Introduction: engaging health activism, sexual politics, and feminism

Book chapter, 2026

The introductory chapter to this edited collection provides an overview of the long tradition of feminist and queer theory engagements with “health activism and sexual politics” as well as more contemporary interventions. It situates the edited volume in relation to the critical social sciences on health activism, health movements and art and design as activism and scholarship. This includes classical examples such as the women’s and breast cancer health movements and HIV/AIDS activism, as well as current examples such as trans-health activism and menstrual activism. Drawing on such engagements with “health activism and sexual politics,” it discusses relations between, and key themes in, current forms of health activism politicizing sex and sexuality, shedding light on multiplicities, convergences, and possible tensions.