Acid feminism: Gender, psychonautics and the politics of consciousness

Summary

Psychedelic feminism has emerged to address the exclusion of women's experiences in psychedelic culture and research, which has dominated narratives in the field. This article explores how expanding consciousness through psychedelics can rejuvenate feminist thought and combat the historical silencing of women. It draws on various feminist theories and autobiographical accounts to examine the potential of acid feminism to influence the broader narcofeminist movement and challenge entrenched norms in psychedelic discourse.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Psychedelic substances have undergone a transformation in the public consciousness over the last 15 years. However, the most influential first-person narratives of psychonauts and ‘scientist-shamans’ navigating the frontiers of consciousness have tended to entirely exclude women’s experiences and voices. Psychedelic feminism, has emerged to signify the role consciousness expansion and experimentation might play in rejuvenating feminism’s collective imagination, and undoing the historical silencing of women’s voices in psychedelic culture and research. Drawing on Mark Fisher’s work on acid communism, the feminist psychedelic humanities, narcofeminism and autobiographical life-writing by women on experimental psychedelic substance use, this article investigates the promise of acid feminism for the wider narcofeminist movement, and its implications for undoing some key precepts endemic in psychedelic culture and research.

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