Liberation Collective is a new collective, radical feminist blog. It’s currently undergoing some construction, but feel free to take a look!
May 25, 2012
Ovaries Before Brovaries
– From the Archives –
The last thing Females want to be called is “Feminist” – because that might mean “Man Hating.” That’s bad for Straight Ladies, because then someone might think them Lesbian. Even though Lesbians don’t want to couple with Males, Lesbians are “supposed” to be socially available to them and not “Man Haters.” (I know I‘ve been called “Man Hater” before!) So heaven forfend if you’re Feminist!
Patriarchy socializes Females to distrust other Females. And we do. Females fall into other Identity Communities – away from – and often at odds with – each other. Goddess forbid Females actually used Feminism to advance rights for Females. What about the Males?
May 21, 2012
Happy Birthday to Hub
RadFem Hub published its first post May 18th, 2011, making the site one year old now. We want to thank all of our readers, commenters, guest bloggers, and the many women who have been involved along the way for their participation and hard work in this undertaking.
May 18, 2012
“Religious Freedom” is Code for the Sanctioned Removal of Women’s Rights
-Jan Brewer, Handmaiden of the Patriarchy-
US residents may have noticed the recent War on Women being perpetrated in this country using the excuse of “religious freedom” to justify this rollback of women’s rights.
For the most recent installment of this assault on our rights, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer recently signed House Bill 2625, which authorizes employers with religious affiliations to refuse to cover contraception on their employees’ health insurance plans.
States Brewer about the bill:
In its final form, this bill is about nothing more than preserving the religious freedom to which we are all Constitutionally-entitled. Mandating that a religious institution provide a service in direct contradiction with its faith would represent an obvious encroachment upon the 1st Amendment.
May 10, 2012
Terroristic Anti-Abortion Group Publishes Patient Docs Online
Last week, the Kansas-based organization Operation Rescue posted papers from an abortion clinic on their website. The documents were not official patient records, but included names, ages, phone numbers, photocopies of driver’s licenses, sonograms, and other personal identifying information for 86 women and girls who received care in the month of April. While the group was nice enough to redact the names before publishing the documents for all to see, Operation Rescue is still in possession of that information – stolen information, of course.
April 21, 2012
Listen Up.
– From the Archives –
Okay. so here’s the thing. why is it that when I say “women in prostitution” people (especially ‘do-gooders’, liberals, men and trannys) hear “sex worker”? I don’t use that kinda demeaning, oppressive language. even if women in prostitution use it to refer to themselves. There is no such fuckin’ thing as a “sex worker” fer crying out loud. All women in prostitution are rape victims. And if they’re not calling themselves that it’s not because they’re not victims, it’s because they’re trying to not go fucking crazy. No one likes to say, “i was/am victimized”, but let’s face it, men have done some terrible things to women, and these women in particular, and they continue to do it, and for some of these women the only way they can manage to lurch from one moment to the next is to claim that ‘yes, this is my job and i’m gonna do the best job i can’. even though she would fight and kick and holler and lay her body down to prevent her little sister or her mom or her auntie or her friend from taking that kinda job.
April 7, 2012
Announcing a new blog: Radfem-ological Images
from the “About” page:
Radfem-ological Images is a public, radical feminist group blog dedicated to dissecting and discussing media images through a radical feminist lens. We recognize that the media, including print, digital and television commercial advertising, is a powerful tool of the patriarchy and that it is used to disseminate political pro-patriarchy, anti-woman propaganda. The situation is, in a word,Orwellian. We observe that to the casual or even the dedicated observer, it is often unobvious what is happening or how these images are supportive of patriarchal institutions and male power.
We notice that there are similarities between the messages in all patriarchal media — including advertising — and the mechanisms of real-life oppressions suffered by women at men’s hands. And that the sheer volume and pervasiveness of these images and messages serve to normalize and invisiblize real things that women experience every day, namely, the realities of living under a totalitarian patriarchal rule which, by definition, harms women and supports male power.
We recognize that commercial advertising is not generally analyzed from this radical feminist perspective, and we seek to remedy that here.
click on image above to visit new site.
April 2, 2012
On 50 Shades of Grey and the Erotization of Male Domination
Freedom is slavery.
Submissiveness is empowering.
The above are just a few of the lies that patriarchal culture has served up for women in the best selling BDSM novel 50 Shades of Grey.
First-time female novelist E L James began the piece as short fan fiction based off of the Twilight series whose main relationship between a 104 year old vampire and a teenage girl meets all the criteria for domestic violence.
Given its source material, it’s not surprising that 50 Shades of Grey and its sequels tells the story of a billionaire who convinces a young woman to agree to be his full time sex slave.
E L James’ story is not new.
March 29, 2012
My slogan will be intersectional but my trans agenda will be bull shit
Guest Post by Dragon Dyke.
The latest slogan of the trans activists is ‘my feminism will be intersectional or it will be bull shit’. The current trans obsession with intersectionality is a major cause for concern, and a trans co-option of intersectional theory could have disastrous consequences for the political struggles of all subordinate groups.
Trans activists are co-opting political movements and the ultimate trans agenda is to remove the rights of all subordinate groups to self-determination and movements for liberation. I do not believe that most individuals who identify as trans or their allies are consciously planning the depoliticisation of class based oppressions. Trans is a structural and colonising tactic – a tool of the patriarchy, but if you buy into trans theory, that is what you are buying into.
The trans cooption of feminism and the attacks of the right of the female class to collective self-determination is the beginning of what I believe will end up being a long running movement to co-opt all struggles of subordinate groups. Trans is a growing movement and it is no longer only focused on trans sex and trans gender. New trans movements focus on trans abled and trans age, and any day now I am expecting to see the emergence of white men who claim to be trans race. As with trans genderism, these new trans movements are largely based on the sexual fetishisation of the subordinate group. So what is the scope of the trans project and what is the impact this growing movement will have on all subordinate classes?
March 27, 2012
An Open Letter to the National Center for Transgender Equality on the Cotton Ceiling Debacle
Dear Mara,
Hope you are well. I am writing to ask the National Center for Transgender Equality to weigh in on a controversy that has pitted Lesbians, many of whom have been “good” allies to the Transgender community, and Transgender women. I am sure you have heard of it – the “Cotton Ceiling,” a term porn actress Drew DeVeaux and other Transgender women use to “challenge lesbians’ tendency to support Transgender causes generally but draw the line at sleeping with Transgender women or including Transgender lesbians in their sexual communities.”
Lesbians and Feminists object to the “Cotton Ceiling” metaphor as ahistorical and rape invoking. The metaphor cheapens the struggles of Females to shatter the glass ceiling in the workplace by suggesting that the right to sexual access to Females is on par with the struggle for equality in the workplace. The metaphor suggests that Females are a barrier to be broken, or that Females owe some obligation to “penetrate” the veil of Transgender Women’s underwear (God, I wish I was making this up). Lesbians and Feminists also object to the metaphor because it suggests that Lesbians (i.e., Female homosexuals) need to open themselves sexually to Transgender women in to demonstrate that we are “good” Transgender allies. Consequently, the metaphor dictates that Lesbians are bigots for not wanting to consider sex with male-bodied persons.
March 24, 2012
Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (MichFest)
Guest Post by Amynomene
My first exposure to the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival was, unfortunately, in relation to the infamous womon-born-womon intention controversy. It was probably 10 years ago, and Bitch magazine had an article that laid out the issue. At the time, I was something of a baby feminist: I had a vague sense of unfairness toward those of my sex but no knowledge of feminist history, waves, theories, or famous feminists other than Gloria Steinem. I had even less of an idea about queer theory or the postmodernism that was eating the academic establishment from the inside out.
Without any other knowledge about the situation, or even about Fest itself, I intuitively understood there is something specific that happens to females who grow up in this society and live as women because they are female. If these women wanted to gather for a week to hash that out–great. On the other hand, I related to the trans experience in that I never felt comfortable in my own body, either. Society was always telling me to be one way, and I wanted to be another. But I didn’t, and still don’t, understand why people of one distinct experience would be fighting tooth and nail to claim that it was exactly the same as another group’s. Subsuming one’s experience under the umbrella of another’s seemed offensive to my American-style respect for everyone’s unique roots. And, after all, they’re just talking about one week in the woods, right?
Oh, I had so much to learn. Over the next five years, I came out of the closet, to many yawns and shrugs. In 2009, I found myself unemployed and idly surfing when I came across a radical feminist blog. I read the entire archive over the next two weeks. That blog led me to others. Before I knew it, my eyes were opened to the truth of the world around me. I couldn’t not see it anymore even if I tried. read more »
March 20, 2012
Slave and the Free (Holdfast Part 2)
Part 1 covered Book 1 (Walk to the End of the World) and Book 2 (Motherlines)
Book 3 – The Furies (1994)
For some, this is the least popular book, for others, the most powerful of the series. Charnas has said in interviews, this was the most difficult book of the series to write, and took the longest (over 15 years):
“One reason THE FURIES took so long to write was that I wanted to skip over the harshest part — an actual war, or more properly a slave-revolt, of the “fems” against their male masters — and go right to a better life for all;….. just as so many women with feminist ideals wish desperately to be able to “skip” the harshest part in reality, the part where we seem to have the most to lose, and the most to suffer, the part where we demand full recognition of our humanity, and do whatever it takes to get it.”
March 18, 2012
The ‘Pomo’ Backlash: Looking at Feminism in the Aftermath of Postmodernism (Part 2)
Guest post by Maggie H.
[This is part two of a two part post. Read part one here.]
There is an over-emphasis on discourse and domination of ‘language’ in postmodern feminist works; this frequently fails to address the central issue of structural male domination over women. There is validity in linking language with power. However, radical feminists have explained where the ‘master narrative’ lies; it is not in women’s accounts of their life experiences. The voices of the oppressed ought not to be deconstructed. It is men who have privilege and the power of naming in a patriarchy (Daly, 1979; Dworkin, 1979), and men like Foucault or Derrida are no exception.
Structural male dominance should adequately be addressed; but Jane Flax (in Thinking Fragments; 1990), for example, would rather use the terms ‘gender’ and ‘gender relations’ than male dominance. She makes the absurd claim that there is a need to find what gender relations ‘really are’, while gender continues to be constructed and enforced by a male-supremacist context. She remains obscure on the reality of sex hierarchy in a gendered society where men dominate women. There is notable reluctance, in Flax’s work, to seriously name the agent for women’s oppression, i.e. men. read more »
March 15, 2012
The “Born This Way” Political Tactic: What’s Next?
Around the time of the discovery of the AIDS virus in the very early 1980s, the Gay (and Lesbian) community adopted the ideology of homosexuality as innate; Gay (and Lesbian) people were born this way ergo they could not be “fixed”, it wasn’t their “fault” and AIDS could not be a punishment from God if the theist belief of being “made in His image“ were to hold.
It was politically expedient at the time, and quite intuitive really, to claim a biological basis for homosexuality when the AIDS pandemic itself was, and continues to be, a biological disaster. An innate homosexuality also allowed people close to Gays (and Lesbians), especially mothers, to absolve themselves of any *wrong doing* and instead build a platform from which they could advocate for their children, fathers (and mothers), brothers (and sisters), husbands (and wives) as full human beings with full human/medical rights. Even though it soon became clear that AIDS was not limited to Gays – an early acronym was GRID/Gay-Related Immune Deficiency – Liberal-minded people felt good about themselves, rising above the dictates of an increasingly conservative society to stand by this newly visible class of marginalized, segregated and vilified people. Many, many eyes were opened to the realities of Gay (and Lesbian) life but with a heavy emphasis on the oppressions of the “lifestyle” most commonly expressed as: Who would CHOOSE to be homosexual in a world so hostile to Gays?
March 11, 2012
Big Porn Inc
Big Porn Inc is a book of articles on pornography, many of which are written from a radical feminist perspective. The book was edited by two well known Australian feminists Abigail Bray and Melinda Tankard Reist and published by Spinifex Press. This post is my personal reaction to reading this book. Please be advised that this post contains graphic descriptions of rape.
March 9, 2012
Southern Poverty Law Center Names Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) as Hate Group
– Cross-posted with permission from Radfem News Service –
In its latest quarterly publication “The Year in Hate and Extremism” (Issue 45, Spring 2012) the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, names Men’s Rights Activists as a hate group, citing the MRAs’ — alternately known as “Father’s Rights Activists” — virulent misogyny, spreading of false anti-woman propaganda and applauding and even encouraging acts of domestic terrorism and extreme violence against women and children, up to and including murder. In the same issue, the SPLC reports on the activities of other hate groups with headlines such as Georgia Militia Members to be Tried Later this Year in Movement’s Latest Murder Plot; Son of Holocaust Memorial Shooter Discusses Family History of Racial Hate; and Animal Rights Extremist Camille Marino Calls for Violence.
March 8, 2012
The ‘Pomo’ Backlash: Looking at Feminism in the Aftermath of Postmodernism (Part 1)
Guest post by Maggie H.
Poststructuralism, also referred to as postmodernism (1), has been majorly influential on recent feminist theory, especially within the context of Academia. This is an analysis and a critical assessment of postmodern ‘feminism’ from my own radical lesbian feminist standpoint. I will first highlight some key issues coming from the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970’s (i.e. background on feminism, as it looked like before postmodernism). I will then look at the academic feminist theoretical postmodernist turn of recent years, and later point out to Queer culture as an offshoot of postmodernism. I will also explain why postmodernism is seriously antithetical to the goal to eradicate the oppression of women, and conclude with hope for resistance. This essay is also the result of a research into postmodern feminism that I had been doing for University. Here, I analyse some postmodern ‘feminist’ works.
March 4, 2012
SLAVE AND THE FREE : (Holdfast Part 1)
Books in review; Some thoughts on the story of a speculative ultimate ‘War to End All Wars’ –
the War Between the Sexes.The Holdfast Chronicles, is an epic saga of a post-apocalyptic future told in four sequential novels written by Suzy McKee Charnas:
WALK TO THE END OF THE WORLD (1974)
MOTHERLINES (1978)
THE FURIES (1994)
THE CONQUEROR’S CHILD (1999)
THE SLAVE AND THE FREE :
(a 90′s reprint omnibus edition of Books 1 and 2)
March 2, 2012
Joss Whedon and Jean-Paul Sartre: The Wanker Phallosophers
– FROM THE ARCHIVES –
Phallosopher contemplating his meaningless existence, and how deep his meaninglessness is.
Ok, so I’m currently thinking a lot about the episode of Firefly, Objects in Space. This was the last episode of the TV series before production was stopped. And as such it became one of the most important to the fans of the series. Now I did want to talk about the racism of this particular episode. And I will. I will be focusing particularly on the construction of lust, both in this episode, and in the series as a whole. But first I wanted to talk a little about male philosophy as Wank.
Joss Whedon really loves Wank. That is basically the moral of this episode Objects in Space. I will be referring to Joss Whedon as a Phallosopher throughout this entry. I envisage Phallosophers to encompass all the Great Male Phallosophers throughout the ages. From Aristotle to Camus to Sartre to Whedon. Phallosophy is characterised by self-obsession, misogyny, and a disturbing, yet relentless tendency to produce Wank. Phallosophers are generally Bores. Now, what is common to most Phallosophers is their acute susceptibility to Male Artist Syndrome, as theorized very superbly by Dissenter:
February 27, 2012
A few thoughts on love within a hierarchal and patriarchal context.
“Warming Her Pearls” by Carol Anne Duffy (Poet Laureate)
In this beautiful poem about love between women, the affection, as far as we know, is unrequited. The maid loves her mistress, we do not know if her mistress reciprocates. But there is something in the power imbalance between the two, that tends to be found in many situations where romantic love ignites between individuals. I think we love people who most epitomise our ideal lifestyle and who, we think could, by association, grant it to us. The truth is harsher; because it is precisely by denying ease of living to others, that one class acquires an abundance of it themselves.
