ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the connections between neoliberalism, public relations (PR), and feminism, leading to two interrelated points: a celebration of the dialectic of difference identified by Lorde is vital to effective practices of PR in social movement contexts; through difference, PR may help facilitate coalition-building to challenge neoliberal power. The extension of Audre Lorde’s metaphor is meant to take the strategic ambiguity of her historic speech and apply it to a contemporary moment of PR activism, a moment reminiscent of similar struggles for unity within the women’s movement. PR histories that eschew progressive arcs offer explanations of complicated patterns of dominance and resistance. The ‘master’s tools’ are practices of PR, some more ethical than others. PR has an important role to play in coalition-building to the extent that the activist practitioner is able to privilege difference in the context of social justice.
