This essay interprets feminist and lesbian street actions, street art and graffiti in Ljubljana Slovenia as sporadic, anonymous, fleeting, and illegal interventions in the institutionalized sphere of feminist knowledge re production and the dominant cultural order.
Selected graffiti, street art and street actions of the last fifteen years are paralleled with relevant political events and the written herstory of feminist and lesbian initiatives of the same period. The essay argues that these forms of grassroots activism, understood as one of the communication tools available to young and progressive feminists and lesbians, offer them public visibility and the possibility of creating and intermediating their own knowledge, values, and herstory — in short, an oppositional imagined community.
Whereas many visible feminist groups and intellectuals who protested against nationalism were, especially in Croatia, demonized as « the betrayers of nation » and « witches », feminisms in Slovenia were not affected by the war to the same extent. The rich legacy of what was once « new feminism » and to a lesser extent also the lesbian movement from the eighties has since become part of a professionalized « everyday life » within an institutionalized scheme. Feminists and lesbians gained access to academic resources, publishing, culture, art, psychosocial and humanitarian work ; in humble proportions, they also entered parliamentary politics.
While the introduction of gender studies and services for women has enabled the transgenerational re production of feminist knowledge, the predominance of British, American and French sources used at Gender Studies departments today is producing young educated feminists who can legitimately conclude that these are the only available feminist genealogies.
This metaphorical exile from the streets has renewed the need for feminist activism that will not only defend the already existing rights but will also establish sites of personal and political emancipation in contexts where there is still no space for women and lesbians. While it is true that until this point, women and lesbians have not lost any of the already achieved legal rights, it became quite clear in , when the reproductive rights of women were threatened again, that it is necessary to fight in more visible ways.
