of women artists, is that they’ve tended to be interested in what they call ‘post-feminism’ and not politics—as if somehow the issue of gender is now neutral, neither here nor there, or more about sexual preference and pleasure. They don’t even seem to acknowledge that pleasure has a political dimension. AC: The ‘post-feminism’ agenda is something which is also common to Europe and North America. But what’s interesting is that I think here in South Africa, it’s framed in a very particular way. A lot of women that weren’t engaged in the struggle and who maybe even supported apartheid through apathy and through indifference are probably only too relieved to agree with this agenda, since it effectively lets everyone off the hook. And now there’s a furious celebration of pleasure, but an uncritical pleasure, devoid of a recognition of the way in which pleasure itself is socially and also politically constituted. It’s almost an evacuation of the ‘political’ all together, partly out of guilt, perhaps, as a result of collusion in this history of criminal indifference. There seems to be a desire on the part of some artists also to absolutely erase this aspect of their practice because they see no imperative to deal with it anymore. In one sense this is all very predictable and understandable but I suppose the worrying side to this development is that artists can actually end up facilitating a kind of amnesia. PS: I think that corresponds to other things that are going on in South Africa. Many people feel that it’s dangerous to dwell on the past and the future simply means a sort of pursuit of cheerful individualism. We need a broader definition of the ‘political’. In my own case, for me not to take on the issue of ‘race’ would be an evasion, and for all the difficulties presented by the questions of representation which we’ve touched on here, the absence of ‘race’ in my work would be as politically problematic as it would be aesthetically restrictive. Notes

DOI link for of women artists, is that they’ve tended to be interested in what they call ‘post-feminism’ and not politics—as if somehow the issue of gender is now neutral, neither here nor there, or more about sexual preference and pleasure. They don’t even seem to acknowledge that pleasure has a political dimension. AC: The ‘post-feminism’ agenda is something which is also common to Europe and North America. But what’s interesting is that I think here in South Africa, it’s framed in a very particular way. A lot of women that weren’t engaged in the struggle and who maybe even supported apartheid through apathy and through indifference are probably only too relieved to agree with this agenda, since it effectively lets everyone off the hook. And now there’s a furious celebration of pleasure, but an uncritical pleasure, devoid of a recognition of the way in which pleasure itself is socially and also politically constituted. It’s almost an evacuation of the ‘political’ all together, partly out of guilt, perhaps, as a result of collusion in this history of criminal indifference. There seems to be a desire on the part of some artists also to absolutely erase this aspect of their practice because they see no imperative to deal with it anymore. In one sense this is all very predictable and understandable but I suppose the worrying side to this development is that artists can actually end up facilitating a kind of amnesia. PS: I think that corresponds to other things that are going on in South Africa. Many people feel that it’s dangerous to dwell on the past and the future simply means a sort of pursuit of cheerful individualism. We need a broader definition of the ‘political’. In my own case, for me not to take on the issue of ‘race’ would be an evasion, and for all the difficulties presented by the questions of representation which we’ve touched on here, the absence of ‘race’ in my work would be as politically problematic as it would be aesthetically restrictive. Notes

ABSTRACT

This piece uses a feminist approach to explore various aspects of ‘commodification’ in the lives and work of those teaching and researching in UK universities, and in particular its gender dimensions. After setting a historical context for the radical transformation of UK universities during the 1980s, it considers how this transformation was experienced by academics in terms of alienation, anxiety and accountability. Key features of that experience are loss of autonomy and control to the external power of competition and managerialism, insecurity and casualization in employment, and exposure to increasing judgemental scrutiny. For women academics job insecurity and discrimination continue to be disproportionately important, although some of the challenges to old established academic convention and practice have opened up real possibilities to progress more pro-women agendas. In the future they will confront quite depressing developments in the reconstruction of academic identities and labour, but have the legacy of the gains/insights of feminist analysis and politics over the last twenty years with which to do so.