“I’d rather be a rebel than a slave” read the slogan emblazoned on the T-shirts worn by the cast of Suffragette (2015) during a promotional shoot for the magazine Time Out. The quote came from a speech given by Emmeline Pankhurst on July 14, 1913 at the London Pavilion; she went on to add “I would rather die than submit … my challenge to the Government is: ‘Kill me or give me my freedom.’” Pankhurst adopted the linguistic dichotomy of slavery and freedom to make a political point about the circumscription of what she perceived to be her inalienable right to full democratic citizenship. The reaction to the Time Out advertising campaign was swift and critical; Kirsten West Savali stated “When I see smiling white women effortlessly reject the label ‘slave,’ as if it solidifies their feminist credentials, I think about the daughter descendants of slaves … and my legacy of both rebel and slave, knowing that they are not mutually exclusive.” She argued that this instinct within Western feminism was “not a new tradition; it is time-honored and tested.”1 The incident underscored the complicated and uncomfortable relationship that feminism has sometimes shared with the history of race, class, and empire.