodology (the theories and tools of doing research).
As a critical research approach it also suggests a range of ways in which
feminist researchers believe in changing the world. “Critical” in this sense
does not imply “to criticize,” but rather to challenge the status quo. Femi-
nist research is by its nature a critical research approach, because it chal-
lenges the gender-based inequities that are still pervasive around the globe.
For example, the gender pay gap (unequal pay for equal work, based on
gender) is a social justice issue concerning both gender and economics. But
gender pay inequity is an issue that also intersects with geography, race,
religion, and other conditions. For example, it is easy to find gender pay gap
statistics for the United States or Europe, such as those shown in Figure 1.1,
but not as easy to find such statistics for other global regions, yet we are
told that the gender pay gap is an important indicator to monitor injustices
and unfair working conditions.

FIGURE 1.1  The unadjusted gender pay gap. The unadjusted gender pay gap 2014,
published online March 2016 by Eurostat. The gender pay gap is the average difference
between a man’s and a woman’s pay. There are two distinct numbers regarding the pay
gap—the unadjusted versus the adjusted pay gap. The latter takes into account differ-
ences in hours worked, occupations, education and job experience. Accessed at http://
ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/File:The_unadjusted_gender_ pay _
gap,_ 2014_(¹)_(difference_ between_ average_ gross_ hourly _earnings_of_ male_ and_
female_employees_as_%25_of_male_gross_earnings_new.png#filelinks.
6 F e m i n i s t T h eo r e t i c a l F r a m e w o r k s

This book will look closely at these key terms and areas of inquiry
from a range of perspectives.
In examining the Orlando tragedy, for example, it is impossible to
understand the crime without seeing how race, gender, sexuality, and even
religion conflate in ways that inform one another. This intersectionality is
the kind of complex understanding that we are encouraging readers of this
book to use as a lens through which to approach the theories and meth-
odological innovations of feminism that follow. Contemporary feminist
research has the ability through intersectionality and other postmodern
and poststructuralist frameworks to foreground the complexity of these
areas of inquiry in ways that the mainstream media is routinely unable to
convey. As a result, feminist research work offers an important alterna-
tive to the often one-dimensional accounts we experience through popular
culture. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all fields of scholarship could allow
us to understand ourselves and our work better and make an intellectual
contribution, while at the same time improving the material conditions of
our shared communities and lives? We think so.
This book approaches feminist research from just that point of view.
But before we can ask, What is feminist research? we must ask ourselves,
What is critical scholarship?
This book understands contemporary feminist research as that which
addresses inequality with an agenda for social change. Again, we believe
that critical scholarship—that which problematizes social conditions as
they are—can only be addressed intersectionally, or in other words, in the
interwoven ways that it gets played out in real life. For example, oppres-
sions almost never appear alone—they are usually expressed in multiples.
Where there’s racism, there is often also sexism, classism, ableism. So in
order to be wide awake as feminist researchers we must also ask ourselves
the questions What is race? What is ableism? What is class (socioeconomic)
inequity? How do these conditions and positions work together or against
one another? This book asks readers to think about doing research that is
embedded in and accountable to “real life,” and that aspires to make real
life better—not just for women, but for all—and to realize that these are
not separate projects but interconnected ones.
This book also asks readers to consider the question What does it mean
to do feminist research? Feminist research is not like many other forms of
research, because it holds social commitments in the front of our work.
Feminist research is not just abstract scholarship that analyzes how things
are, but rather it suggests ways forward to a better world in which this kind
of critical scholarship plays an active role in inspiring and enacting social
change. Perhaps most importantly, feminist research is not just concerned
 Introduction 7

with the conditions of girls and women, but with all gender-based inequi-
ties, and today in particular, with the highly visible but contested terrain of
transgender and cisgender human rights and the ways in which changing
definitions of gender impact all genders and all who fall outside the “gender
spectrum” or somewhere fluid within it.

What Is an Ally?

As feminist researchers we must also ask, as we suggested was needed in

response to the Orlando massacre, What is an ally? Feminist research com-
mitted to fighting against intersectional and multiple oppressions requires
that we recognize that while we might inhabit some of those minority posi-
tions, we cannot inhabit them all, and that we still have a scholarly, politi-
cal, and interpersonal commitment to fight equally for them all. Being an
ally also requires reflexivity and power sharing in our research practice.
We must critically interrogate our own positions within the research pro-
cess and let go of the false idea that we are the all-knowing authority. In
praxis—the “doing” of research—being an ally can take many shapes,
including setting research agendas in collaboration with community part-
ners, engaging in reciprocal relationships with research participants, using
collaborative and participatory designs, disseminating research findings in
popular forms, and putting research findings to use (to influence public
policy, create programming, etc.). In other words, we are there to support
the agendas of those directly oppressed, or oppressed differently from our-
selves.

What Is Gender?

We must ask ourselves in a serious way, What is gender? It may seem

obvious, but as 21st-century feminist research is showing, it’s not. Many
longtime feminist researchers are learning new terms or new concepts for
familiar terms, such as cisgender, a term that denotes identification with
the gender one is biologically assigned at birth. Males who have come
out as transgender females have often been mistreated, even within femi-
nist circles, and these communities and assemblages represent one way in
which feminist research is reexamining much of what it does and stands for
politically and interpersonally. Many mainstream feminist texts continue,
surprisingly, to focus only or primarily on “girls and women,” without
problematizing these as socially constructed (not “innate”) categories, or
8 F e m i n i s t T h eo r e t i c a l F r a m e w o r k s

pay insufficient attention to genderqueer, gender-creative, gender-fluid, or

trans* girls, women, and feminists. This book is different: We go back to
basics and ask once again—in utterly new and contemporary ways—that
most primary of feminist questions: What is gender, and therefore what is
required to gain gender equity?

What about the Digital?

This moment is perhaps the most exciting time in history to be doing femi-
nist research. Why? Because definitions and practices of feminism are—
like so much else—changing so rapidly and in so many diverse directions.
Today more than ever we have culturally diverse feminisms that have dif-
ferent understandings and enactments of feminist ideals while holding
common commitments with other feminists around the globe. Today, femi-
nist digital media makes it possible to have feminist memes, concepts, and
incidents “go viral” and drum up support almost instantaneously—this
has never before been possible in the long history of the fight for gender
equality. For example, the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up initiative have
gained incredible momentum, prompting immediate change, thanks to the
Internet. And today, definitions and practices of gender itself are more fluid
than ever—and moving rapidly toward even more fluidity. What could be a
more engaging and exciting area of research in the current era?
While some would trace the exploration of diverse gender performance
to Eve Sedgwick’s first articulation of a queer theory that went beyond
sexuality, others would point out that in the non-Western world, gender
fluidity and diversity have been long recognized and long integrated into
cultures more generally, as in, for example, the Samoan identity known as
Fa’afafine, the Tongan fakaleiti, Native American “two-spirit identities,”
Tahitian Mahu, and indigenous Australians known as Sistergirls. We begin
our engagement with feminist research in the 21st century with girls and
women as a starting point but move beyond traditional cisgender defini-
tions and identifications of gender presentation and their alignment with
feminist research and politics. In this book we are looking at gender in
more complicated and always evolving ways, including feminism for nonbi-
nary gender orientations and identifications. This up-to-date understand-
ing and approach to feminisms for the 21st century is what sets this book
apart.
 Introduction 9

What about Representation?

Also central to our contemporary approach to feminist research is the

notion of representation. This is no accident, as both feminist digital media
and contemporary gender studies highlight the performative nature of gen-
der. Feminist research is no different. As gender is a socially constructed
category, research on feminism across the gender spectrum, including
research on girls and women, continues to highlight the ways in which
representation reinforces gender inequity and the social justice needs of
feminist research.
While a generation ago feminist research focused on the “means of
production” of representation, today feminist researchers and our allies
and collaborators can create our own images through digital media, video,
and social media. We can engage with traditional forms of scholarly rep-
resentation, subverting the standard forms, and we can also engage with
new forms intended to reach popular audiences, and at times inspire social
activism. Does that mean that there is equity of representation, either
online or off-line? Not at all. What it does mean is that there is a new round
of concerns for the curation, production, consumption, and circulation of
gendered images that are impacting gender equity concerns in online/off-
line worlds, and the need for critical feminist research is only growing.
Therefore, we invite you to explore the methodological, theoretical, and
popular cultural resources this book has to offer through the range of ques-
tions, activities, and additional digital resources available in each chapter.
What you can be sure of is that this book and its studies/examples are just
as up to date, just as evolving, and just as diverse as feminist research today.

CO N CLU S I O N

As we hope you are beginning to see, feminism is an engaged position from

which to conduct research. While feminism begins with the status and cir-
cumstances of girls and women, it does not end there. Throughout this
book we review the historical context for feminist research, theoretical
frameworks, methods for conducting research, writing for different audi-
ences, and activism. We hope to provide you with the basic tools to engage
in your own feminist practice, as current events provide the need and inspi-
ration.
10 F e m i n i s t T h eo r e t i c a l F r a m e w o r k s

D I S CU SS I O N Q U EST I O N S
1. What does it mean to say that gender is central to feminist research but that
gender is not the only focus of feminist research?
2. Select a recent event and reflect on how an intersectional approach is impor-
tant for analyzing and responding to the event.

AC T I V I T I ES
1. Find two newspaper articles about the Pulse nightclub massacre. What are
the main points of each article? How are the victims and perpetrator charac-
terized? Is an intersectional analysis offered? Please explain your response
with examples from the articles.
2. Conduct online research to learn about the #MeToo movement or Time’s Up
initiative. How did digital media fuel the movement? (Up to 1 page).

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

ŠŠBooks
Ngozi Adichie, C. (2015). We should all be feminists. New York: Anchor Books.
This is a widely regarded and inspirational statement on the importance of
feminism.

Collins, P. H., & Blige, S. (2016). Intersectionality. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

A comprehensive review of intersectionality including what it is, how to enact
it as a part of critical inquiry, and the historical development of the concept.

Digital Resources
Feminism in Nigeria
www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/nig.html
An amazing resource page/bibliography on the history, economics, and politics of
feminism in Nigeria.

Tales of Passion
www.ted.com/talks/isabel_allende_tells_tales_of_passion
The Chilean American author Isabelle Allende’s TED Talk on women, creativity,
and the definition of feminism has had nearly 3.6 million views at the time of this
writing. Allende is a world-renowned author, one of the most widely read writ-
ers in Latin America, and also a self-described feminist and gender warrior. Her
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
him, evidently intending to try and pacify him, but the old fellow
persisted in screaming and threatening. Again I put my hand in my
pocket, with as good a result as before.
The Khalifa and the Sheikh awaited me in their dwelling, and after
a little conversation with them, and a stroll in their company through
the lanes, and to visit some of the dwellings, I ordered the horses to
be saddled.
As I set foot in the stirrup, the Khalifa came forward with a
mouflon horn, which he begged me to accept. It was the same that I
had seen in the mosque. My guide had evidently told tales out of
school.

A HALT IN THE DESERT—TENT OF A TRIBAL CHIEF.

When we had descended into the valley I turned and looked up.
Near the Khalifa’s house stood some white burnous-clad figures. I
waved a farewell, and saw a couple of arms flourished in reply.
So, by the same path, we rode back to Tatuin. The goats on the
mountains were now grazing amongst the rocks.
My horse was fidgety, and the flies worrying him made him
constantly toss his head. I was careless, and he struck me a blow on
the right hand, causing it to swell, and compelling me to carry it in a
sling; and thus I had to ride for several days.
After riding hard for full five hours, we reached Tatuin a little
before sunset. Lieutenant Adam had arrived there with his company,
and a great surprise also awaited me.
 CHAPTER XV

The Tuareg

I dismounted at the office of the Intelligence Department. In the

archway a number of burnous-clad men waited to be admitted into
the office, where the interpreter, M. Grosset-Grange, and Lieutenant
Donau were at work.
My eyes roved over the crowd of waiting men, who hailed from far
and near. They were fine types, all wrapped in white or grey cloaks.
Then I started, for on the stone bench sat—yes, by Jove!—two
stalwart figures, with black kerchiefs wound round about their faces,
so that only their fine eyes were visible, most of the nose and a little
of the forehead being covered. Their light brown complexions
surprised me.
Below their white garments appeared bare legs and sandalled
feet, and, if I am not mistaken, they wore light blue trousers. A tuft of
black hair protruded above the dark head-covering. They were
evidently Tuareg.
Lieutenant Donau came out to receive me. Pointing to the two
men, I ejaculated, “Tuareg?”
“Yes, certainly,” he said with a smile.
I seated myself on a bench opposite to them, while Donau fetched
the interpreter, so that between them they might interrogate the
Tuareg. At first I could not realise that I indeed sat peacefully face to
face with the dreaded sons of the desert, and that I should have the
luck to take home for our National Museum their costume and
equipment. It seemed too good to be true.
 A TUAREG.

“Do you think I shall be able to buy their clothes?” I asked the
interpreter.
“It will be very difficult to manage,” he replied. “The Tuareg are
suspicious, and will not understand that anyone would sooner buy
their old rags than fine clothes, such as you wear. Besides, similar
costumes are not to be had here, and they will not like to return
home in ordinary Arab dress.”
“Very well, tell them I am a stranger from a distant country, who
has come here to see whether my people may not be of the same
origin as theirs. Tell them I should be glad if I could take their
costume with me to show to my countrymen. I will pay for them more
than their value, or, if they will not take money for them, I will
undertake to send them corn by caravan from Gabés, for I know that
they have been unable to buy any here.”
The interpreter then began the lengthy and tough transaction.
It then transpired that one of the two, Akhemed-uld-Bai, spoke
Arabic, but not so his compatriot, Mohammed-ben-Mohammed. The
conversation therefore took time.
First I addressed the interpreter in French, he then translated
what I had said into Arabic for Akhemed, who again repeated it in the
Berber language to Mohammed.
After the matter had been thoroughly discussed by the pair, the
reply was returned in the same way.
They informed us that they belonged to the “Foghass” section of
the Azgu tribe of Tuareg. But though the name of Akhemed-uld-Bai
had the true Tuareg ring, as much could hardly be said for his
companion’s patronymic. Their proper home was on the farther side
of Rhadamés.
When they learnt that I was anxious to become the possessor of
their property, both of them stared at me long and fixedly, after which
they consulted together for a while. Then Akhemed began to divest
himself of his white “Tuat” burnous, for which we bargained. As I
gave him what he asked, his other garments soon followed, and bit
by bit he stripped himself, until he was actually clothed in nothing but
a scanty shirt, or under-tunic, and the black veil, of which the lower
part concealed his mouth.
A Tuareg never exposes his mouth before others so long as he
can avoid doing so; it would be a breach of propriety.
But in the presence of foreigners they had evidently less regard
for decorum than they would have had before their own people. Now
and then Akhemed, as he talked, dragged the kerchief away from
the lower part of his face, and I saw the handsome well-formed
beardless mouth and white teeth. Whether he were shaved I know
not; but it is said that the Tuareg do not care for beards, and
therefore shave.
 When he rose to take off his clothes, his fine muscular form
towered above all those present; a truly herculean specimen, he was
some six feet high, sparely but splendidly built.
His costume was as follows:—
A shirt-like under-tunic (akhebaïl), above it a grey patterned tunic
with short white sleeves that came from the Sudan (taiden).
Trousers, which were wide at the top and narrow below; they
reached half-way down the calf (kortebba).
Sandals (ghetimèn) of tooled leather, with crossed latchets that
passed between the toes and fastened round the ankle.
A long, narrow black veil, used to enwrap the head. This veil is
furnished in two places with a broad flap; one serves to cover the
forehead, the other the lower part of the face. The crown of the head
is left bare, and shows above the veil a black tuft of hair (tadilmus).
Outside the veil a long piece of white material is rolled turban-wise,
but so arranged that the veil shows both above and beneath it (ash
shash).
Over this dress is worn an ordinary light wrap, a “haik” from Tuat
(kheiki).
The costume was completed by three square amulet cases (tira)
made of tin, and apparently fashioned out of old sardine boxes. They
hung by leathern strings on the man’s breast and outside his clothes.
Supposing that these cases contained inscriptions in the Berber
language, I was very anxious to get possession of them. But all my
endeavours in this respect were unsuccessful. Akhemed would not
part with them. He declared that to him they were worth more than
the value of a camel. He had bought them from a Marabout, they
protected him from danger and misfortune, and since he had
possessed them no ill had befallen him.
“Then sell me the cord and the cases and keep your amulet.”
For a high price he agreed to this, but I could not get permission
to see the contents. Next morning he brought and handed over to
me an unsoldered case.
 When there was no more to be bought from this man, I turned to
his companion.
His costume differed little from the other, so I did not trouble about
it, but on the wrist of his left hand was an embroidered leather ring,
and the same hand grasped the hilt of a dagger (tilek).
The Tuareg always carry one of these in the left sleeve, so
disposed that the point is turned up the sleeve, whilst the sheath lies
along under the forearm, and is secured by a sewn band which is
slipped over the wrist. The handle of the dagger is cross-shaped and
bound with brass wire. The dagger is therefore, very evidently and
literally, handy.
I bought it and a large leather bag (agherid), made apparently of
antelope or gazelle hide. Through holes on the edges of the bag
were drawn leather thongs, which again were made fast with a very
peculiar iron lock. This is the only lockfast receptacle owned by the
Tuareg, for they rarely possess even a chest (senduk), as do the
Arabs.
Of other weapons they had none, though the Tuareg generally
carry spears, but rarely swords, bows and arrows, or shields.
Next I bought one of their light smart saddles for riding the
dromedary (mehari). The saddle has a broad cantle at the back, and
that in front, though narrower, is also high and terminates in a cross.
The cross is often found in Tuareg ornaments, and, as I show by
an illustration in my book called Algiers and the Sahara, is supposed
to be a relic of the time when this people were Christians and
inhabited the more northern regions whence they were driven by the
Arabs.
All the wearing apparel that I purchased was, according to the
vendors’ account, manufactured by Tuareg or brought from the
Sudan.
The price of each article was named in piastres, and the
interpreter having added up the total, I paid in francs, without the
Tuareg overlooking the account, their trust in the interpreter being so
entire. A sign of their confidence in the French.
 M. Grosset-Grange told me that these two Tuareg examined all
that was novel to them just like children. That when they entered his
room they at first stood dumfoundered, then touched and examined
everything. The system by which the window was closed and bolted
was carefully investigated, and pleased them much. The handle of
the bolt chanced to be decorated with the representation of a man’s
head, and the Tuareg naïvely asked, “Is that your father?”
Commandant Billet told me many amusing anecdotes of these
children of nature, who are so sober and abstemious in their daily
life, and who can subsist for days in the desert almost without food.
Once a “Targui” (the singular of Tuareg) happened to come to him
at one of the stations. “Are you hungry?” asked the commandant.
Yes, it was long since he had tasted food; so an enormous
quantity was set before him, enough to have satisfied six or seven
ordinary folk. When he had consumed all this he went to see a
captain, by whom he was as generously treated. One might have
supposed that he would then be satisfied; but no, half an hour later
the insatiable son of the desert called on a third official, and again
complained bitterly of hunger, and was fed with a couple of dishes of
“kus-kus.”
It is inconceivable how any one man could swallow so much food,
but probably it had never before fallen to his lot to fully satisfy his
appetite.
Apparently the Tuareg are at present anxious to keep on friendly
terms with the French. On several occasions small caravans have
travelled as far as the southern stations of Tunisia, most of them
certainly with a view to trade, mais enfin, it is always a move in the
right direction, which, prudently encouraged, may lead farther.
It would be to the signal advantage of the French that the old
caravan road to the Sahara should be reopened, so that traffic from
Rhadamés could proceed direct to Gabés or other towns of Tunisia,
instead of, as now, viâ Tripoli. The chief impediment at present lies in
the fact that the caravans, not being permitted to carry slaves, are
not profitable. The baskets, leather goods, weapons, etc., which the
last caravans brought with them—though in small quantities—were
disposed of with difficulty in Tatuin and Medinin, which will not tend
to induce them to make another trial.
No; that traffic through the Sahara may be remunerative, slavery
is essential. In fact, so long as slavery continues to flourish in Tripoli,
so long will the stream of trade flow that way.

A TUAREG.

Neither does slavery appear so terrible at close quarters as it

does when read of in heartrending romances in the style of Uncle
Tom’s Cabin. The truth is, that slaves are well treated everywhere in
the East, so well that even if given their freedom, as they were by
decree in Tunisia, they, as a rule, remain in their master’s house.
The transport across the desert is, indeed, full of horrors, but
when once arrived at their destination the slaves do not suffer from
want—quite otherwise.
Amongst the caravans that came to Tatuin in 1893 was one in
charge of two nephews of Aissa, the Tuareg Sheikh who rules over
the tribe of “Imaughasat.”[4]
The elder of these, named Uan Titi, brought a letter to the officer
in command of the military station at Tatuin, in which he reclaimed
several camels and a negress robbed from the Tuareg by the tribe of
Uderma.
As it was politic to show a friendly disposition, the camels were
forthcoming at once, though they were probably bought; but it was
otherwise with regard to the negress, who was a cause of great
perplexity.
According to law, every slave is free who sets foot on territory
under French control, consequently nothing could be done.
That the Tuareg were afraid of again coming to blows with the
tribe of Uderma, is evident from the fact that the Tuareg Sheikh had
written to the Khalifa of Duirat to beg him to take care that the
emissaries went no farther north than Tatuin, and had also taken the
precaution of ascertaining whether absolute peace prevailed in
Uderma.
Uan Titi spoke of the latest French explorers, Foureau and Méry,
who travelled last winter in the Sahara. He had conducted the first
named, who, however, had not reached Rhadamés. Méry had spent
some time with the Azgu tribe from whom the Imaughasat had then
separated themselves. They now camp together and are fairly united
under their Sheikh Aissa, but they still have some “duars” near
“Rhat.”
According to Uan Titi’s account, the highroads in the Sahara pass
Fezzan, Rhadamés, and Tuat. That by Rhadamés may be
considered the most important.
The Tuareg, amongst whom perfect peace reigns at present,
come to Rhadamés from the southern regions to escort the caravans
and to supply camels for hire.
 It is rare, however, for them to go farther than Tripoli or than
Southern Tunisia.
The Turks in Tripoli refuse, of course, to acknowledge French rule
in Tunisia; and as the people of Rhadamés are mainly Berbers under
Turkish administration, these do all in their power to destroy the little
trade there is with the French territories of Duirat, Tatuin, Medinin,
and beyond them to Gabés.
For the moment the Tuareg place no obstacles in the way of
persons who venture to travel from the Duirat mountains through the
desert to Rhadamés; so the route is open, but no one who is
supposed to have the slightest relations with the French is allowed to
enter the oasis.
The traveller who desires to visit this town, which in the time of the
Romans had constant intercourse with the coast, must start from
Tripoli; if he has letters of recommendation from the authorities there,
he is sure to be admitted; the journey on camel back is wearisome
and even distressing through the heat and lack of water, but of
danger there is none—for the present—the Tuareg not being
camped by the roads in any appreciable numbers.
The French authorities have done all they could to establish
peaceful relations with Rhadamés and to explore the southern
frontier. Officers have reconnoitered the country from the southern
mountains to far into the desert. Commandant Billet in person has
ridden through the mountains as far as the Tunisian frontier. On one
of these expeditions he visited the ruins of a very ancient village in
the mountains, known as “Ksar Uni,” which lies eighty miles south of
Tatuin.
An interpreter who spoke Arabic like a native, and who was,
further, a Mohammedan, was sent to the desert not long since to
endeavour to penetrate as far as Rhadamés. His mission failed
entirely. He was robbed, imprisoned in Rhadamés, and sent to
Tripoli, from whence, after much difficult negotiation, his release was
obtained.
 West of the Matmata mountains and south of the belt of shotts is
a steppe where are found a number of small wells, but south again
of this and as far as Rhadamés is an almost waterless desert, barren
and waste and very dangerous to cross. A few earlier travellers may
possibly have passed through it, but in March and February of this
year the desert was traversed by two French officers, under such
marvellous conditions that I cannot refrain from giving an account of
their journey, exactly as I heard it related by Major Gausset in
Gabés.
Lieutenant Dumas of the Spahis (now captain of the 6th
Chasseurs at Oran), and Lieutenant Cazemajou of the Engineers,
both courageous and determined men, who feared neither exposure
to the elements nor the sufferings of hunger and thirst, determined
on trying to make their way secretly from Nafta, by the shott and
through the desert, to Rhadamés. Well aware that a request for
permission to travel during the difficulties in connection with the
frontier would be refused by their superiors, they only asked for
leave to take a trip to Algiers. This was granted without suspicion
being aroused, and, accompanied by a guide, they disappeared in
the desert, both in Arab dress and mounted on camels.
After a dangerous and fatiguing ride they drew near to Rhadamés,
and were already rejoicing over the happy termination of their
journey; but no sooner had they reached the gates than they were
driven off like dogs, their lives were menaced, and they were
compelled to retreat.
Their coming had been announced by some Marabout whose
kubba they had passed shortly before arriving at the town.
There was nothing to be done but to return as quickly as possible,
which they did; but as they thought it possible that they might be
pursued and attacked on their homeward way, they took another
route, where water was very scarce, and with which none of them
were acquainted.
After incredible exertions and having suffered much from hunger
and thirst—they were reduced at the last to a little chocolate with
which to allay the pangs of hunger—they succeeded in reaching
home.
Their journey was, of course, to a great extent a failure, but they
had reconnoitered an unknown country and proved themselves to be
a couple of exceptionally energetic, brave men. They resumed their
duty in silence, but a rumour of their exploit leaked out and reached
the ear of the General. He demanded an explanation, with the result
that they received a slight official reprimand—soon shaken off.
Since Duveyrier undertook his memorable journey, of which the
brilliant results are related in his book, Les Touaregs du Nord, no
one probably has dedicated himself so entirely to a desert life as
Cornitz, a young Swiss, of whom the officers in the south spoke in
the highest terms.
This man, who appears to be a thinker and philosopher of no
mean order, came for the first time to Southern Tunisia some years
ago, in order to study the mode of life and opinions of the Bedouins.
He was so charmed with their nomad existence that he returned
every year for three years. He dressed as they did, and lived
amongst them in the desert, and, under equal conditions, shared in
the joys and sorrows of their tent life, their hunts and their boundless
horizon. But the time came when even this did not satisfy him, so he
purchased palm trees, a house and a herd, and settled down in the
town of Duz to the west of the Matmata and south of the shotts.
To enable him to take long journeys to the south, he bought two
“mehari” (chameaux coureurs) and practised the difficult art of riding
them. After eight days’ hard exertion he could ride as well as any
“Targui.”
He then travelled with his flocks, or alone, in the south as far as
Rhadamés, but neither was he able to gain admittance to that town.
While on this journey he completed the French map.
Each year, after a visit home, he returned. The last time, in May
1893, that he travelled home he passed through Gabés, where he
was struck down with fever and was very ill. The French officers
begged him to go into the military hospital, but he declined their
offers and started for the north. During my stay in the south I was
told that he had written to one of the Khalifas that he would soon
return to visit his herds, left in charge of an Arab, and to again
resume his life in the desert.
“Il est un peu original, mais très intelligent,” the officers at Gabés
said of him.
In truth, there are many who are attracted by the free life that is
led under tents, where no one need fear troubling his neighbour,
since space is unlimited.
If one place is unpleasing, you move to another—laying your tents
on camels and vaulting into the saddle, you drive your flocks and
herds onwards, ever onwards, for the horizon has no limit.
Whilst dwelling on the men who rove in the alluring, mysterious
desert, which has engulfed so many in its deadly embrace, my
thoughts turn to an evening at Gabés, when, after my return from the
south I sat in the guest-room of the “Hotel de l’Oasis” and refreshed
myself after my exhausting ride.
The landlord, M. Saissy, a man of about fifty, was setting in order
the tables, after the guests, who were mostly officers, had left. I was
the only one who remained and trifled with a cigar and a glass of
beer to pass away the time before retiring to bed.
I was absorbed in thought and long remained so—so long,
indeed, that M. Saissy probably concluded it was time to turn in, for
he approached me and began a conversation by way of rousing me
from my reverie, with, “Have you had a pleasant journey, sir?”
I replied in the affirmative, and gave him a sketch of my travels
and described the Matmata mountains—not a little vain, I confess, of
my expedition. “Have you ever been there?” I asked in conclusion.
“No, I have not,” he replied. “I came here some years ago with the
regiment which I followed as sutler, and, as the officers could not find
a place where they could dine, they proposed that I should cater for
them. This my wife and I agreed to do. By degrees we organised this
hotel, but to make it pay we have to be careful, and we cannot leave
it; since our arrival at Gabés I have positively only been twice
absent.”
Good heavens! thought I, how dull never to have a change and
look about one a bit; but I said, “You ought some day to go south; it
would interest you, for instance, to meet the Tuareg of the west at
Tatuin. I had the luck to be there just when two arrived, whose
equipments I bought.”
“Ah, those may be the same that I once saw.”
“Indeed, and when?”
“Ah, yes—it was a long time ago; I was quite young then, and the
love of travel drew me away from home. I do not remember how it
came about, but eventually I started with two companions to shoot
ostriches in the Sahara—in those days it was not so difficult to
penetrate there. We hunted with the Tuareg.”
“Did you venture far?”
“Yes, I do not exactly know how far, but certainly to the other side
of Tuat. The natives were a peaceful people, and we were never at
enmity with them. Our hunting was successful, and we made money
for our employer.
“Once I was on the point of going there again with Dr. Nachtigall,
but something intervened, and to my bitter regret I could not leave—
for I have always had a longing for that sort of life. It was very
different from slaving as we do now, my wife and I; for it is not easy
to please everyone—no, indeed! But to return to those days. You
see, I have been acquainted with many of the well-known travellers.
Most of them behave badly—for they do not respect the natives.
Some rely on force—which is a mistake—it is always best to be
unarmed. If ever I should venture there again, I would take a stick in
my hand and naught else.
“Miss Tinné I knew well. She would not listen to good advice and
was murdered. Good heavens! she needed only to ask the chief of
the Tuareg for a safe conduct and all would have been well, but she
would not wait till the matter could be arranged, believing that she
could safely penetrate farther with the protection she had.
 “No—believe me; it is easy enough to push one’s way forward,
but one must avoid offending the natives.
“There was another traveller who deserved to have been slain
also—but escaped. He simply stole cattle when he required them.”
We conversed long, and I gathered much information with many
interesting details, as old recollections were recounted by him as
they came back to his mind.
Saissy’s wife joined us, and we sat together and discussed a
glass of wine. Saissy promised me then to note down his
recollections, which are to be forwarded to me, and I hope to be able
to publish them later; for the present I confine myself to what I have
already mentioned.
On my referring to the great desire I had to visit Rhadamés some
future year—“Take me with you,” burst from M. Saissy. “I am in
earnest; pay me only sufficient to enable my wife to live in comfort in
my absence, and I will accompany you. You may be assured that I
should be of use to you.”
“From Tripoli?” I asked.
“Of course from Tripoli.”
“Nous verrons, M. Saissy.” And so we went to bed.
When I left, a couple of days later, Saissy came to me and gave
me his portrait, saying—
“You will let me know when you have come to a decision.”
 CHAPTER XVI

Back to Tunis

In the course of the night a telegram arrived, ordering Dr. Cultin to

return with me next day to Medinin, as his colleague had been
suddenly seized with fever and was very ill.
We were a little late in starting, and the sun was scorching hot.
Followed by our two Spahis and a led horse, which bore my
purchases from the Tuareg, we hurried homewards.
After a halt near Bir el Ahmer, where we breakfasted, and where a
fresh horse awaited me, our progress was rapid.
But it was after nightfall when we reached Medinin. Outside the
camp we met the lieutenant of the Spahis, who said that the doctor
was worse, and was about to be sent in a carriage to Gabés.
Dr. Cultin hurried away to his sick comrade, and I dismounted at
the quarters of the commandant, who came galloping in to receive
me, and invited me to a splendid dinner with some of the officers.
I need scarcely mention that I expressed my thanks in the
warmest terms for the brilliant reception I had received, and for my
memorable trip to the southernmost military stations.
I was offered a horse for an expedition to Zarsis and the island of
Jerba, but had to decline with many thanks, as my time was limited.
After a comfortable breakfast with the infantry officers, I bade my
friends farewell before the commandant’s house, and, waving my hat
in a final salute, rode off to Gabés.
Commandant Billet accompanied me nearly as far as Metamer,
where we parted.
 “Should you ever go to Rhadamés by way of Tripoli and return by
this route, you would be heartily welcome, and this would certainly
be your best way home,” said the commandant.
I replied that should the journey ever be attempted by me,
Medinin would have a great attraction for me, and thanked him
heartily for all his kindness.
Then I rode with my Spahi towards the camp at Metamer, where
the lieutenant on guard came out and invited me in.
After a short halt, I continued in a north-westerly direction along
the foot of the mountain of the signal station, and thence by a hilly
country north; the Matmata mountains lying to the west of us, and
the plain to the east.
On both the plain and the hills I saw ruined Roman remains. We
also passed a spot where a few soldiers were encamped for the
purpose of digging a well, and as we ascended a hill saw a vehicle
come swinging towards us. Before it rode a red Spahi, behind it
another. The carriage was a heavy box on four wheels, and had an
awning over it; it was drawn by four mules, and two soldiers acted as
postillions. From within peeped a woman’s face. It was a captain’s
wife who had taken advantage of the opportunity of going viâ
Medinin to visit her husband at Zarsis—the carriage being on its way
to fetch the sick doctor.
It was nearly sunset, and I urged on my horse to avoid arriving
late at the little caravansarai where we were to spend the night.
Soon it became so dark that the horses stumbled on the rough
road, and we had to slacken to a walk. For a long time we saw
nothing but each other’s dim figures and heard only the tramp of our
horses.
At last, at the village of Aram, lights shone and dogs barked as we
passed amongst its palms.
After riding in the still night about an hour longer, we again heard
dogs barking and saw lights. We were then near the oasis of Marath,
where, having ridden fully twenty miles, we were to rest some hours
and start again at sunrise for Gabés.
 In the caravansarai—which resembled that of Bir el Ahmer—a
Spahi from Gabés awaited me with a fresh horse.
The lights in the house streamed from the rooms into the
courtyard. Within were some soldiers, who had bivouacked round
about a candle placed on the floor. They came out, received our
horses and conducted me to an officer’s room. Four bare walls;
raised on masonry was a sloping plank-bed which extended along
the inner wall; besides this there was a table and a bench.
A native, who was in charge of the place, I sent to the oasis to buy
me some candles. The soldiers eagerly offered to lend me, till his
return, their little taper stuck in a bottle.
The Spahis then laid the table, and I dined, after first dividing with
them and the soldiers the eatables with which I had been so
sumptuously provided, for no one knows better than I do how a small
extra ration tends to put a soldier into good-humour. I have not
forgotten the old days in South Oran when I was myself a mere
private.
The Spahis and the four soldiers drew up in line at the table, and I
began the distribution—bread and dates to the Mohammedans, and
wine to the soldiers, which I poured into the tin mugs they held out to
me, and to whom I gave also bread and meat.
“Right about face, march!” I gave the order involuntarily, and the
troop at once vanished through the door.
Soon the sound of gay voices singing reached my ear from the
adjoining room.
When I had finished my repast I lit a cigarette and took a turn
through the courtyard to have a look at the horses, which still stood
saddled and had not yet been either fed or watered, they were so
overheated from their journey.
Having given orders that they were to be unsaddled, fed, and
watered, I returned, and, lying on the bed, listened to the singing.
I had rested but a short while when a smart soldier entered, and,
with his hand to his cap, asked if he and his comrades might enliven
the evening for me, as if so, they would come in.
I agreed willingly; so they came in, each carrying his mug, and sat
on the ground facing me.
After I had questioned them, asking each where he hailed from,
and had talked with them about a soldier’s life in the desert—a life I
also knew something of—I asked them to sing; then the usual
barrack ballads with comic choruses woke the still night. Afterwards I
chatted again a little with them, refilled their mugs which they
emptied, wishing me a happy journey, and then withdrew.
I wrapped myself in my burnous and slept, but was disturbed, first
by the stamping of the horses, and later by the noise of some carts
being yoked in the yard.
Before it was light next morning I was broad awake. The soldiers
made and brought me some coffee that I drank with relish, and it
was just daybreak when, wrapped in my burnous, I got into my
saddle, after having inscribed my name in the register. The soldiers
stood at attention and saluted as I bade them farewell and thanked
them for the songs they sang for me, while they, in return, wished me
a happy journey.
Our road was towards the north through the palm groves of the
lowland, where we now and again crossed the dry beds of torrents
that began in the mountains.
After a couple of hours we traversed the Ketena oasis, leaving
other palm groves on one side.
Here the level of the country rose a little, and far away on the
northern horizon we could see the palm forests that lie south of
Gabés, and now and again caught a glimpse in the east of the sunlit
surface of the Mediterranean.
Presently the temperature became very sultry, and a hot wind
rose, which whirled the sand in our eyes. This was the sirocco.
When we reached the high ground, where stands the Marabout’s
tomb of “Sid Hamed ben-Habib,” and had passed its palms, we saw,
through dust clouds and flying sand, Gabés, looking like a white