Feminist emotions in emotional labour: Who cares about domestic violence? Amy Passmore, 2015

“People who experience conventionally unacceptable, or what I call ‘outlaw’ emotions often are subordinated individuals who pay a disproportionately high price for maintaining the status quo.” Alison Jaggar; 1989; 180. Love and Knowledge: Emotion in Feminist Epistemology

“You cause unhappiness by revealing the cause of unhappiness. And you become the cause of unhappiness you reveal.” Sara Ahmed; 2010; 591. Killing Joy: Feminism and the History of Happiness

“Every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being. Focused with precision it can be become a powerful source of energy serving progress and change.” Audre Lorde; 1984; 127. The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism

“What I did without any effort, just naturally, was constantly absorb feminist material. That what I did without prompting was research feminism. And so that was like the lightbulb moment, if you know, maybe if I go where there is ease, something that comes naturally to me, that’s a better tactic than trying to force me into these different roles. So, that’s how the idea of volunteering at [a domestic violence charity] came.”

“Without sounding big headed, not me specifically, the work that [this domestic violence charity does] is absolutely 100% vital, essential and it is really exciting working for an organisation that I have absolutely, 100% commitment to, and faith in - and I sound like I’m in a bit of a cult!”

“After one particularly difficult call, where we managed to get her out and everything, the abuse that she was describing was so severe I found it really difficult. I got quite tearful and, so like on the way home I kept sort of getting a bit tearful of the tube, and that kind of thing. I’ve never really stopped thinking about that call. I found it so horrific. I kind of kept getting images of what she described, what he was doing. I was almost like kind of experiencing it because I was kind of visualising it all.”

“Like I’ll sit on the tube and I’ll sit and I’ll look at couples, and I can’t help but… And I analyse so many different things.”

Participant 1: Sometimes [the work I do] makes me feel, I mean feeling angry at men I think is normal for a feminist, but sometimes I come home and I just think, “Oh just fuck off all of you”. Researcher: Is that everyone, or is that men specifically? Participant 1: Men specifically.

“It’s great, it’s great! It’s brilliant! […] And it’s relaxing, I find. You know, you can kind of be yourself, you don’t have to explain yourself. So, yeah, that’s really good!” “It can create a sort of feeling that you’re living in a bubble. Which is a different reality to other people’s reality.” “It’s like working in a really nice feminist cocoon working in a feminist organisation, and it’s a little bit protected and perhaps a little bit distanced from what the reality of many people’s lives is. But it is very nice.”

Thank you.