Talking back: Reflecting on feminism, public relations and research

This paper explores feminism and public relations through the diverse perspectives of three public relations scholars seeking to understand what a critical-feminist research agenda might offer. It acknowledges that feminist public relations scholarship - at least until recently - is underdeveloped. Drawing on bell hooks' (1989) notion of talking back, this paper offers a conversation to explore tensions and debates around a feminist agenda for public relations. The discussion is structured around three broad themes: provocations, transgressions and resistance, and points to how feminist intelligences and modalities, in challenging gendered hegemonies, may open public relations scholarship and practices to new understandings.