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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

I'm disassociating from 'radical'

230 replies

garlicbutter · 27/04/2011 01:20

Not really expecting anything here (though this board often surprises me!) but I woke up with a fierce urge to write this post, so may as well go with it.

Self-declared radical feminists used to scare me - and piss me off. They were the ones who sneered at my friends & me for wearing fashionable clothes and makeup. Most of them seemed a hell of a lot quicker to anger than to rational debate. I wasn't that bothered - I was doing plenty for feminist causes, makeup notwithstanding. I just didn't call myself "radical".

A few decades along, I noticed everyone was saying "I'm not a feminist but ..." all over again. There was stuff going on in the media that I considered retrograde for women, and some spokeswomen seemed to be touting pornification and surrender as feminist values. By contemporary standards, it seemed, I was radical!

So I did a bit of reading, and asked on here, and it turns out I'm a rad fem. But it rankles. This is why: Either you're a feminist or you aren't. Either you strive for real gender equality or you don't. There's no need for the 'radical', it's a tautology.

The radical thing is also beginning to strike me as a sorority (not a sisterhood). It feels like the kind of society that's good for teenagers: an us-against-the-world, nobody-truly-understands, same-thinking, catchphrase-sharing, sycophantic sect. Unless we are teenagers, we should have grown up by now and reached out to the world we live in (and wish to change.)

So I'm a feminist, no adjectives required.

This isn't meant as a challenge or anything, but I wanted to post it since so many visitors come away from this board scratching their heads about radical feminism. I'm not saying I know a whole lot about it - I've not studied Feminst Theory or sociology - but I am a long-time feminist activist. Here's my take on it.

OP posts:
InmaculadaConcepcion · 27/04/2011 09:47

Isn't the need to categorise and label everything an attempt to gain control? And also to separate out certain beliefs when in fact, in many individuals, those beliefs may overlap or not quite fit into their prescribed box?
I see it as a vaguely patriarchal approach - very linear, potentially hierarchical.

On the one hand, it helps to have labels on different "styles" of feminism to distinguish those views within the broader "feminism" category, if you like.

On the other, is it really that simple?

I'm intrigued.

celadon · 27/04/2011 09:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DontdoitKatie · 27/04/2011 09:28

"The radical thing is also beginning to strike me as a sorority (not a sisterhood). It feels like the kind of society that's good for teenagers: an us-against-the-world, nobody-truly-understands, same-thinking, catchphrase-sharing, sycophantic sect."

This is very insulting. :)

PrinceHumperdink · 27/04/2011 08:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DontdoitKatie · 27/04/2011 08:48

What's radical about women calling themselves sluts? What's radical about wanting to have a word for people who have lots of sexual partners?

Radical means going to the root, in feminism's terms it means going to the root of patriarchy - male violence in particular sexual violence against women. That's how women are kept in second place and it's what we need to challenge. A group of women marching through the streets going "we're sluts" changes nothing. Do you know what the sexists' response will be - "yes you are". Vile but true. Why give woman-haters ammunition?

Radical feminists want to dismantle the whole patriarchal system because it is imbued with sexism and misogyny right the way through it, it's built on it. Liberal feminists want to reform it, and sex positive feminists think they can fuck their way to freedom.

I think it is supposed to be a challenge. We disagreed on a thread and I stated I was a radical feminist. Nobody had been talking about it before. Now this.

You also seem quite familiar (I'm usually dittany BTW)