Whats the difference?

[lospolloshermanos]

..between radical feminism and any other forms of feminismn, its always bugged me i'd rather hear an explanation from actual feminists

is just a more aggressive form??

I am completely ignorant on the topic so flame ahead if need be, i am interested though

[thefinerthingsinlife]

I think radical feminists believe that society is entwined with patriarchy and that that relationship is used to opress women.

I'm sure someone will come along and correct me though

[Ephiny]

I think radical feminists (as the name implies) are concerned with the root causes of sexism in society, not just fixing the symptoms such as unequal pay etc. I'm sure there are lots of different definitions though.

[EleanorJosie]

I don't like the label of feminist as it implies (to me) that you are concerned with women's rights over the rights of others. Or even that women are superior or more important. I dislike unfair discrimination of mistreatment of anyone. I'm pro human rights not just women's.

[JaneS]

IME, 'radical' is a label that gets bandied about by people who want to suggest that they are normal, moderate women and not those 'radical feminists'. I've never heard it used positively.

[vesuvia]

EleanorJosie wrote - "I don't like the label of feminist as it implies (to me) that you are concerned with women's rights over the rights of others. Or even that women are superior or more important. I dislike unfair discrimination of mistreatment of anyone. I'm pro human rights not just women's."

I'm a feminist. However, I've not yet come across the "female-superiority" sort of feminism that you seem familiar with. Where are your "female supremacists"?

I am interested in finding out more about feminists who are concerned with women's rights over the rights of others. Please could you suggest some books I could read about them and/or websites that support their approach to feminism and human rights? I don't want to join their ranks, but I am very interested in learning about their views.

[thefinerthingsinlife]

Okay I checked my sociology book which says radical feminists blame the expoloitation of women on men and that it is men that have benifitted from the subordination of women.

[AliceWorld]

LRD - you've never heard radical used positively?? You move in the wrong circles , nothing but positive in my part of the world.

[JaneS]

Oh, tell me about it!

[thefinerthingsinlife]

I thought I was quite liberal but the more I look around in 'reak-life' the more radical feminism makes sense

[JaneS]

dittany - because of what I do, many of my colleagues read Latin fairly fluently, and still manage to assume 'radical' in this context means something between 'unhinged' and 'extreme'.

Sorry, I'm not helping to make this thread upbeat, am I?!

[lospolloshermanos]

Oh thought no one had replied,

thanks for the inputs

its seems odd to me, if radical meant going to the root of the problem surely isnt that what all feminism should be doing??

I wonder what made radical such an extreme stereotype

[AliceWorld]

Cos the establishment doesn't like radicals, whatever flavour they come in, because by their nature they threaten the establishment. And the establishment control mainstream discourse.

[SardineQueen]

Someone once explained it to me like this

That radical feminists think that the whole system is at fault and it needs to be dismantled and to start again from the beginning

While liberal feminists prefer a more slow and easy does it approach of changing a bit at a time, going for gradual improvement. I think that radical feminists view is that this is tinkering at the edges and won't tackle the root causes, like a sticking plaster when the leg is broken inside.

For me, I think that changing our society completely would be great for all sorts of different groups of people and we could get rid of all sorts of inequality while we're at it

But in practice there's not going to be a revolution so supporting the people doing it a bit at a time is very worthwhile

[JaneS]

I'd really like to know at what point 'radical' gathered the associations it has today. It's generally meant as a negative term when applied politically, isn't it?

Anyone know or have an OED to hand?

[vesuvia]

LittleRedDragon wrote - "Anyone know or have an OED to hand?"

According to the Oxford English Dictionary,

Radical as in "root" was first used in about 1398.

Radical as in "politically extreme" was first used in 1783.

[sethstarkaddersmackerel]

I think 'radical' becomes very bad around the time of the French revolution when the upper classes in England started getting very scared.

[JaneS]

Thanks all.

MN Feminists are wonderful.