Paper short abstract:

This paper elaborates upon the political possibilities of "gender" in a posthumanist and postgender context; the contribution is empirically based on the study of (cis-)men's profeminist activism and theoretically inspired by affirmative feminist new materialisms.

Paper long abstract:

In a posthumanist and postgender context, in which the disruption of sexual and gender binaries is advocated for by LGBT+ activists and current conservative anti-gender mobilizations occur, what is the transformative and potential of "gender"? How can we understand gender in order to give justice to its grounded and embodied possibilities for progressive change? This paper answers these questions with a situated approach to activism, by taking into account the ways in which activist configurations manifest themselves and by thinking with the case of (cis-)men's feminist-oriented masculinity politics "as men". Theoretically, this contribution proposes an affirmative approach to gender as a figuration (Braidotti, 2011), so to allow for understanding what gender-based mobilizing can do for a posthumanist feminist political scenario. Finally, compassionate critique is practiced to highlights tensions and contradictions in gender-based (feminist masculinity) politics.