Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2012-07-01 03:19 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2012-07-01 03:19 pm
[ SECRET POST #2007 ]
⌈ Secret Post #2007 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.
__________________________________________________
02.
__________________________________________________
03.
__________________________________________________
04.
__________________________________________________
05.
__________________________________________________
06.
__________________________________________________
07.
__________________________________________________
08.
__________________________________________________
09.
__________________________________________________
10.
__________________________________________________
11.
__________________________________________________
12.
__________________________________________________
13.
__________________________________________________
14.
__________________________________________________
15.
__________________________________________________
16.
__________________________________________________
17.
__________________________________________________
18.
__________________________________________________
19.
__________________________________________________
20.
__________________________________________________
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 111 secrets from Secret Submission Post #287.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ], [ 1 - text secret ], [ 1 - empty image ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
no subject
That makes me pretty uncomfortable. I have no problem with people identifying as radical feminists and believing a whole slew of things, but I don't like the idea that people automatically fall under the label. I think people have some really good reasons for not wanting to be associated with the label because of some of the extremists and their bigotry (especially their rampant transmisogyny.)
no subject
no subject
A commenter above claimed that a "radical feminist" is anyone who believes there is a patriarchy, though. And I don't quite agree with that. I think there's a bit more to radical feminism than just thinking the playing field is uneven. I'm not going to try to define it, as it's been about ten years since I was seriously involved and it was contentious even then. But I will say that the radical feminists I've known tended to have clusters of opinions on certain things. Most were anti-pornography and believed sex work is inherently demeaning to women (some called the thing they were fighting "pornstitution," but not all, and I don't want to impute that to everyone as I think the two issues can't be so easily conflated and I don't want to attack any straw women here!) Many were suspicious of "sex positive" feminists and many were either anti-BDSM or at least very leery of kink, concerned that it involved internalizing oppression (especially given that there's a lot of female submission to men.) And, to their shame, many radical feminists I've spoken to are transphobic. They analyze gender as something imposed from without - a system deprivileging what is deemed female - so they don't believe that gender is a matter of identity. Many bristle at the term "cisgender" and feel that trans people, especially trans women who they see as men, are "co-opting" feminism in the same way that men often try to co-opt women's space.
My other deep disagreement with radical feminists as I have known them is the focus on false consciousness or internalized misogyny. I saw this idea leveled at people as a weapon, and it really bothered me. I certainly think that it's good to consider our preferences, desires, thoughts, and situation carefully, especially when there may be pernicious influences. But all too often I saw that used in a way that deeply bogged people down in doubt and shame. So I tend to be uncomfortable with people who "get to the root" -- it's very easy to fall prey to the temptation of saying that what you've found at "the root" conflicts with the identity, self-conception, wants, needs, etc. of someone whose opinions you dislike.
That doesn't make all radical feminists guilty of the above things. Far from it. And even those who are or have been guilty of those things have done a lot for women. I don't think we as a culture would be anywhere near as aware of domestic violence as we are if not for people like Dworkin and MacKinnon, as deeply as I disagree with them. And I may be misrecalling this as it's been many years, but I believe Audre Lorde identified as a radical feminist as well -- and any movement that had Audre Lorde in it can't have been a total loss!
Anyway, I hope I've satisfied you that I'm aware that "words mean things," even if we deeply disagree about the value or even the meaning of radical feminism in the present day. I'd appreciate some acknowledgment that my own words "mean things," too.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject