How can I reconnect with feminism?

[Chemicalromance]

Sorry for any mistakes-this is my first thread and I'm using the app

Im in my very early twenties, and I really struggle to connect with the feminist movement. I'm absolutely pro-equality and ensuring the global rights for women, but my experiences have left me feeling uncomfortable about calling myself a "feminist".

When I was at school, women's issues and feminism were never discussed, so my first awareness of the movement came from websites like Tumblr and EverydaySexism. These websites were quite radical, and I struggled to identify with issues such as 'man spreading', 'mansplaining' and the general man-hating subculture that seemed to be present. It felt to me like a group of quite privileged, fortunate western women looking for reasons to complain despite there being so many serious women's issues to deal with around the world, and there was a lot of talk about the western world supporting "rape culture", which I don't believe to be true, so I grew up feeing like feminism wasn't for me.

When I got to university, I attempted to get involved in the feminism society, but found that most of the events/talks centred around 'trans liberation', 'micro aggressions' and trigger warnings/banning topics or events that might be triggering. When an infamous male misogynist was scheduled to have a talk at the university, I was excited at the opportunity it would open for a real debate on gender and equality, but the feminist society held a rally and protest that ended up causing the visit to be cancelled, which I felt was a waste of a good opportunity and probably not a great move in terms of free speech. I eventually left the society when I was openly mocked at an event about future ambitions for saying that I would like to be a young mother. Over time, I completely stopped calling myself a feminist or having anything to do with the feminist movement.

Recently, I've discovered Hannah Witton's youtube channel, and although I don't agree with everything she says, I have found her videos talking about sex, relationships, women's bodies and what it means to be a woman to be really interesting and encouraging. I've been inspired to read more books and interact with more information about feminism and women's issues, and I really want to start reconnecting with my own female identity and feeling proud to be a woman again.

The only problem is that I really don't know where to start. Can anyone recommend some influential women, works or materials that I can look into, or tell me some of the things that make them proud of being a woman and a feminist?

And why in Earth would we feel the need to "center transwomen" in our quest for an elusive quest for "reproductive justice" even if such a concept actually existed?

It doesn't btw, as anyone who has TTCed and failed can confirm.

"you might not wonder why there's no fucking feminism on their feminist page. It's all men or people who want to be men."

Beautifully put Ferd
Nutjobs. Can you imagine the Christmas party?

I think by "reproductive justice" they mean women's reproductive rights, as in being able to end our pregnancy safely, or not be pregnant in the first place (which are issues women face in the states).

Those should be put aside for peen problems. Obviously. Reproductive help for women who can't afford it is on no one's radar.

Nutjobs. Can you imagine the Christmas party?
urgh. Do I have to?

And [men]don't want to. They either don't understand that they have to, don't want to, or think it's up to women to do it

No, in the main they don't want to.
I guess because deep down they know that if they make themselves financially and emotionally more vulnerable, they might get taken advantage of.
Because, however much men might protest that women have nothing to moan about, they know full well we got the shitty end of the stick.

And yeah, the EF Pan-Faith Agnostic-Curious Winter Holiday Gathering. Fun!

Mind you it has improved as I've done this before and they had a few people who identifies as "cis" so either they realised people hate the term and stopped using it or they got rid of them.

Now, Ferdinand, which of those two scenarios do you honestly think is more likely, consideration towards non trans women reading, or a "no boring cises here" policy?

What this means is that trans women who stop taking HRT for a few months can reverse sterilization and become pregnant with viable sperm.

I find this piece utterly chilling. Because you know there is an invisible female surrogate involved who isn't mentioned, even that she is the body being made pregnant, gestating and giving birth. Not the males.

Handmaid's Tale.

"and become pregnant"... really not what happens is it? The total lack of mention of the woman who would actually become pregnant is genuinely chilling, as you say. Women are just incubators.

venusinscorpio

That entire thing is a misogynistic narcissists wet dream. It just screams nutjob.

It seems EF is run by and for transwomen.

Can anyone tell me if it was always like that? Has it been hijacked, or was it started with that purpose in mind?

"The total lack of mention of the woman who would actually become pregnant is genuinely chilling, as you say."

It really is. It's this denial of basic facts in favour of this illusion of and desire for womanhood. Same as trans women getting pissed because vaginas and uteruses were focussed on at the women's march.

It's weird because they defend their use of words like 'woman' and 'pregnant' and 'biological' by claiming they're just widening the definition, and all language changes and evolves etc. And yet the reason they're using these words is because they want the original definition applied to them... If being pregnant genuinely meant contributing sperm, they wouldn't be interested in claiming to be pregnant. They want the original meaning to be applied to them, but when challenged because it can't apply to them, there's all this twisting and broadening to get it to fit.

Has anyone taken their course to heal from their toxic whiteness?

It really is Orwellian isn't it? "Everyday Feminism" is neither feminism nor everyday stuff.

It is narcissism writ large.

Incidentally, do EF do a "Healing from Toxic Femaleness to Better Centre Transwomen" course? They should.

I am really enjoying a recent bio of Mary Wollstonecroft. Thinking about her is getting me through Brexit.

I think she is my all time hero/heroine/whatever.

What I like about historical viewpoints is that they help you see later things in context. So, for instance, we usually sneer at Dickens novels where the most shocking thing that can happen is for a rich woman to be assaulted whereas poor women are assaulted all the time without much comment. But then you look 50 years back and you realise that the Victorians were making progress (of a sort) compared with Wollstonecroft's time.

I find a historical context useful too when I look at offputting technical language/theories. Most theories are easier to understand if you figure out what it is they are reacting against/trying to refine.

Now, Ferdinand, which of those two scenarios do you honestly think is more likely, consideration towards non trans women reading, or a "no boring cises here" policy?a

Actually there's a third possibility, the cissies were so right on they eventually realised they must be 'non binary'

Yes, indeed

There is a huge amount of money behind the trans takeover of nearly all LGBT organizations and the production of crap like EF. There are a number of very rich AGP transactivists who fund gender clinics and all the rest of this stuff.

Sorry to all who have posted so far - I only read the op.
I think it must be a nightmare to be a young feminist now because there have been so many (successful) attempts to blend antifeminism with feminism in recent years eg- conflating misogyny with empowerment, restriction with 'choice', male domination and concerns with feminist business, etc - it would be really hard to know who to trust.
I think what is needed is some of that crystal clear drinking water of Andrea Dworkin or Sheila Jeffries to cut through the bullshit.
I don't know what the face to face real life feminism is like right now, but I think you can trust that political lesbians are never going to take or fall for any bullshit - I "d maybe try to learn from them?

Everyday Fetishism I call it. It gives me the rage that it comes high up in Google searches. There was a very funny parody, does anyone have it? Everyday Submission or something

Everyday Obedience. Brilliant stuff.

twitter.com/everydayobey

"Are Trans Allies Being Obsequious Enough on #TDOV? Here's a checklist of 117 things you can test them on & lord over them. @everydayobey"

Properly LOLed at that one

I'm wondering whether so many people have reached peak trans-that the ridiculing is starting to snow ball. I personally think that taking the piss out of something is the best way to show it up.

The thing is, feminism (or radical feminism) used to be concerned with destroying binary gender identity. "'Femininity' and 'masculinity' were fictions to be dismantled. Now, partly to do with all this business with the transactivist movement, feminism has fallen back on quite essentialist identity politics. It's now acceptable to talk of 'womanhood' and male and female spaces and 'toxic masculinity' (which is a completely different concept to patriarchy, or indeed misogyny).

And now we have a very divisive gender politics again, and some feminists sound almost conservative in their belief that women are innately less violent than men and therefore all we have to do is stick one in the Whitehouse or wherever and everything will be fine. Women are not different or better than men, they've just been oppressed and constructed as different, as less human.

The goal should be to destroy patriarchal culture, and that's been forgotten I think.