“Always perfect, discrimination free, and informed”: The perfect intersectional feminist and digital feminist allyship discourses

This article examines how popular intersectional allyship discourses in contemporary digital feminism align with the neoliberal ethos of self-actualizing encouraged by the capitalist social media platforms on which these discourses circulate – and how this ethos materializes in feminists’ subjectivities through “the perfect.” Drawing on interviews with German-speaking feminists about their perceptions of and affective engagements with intersectionality and allyship discourses in digital feminism, I demonstrate that these discourses converge in producing “the perfect intersectional feminist.” Unpacking this theoretical figure, my analysis elucidates its three key tenets in line with neoliberal subjectivity – self-competition, self-improvement, and individualized responsibility – and how these reproduce ideals of perfect white middle-class femininity. My analysis further highlights how the perfect intersectional feminist is conditioned by the judgment-enticing design of social media platforms, enabling not only self- but also peer surveillance, which produces intra-feminist callouts, as well as (self-)competition, exhaustion, insecurity, and anxiety.