Talking back: Reflecting on feminism, public relations and research

•The paper explores feminism and public relations from diverse perspectives.•It adopts an anecdotal and conversational style as a creative methodology in “talking back” to the field.•The paper suggests feminist intelligences and modalities can be applied to public relations as a form of resistance to mainstream approaches.•The diverse reflections point to the political urgency of feminist intelligences and modalities in public relations scholarship and practice.

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.