How do Radfems propose to tear down the patriarchy?

[Hullygully]

Just that. Interested to know how.

I'm watching this with interest, as I've read of the radical feminist wish to end male violence and always wondered how this might be achieved, without using the kinds of coercive methods more commonly identified with male violence.

So is the answer separatism then? While I can see how that makes sense if you want to withdraw from the patriarchy, what about propagating the species? How does that work?

As a father, I'm interested in the separatism side, would my son be sent back to live with me at a certain age?

He lives with me all the time at the moment.

I understood separatism to be a way for RadFems to concentrate their energy on women and girls and resist the patriarchy at an individual level. I haven't read anyone advocating separatism as a template for the whole of society. So propogation isn't really an issue.

Do have to point out though that sex with men isn't necessary for propogation.

Huan - Your question has already been answered - read the thread

Perhaps this would be helpful:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separatism

I am separatist in some ways, but I still live with a man and our children, one of whom is a teenage boy, and I have a father (obviously) and a brother. It doesn't mean you can't live with men.

It hasn't been answered.

What would happen to them?

Hully - It has. Nobody is advocating setting up a separatist society where male boys are cast out. Yes small groups of women have set up individual separatist communes. Like every other commune/communal living arrangement, each community makes up its own rules.

Individual RadFems who practice principles of separatism i.e. devote their time to girls and women but still live in the ordinary community, make their won decisions about how to live their life. Nobody is advocating casting out or abandoning any children.

So do they get to stay in women only communities until they are grown up? I am interested in the practicalities.

Hully - I have answered your question. Search on the net for how each individual commune deals with this - they all have different rules as the rules are made by members. Although very few people, including RadFems live in communal arrangements.

The only RadFem I know who does, lives in a community where no children are allowed.

I think there was a BBC documentary on it, and different communities organised themselves in different ways. I think it wasn't really the case that women were making a life long commitment to a particular living arrangement anyway. They were coming together in groups to live together at particular times and for particular reasons. So it presumably is often the case that a woman would leave with her children to pursue something different at various points. I think there is also a newspaper article somewhere on line that interviews adults who spent part of their childhoods in separatist groups.

We had a really long thread on Separatism: the general consensus is that sons can remain until they are of a certain age, which seems to differ from community to community (this was the evidence that we could find, both from posters and separatist communities that we found on the web)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/1259519-Separatist-Feminism/AllOnOnePage

Damn:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/1259519-Separatist-Feminism/AllOnOnePage

Most intentionally communities - communal arrangements in otherwords, including separatist communities, do not survive incredibly long. Five, 10 years? So tbh for most people it is probably never an issue. And people committed to this way of living do sometimes leave 1 community and join another.

So if you joined 1 that didn't allow men you might be there with your son, but leave to join another as he was approaching adulthood.

There is no great RadFem conspiracy to try and make women abandon their sons

Thanks Victor.

I didn't think there was eats, as I said, it's the practicalities that interest me. The nuts and bolts of how tearing it all down works. That's what I want to understand. Hence the thread.

Okay sorry Hully.

I can't answer the question about a son being 'returned' to his father(!) but I do have a friend whose son lives half the time with her in a household with two women, and the other half in a men's commune.

I assume that all varieties of informal residency arrangements are organised in communal households, much as they are in any other kind of household.

In the separatist intentional community I know of, if one of the woman got pregnant, she would have to leave. I think the assumption is that because they are all lesbians, this won't happen without lots of planning anyway.

I don't know, because have!'t met a Radical Feminist since the 70s. What people call Radical Feminists nowadays, I call "feminists"

I would agree with that seeker

Here is another article;

radicalhub.com/2011/10/04/radical-feminism-in-the-21st-century/#comment-3558

Section 10 talks about Rad Fem visions of the future, including possible reducing the number of men to around 10 per cent of the population, or genetic modification of men to cure their sickness (disposition towards violence and oppression). I am sure these are just musings of the writer rather than anything more concrete. The thing is though, I think people in here are looking for something more concrete from the Rad Fem perspective.

I think you are asking for the impossible when you ask for a concrete vision.

Radical feminism isn't marxism though. It doesn't have an end society it can plan out in detail, nor should it have, given that feminism in general is a very young movement. Feminism's concern should be women's rights and within that, liberal feminism has a focus on broad legal and cultural change, anarcha-feminism on ways of developing ethical organisation, and radical feminism on developing women's culture and solidarity. The focus should be on a journey that is ethical.

Namechangeguys link has been blocked by my workplace because it is pornography!!

I do feel compelled to point out that the reduction of men to 10% is a single line in a lengthy blog post. It is by no means the central point of the post.