Does anyone feel the need to reclaim femnism.....?

Once again, I am not being disingenuous and you have not made yourself clear. You said very specific behaviour, yet you have not specified the behaviours. I detest the term Handmaiden, and will continue to challenge it's use. As a gendered insult it is deeply misogynistic as both men and women collude with, enable and excuse misogyny.

No there is no link to a comprehensive list, you dull goady person. It's a figure of speech that represents women who actively work against women's rights by supporting men's interests and throwing women as a class under the bus. I don't need to write a dissertation every time I use it.

DioneTheDiabolist - do you feel the need to reclaim feminism? And if so, from whom? Let's get back to the topic at hand, eh?

Women and men collude with, excuse and enable misogynistic behaviour and have done so for millenia. It is not gendered behaviour.

My imagination doesn't come into it, you said that it denotes very specific behaviour. What very specific behaviours are you talking about Bert?

Bert, that is your definition. I find gendered insults like "handmaiden" deeply misogynistic, so how does that fit?

StonecoldDiva has used it about women who do wifework. A PP extended your definition to not just misogyny, but patriarchy? Does that mean that women who facilitate men are "handmaidens"?

Sex workers
SAHM/W
Women who shave/wax
Women who name change on marriage or give their DCs their father's name.
Het women.
Women who put others off feminism.
Those who want equal rights for fathers on maternity wards.
Those who like "ladies first" type attitudes.
Women who refer to others as "ladies" and "girls".
Those who disagree with quotas and women only shortlists.

Which of these behaviours make a woman a "handmaiden"? Is there an agreed list or definition you could link to?

Not at all disingenuous. I have seen it on threads about name changing on marriage and shaving. A while back ago a FWR regular was called one by Julie Bindel for being married to a man and having children IIRC. Reading this thread it also includes regarding cat calling as complimentary and derailing threads. BTW I am not derailing anything.

I have asked what very specific behaviours make a woman a "handmaiden"? Surely it is not a difficult question to answer as the behaviours are so specific.

Bleugh.

If you want a good example of 'handmaiden' behaviour, look at the first entry in the Urban Dictionary for 'Feminism' and assume it was actually written by a woman.

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=feminism

''feminism
The biggest disgrace to my gender.

Feminism used to be about women getting the same rights as men, such as the right to vote and equal pay at work.
Now feminism is a movement full of women who seem to think that their ability to push a baby out of their vagina entitles them to bigger and better everything.
I am a young woman and I disagree with feminism.
It is pretty hypocritical to expect to be treated special because you are a female (such as tighter laws concerning rape or more leniancy if a woman becomes pregnant) yet they get upset when they aren't being treated exactly like a man. The feminists need to realize that women are not better than men. They are EQUAL. You don't see any laws that provide special treatment for men do you?

Example: Once I saw a feminist say that abortions should be legal AND be free. I am all for abortion rights, but demanding that it be free because your ass couldn't use the proper birth control before spreading your legs is absured.

And before you pull the rape card on me, keep in mind that if you go to the hospital after being raped, they give you medications to prevent pregnancy. I see no reason for free abortions.''

What are the very specific behaviours that define "handmaiden"?

Strokes chin thoughtfully.

Oh, I don't know, Dione, how about women who take the time and trouble to go about derailing conversations in which women are discussing the inequality they face and which of various strands of feminism are best placed to combat it?

Cos that would only benefit men, right?

How about that specific behaviour?

a woman who takes the patriarchal position with regards to a particular issue.
For example a woman who argued that men are also raped by women and report it less than women because of the stigma in a conversation about rape.
Or a woman who says she likes being catcalled, it's complimentary.

I gave a couple earlier dione

What do you think, Dione? Any guesses from those definitions?

...it means a very specific sort of behaviour. Not just general disapproval

OP You say it means women who display misogynistic behaviour. PPs have said it applies to misogynistic women and those who reinforce and uphold the patriarchy.

What are the very specific behaviours that define "handmaiden"?

I advocate for describing the behavior rather than trying to use labels that have different meanings to different women. Reduces confusion.

As far as the original question, I remember when the backlash began and insisted that feminism had to be all things to all people and therefore must an equality movement. White men, or course, turned out to be a bit more equal than anyone else. That was in the late seventies early eighties.
Male violence continues to be the greatest human rights crisis the world has ever known.

I have been guardian but I have a brain like a sieve! Pm me?

All I'm saying... is that it is worth taking note when a username is complimented, and taking note of who pays the compliment....

The obsolescent Parisian mango would only make sense if you have been on FWR for eons.

Well, I skipped to the end of the thread to see if it had got back on track, and it seems not. Off to look and see if it has been re-started elsewhere...