Is the Child Free movement anti-feminist?

[GothAnneGeddes]

Not sure how to word this, but while I absolutely agree that there is nothing wrong with not wanting children, this whole idea of a movement (with a lot of men in it) that seems to despise mothers and children with a visceral repulsion and also encourage women to remove their reproductive organs is very unsettling.

What do you think?

snowmama, I was refering to the Black US experience

I am certainly not saying you have to choose between movements. Of course a black woman should fight against racism, and a working class woman against classism, and a disabled woman against ableism/

Nobody (except garlicbutter) is saying a woman has to choose.

What I am saying is that IF a woman prioritizes ANY other movement OVER feminism, then she is a mug, and fighting a losing battle. Do you honestly think that fighting for the rights of disabled 'people' will really help disabled women in the long run? Because I don't. THe doctors who treat them, the staff who care for them will remain as misogynistic as ever. Women are treated so differently to men by public institutions it's unreal.

I'll just add that you don't have to be black to fight racism, or a lesbian to fight homophobia, or disabled to fight ableism, but a lot of derailing is going on these days driven by male academia, I believe. Women need to see that if you don'T fight against sexism, then fighting anything else is fruitless. Where did fighting against racism get the black women who were dumped by black men as soon as they made a political gain? Absolutely nowhere.

I see what you mean Sakura.

Depressing isn't it?

Then we are in agreement, and indeed you don't need to belong to any of those groups to to fight those oppressions.

....and yes women have been screwed within those groups, but not sure it is entirely true to say black women in the US have got nowhere, it is not that simple. Whilst there is huge poverty, it also has produced leading black feminist academics, business women etc......that would not be possible if black people were still disenfranchised in the US.

Completely agreed sprogger, that was my (slightly simplistic) point. We can't /shouldn't separate them out, because they do not exist in isolation and by actively linking feminism in with other political movements we all stronger.

but we're not all stronger. Men are stronger if women expend their finite energies on other movements.
IN fact men would prefer us to do just that. The last thing men-as-a-group want is for feminism to succeed because then there would be no more male privilege. It's as simple as that. Keep women's energies focused elsewhere and it's one less thing men have to worry about.

But there comes a point when women have to smash the cultural taboo and put themselves first. They have to look at history and the way they have been royally screwed after every single revolution they helped men fight for.

The thing is, that implicit in that argument is the assumption that there are no hierachal (sp?) power dynamicsin play within feminism, unlike the other political movements. When in fact there is, race being a critical one (class is another).

I have witnessed startling, shocking and life-altering acts of oppresion by black men - using patriarchy - in the name of anti-racisim and by white woment - using racism - in the name of feminism. The latter example, being particularly true if you delve into the neo-colonial world of 'development aid'.

However, I refuse to believe that political movements have nothing to offer black women (or other groups), simply because there is a risk you can get screwed by them, it is too defeatist for me. In fact by interlinking the political movements you have more chance of revealing these 'other sites of oppression' and addressing rather than working in divisive silos within which the most marginalised groups (say black women, but you can use lots of other examples) remain the most disadvantaged.