Where did all the Feminists go?

[Portofino]

MN seems to have had a reorganisation of FWR when I was on holiday and me no-likey. Why do we now have a Rad fem section and Feminist light chat. So many of the dynamic, knowledgable and interesting posters have disappeared. I have to say that some of the more radical stuff posted really made me think about my views and re-align them. There doesn't seem to be much of that anymore. I am disappointed to be honest.

xpost a zillion.

bloody pills.

Exactly, EBAL.

Garlic, indeed. I may have sat there thinking "Yay! You ARE a feminist AFTER ALL!" at the time. Number of times I've heard that, I've considered making "Congratulations! You're A Feminist" stickers...

See, that's why we need Radfems on MN who can explain these things without telling me that my thinking is wrong. Or patronisinf me. Thanks, SGM and Frothy

Food for thought.

"What would help would be trying to overcome the stereotypes about all of us being a bunch of extreme, man hating, woman oppressing harpies.."

But putting woman and girls first and wanting to overthrow the patriarch does make many feminists extreme in many women and men's eyes. We shouldnt try and dumb it down and soften what we believe to appeal to others.

Eats, and that's the type of statement that alienates people and dissuades them from identifying themselves as feminists. I don't want to put women and girls first. I want to put the person who needs most help and support first. That doesn't make me any less of a feminist.

Why would you want someone to identify as a feminist who is not one?

I have to say, I hate the language of 'dumbing down'. I don't think you should have to 'dumb down' in order to make something accessible and intelligible to someone else. If you do have to, the fault is with you as a teacher/communicator, not with them for asking you to explain more simply. IMO.

Radical feminism is, I think, extremely simple. We can all disagree about the details of how it works in real life, and how good we are at it and how much we want it to produce the same results. But the basic ideology is very, very simple and doesn't need dumbing down.

Why would they not be one?

Don't want to dumb it down but want to find a way to post without getting others backs up to the extent that anything I say is ignored because all they hear is a radfem spouting at them and focus on that. Never mind that I'm not a radfem

eats - because it's not binary, I think. There aren't 'feminists' and 'everyone else from MRAs to not-a-feminist-but types' ... or at least, there's not much point looking at people in that sort of binary way.

blistory - absolutely. Yes.

No not dumb it down in that way LRD. Radical feminist ideas can be explained very simply. I meant dumbing it down in terms of pretending it is something it is not - so watering down is perhaps more appropriate phrase

Blistory, exactly.

Feminism is a political theory - whatever branch of feminism you subscribe to. I think the idea that we encourage anyone who displays any basic feminist ideas to identify as a feminist, means that most women do not understand what feminism is and dont hear feminist ideas beyond the most anodyne ones.

Aaaaaand, here we go again.

So, eats, what you are saying is that unless you subscribe to one school of thought, you are not a feminist? Spiffing

beach, MNHQ already deleted that lie once.

I love a bit of revisionism of a rainy sunday.

MN troll hunter/bully crowd

Who ARE these people?

Eats, I don't understand your last post. Are you saying that you have to know you're a feminist to be a feminist ?

Was that to me?

It's hardly shit-stirring to ask someone what they meant by such a provocative yet mysterious post...

eats - I don't think people should dumb down/water down, but I also don't honestly believe that many posters on this thread are liable to do it.

Lots of women don't identify as feminists because they've heard a load of guff about 'nasty mean man-hating feminists' and think that's what it's all about. There is no way in which combatting that stereotype can be a bad thing, IMO.

I do think it feels a bit like pulling up the ladder after ourselves, to object to any kind of explanation of feminism in a simple or basic way, and it does feel as if what you see as 'watering down', another poster may see as trying to explain the basics first?

I miss the way it was before, it always made me think. I was thankful many times for the posts made by the radfems. Are they posting somewhere else these days? I would live to be able to read those sorts of posts again.