A lot of people learn that men and women should have different roles in this world in order to create “balance” and, therefore, end up with this idea that feminism is not only “anti-man” but “anti-woman” because it’s “against” femininity (or masculinity). If you think that masculine and feminine gender roles are not only innate but good, then you’re likely to see critiques of those gender roles as attacking actual males and females, rather than attacking those socialized roles and behaviours, as well as the hierarchy that is attached to said roles. This leads women to say things like “No, I’m not a feminist, I love being a woman” because they believe their womanhood is attached to a subordinate gender role which they have been told is not only natural, but empowering.
This is a clip from Jackson Katz documentary Tough Guise.
and if don’t conform to these genders norms…you can call yourself a woman, and be praised for maintaining harmful sterotypes.
Just because a man fails to live up the standards of masculinity doesn’t mean he should be in the ‘woman box’. A man who is considered a ‘failed man’ by his peers or himself is not a woman because he doesn’t fit or rejects masculinity.
The problem with liberal “equality” feminism is that it sees femininity and masculinity as morally neutral, natural alignments. Created equal. Just two sets of behaviors and expectations, and the real problem is just that people are restricted to one of these at a time when they should be free to ~play with gender~.
There’s no acknowledgment that the expectations and trappings of femininity are intended to turn their adherent into an object, while masculinity is about empowerment, grooming an oppressive class. They’re not created equal!
Femininity is about restricting movement, mandatory time and money investments into ever-changing beauty rituals, being small and subservient and accommodating. It’s literally about becoming a decoration. The fact that men don’t have as much access to a clearly oppressive role is not the problem here! The fact that they are being taught violence and to repress their humanity in order to subjugate women, over whom they are told they are inherently superior, is definitely more of a problem!
Essentializing gender as morally neutral instead of the framework through which women’s oppression is carried out is the worst possible thing for feminism.
The culture of violence has been normalized in modern society. You could credit it to the obsession with glorifying masculinity, where the only way to gain respect or power is by a show of force. Masculinity has always been about aggression- it’s not about some yin/yang energy balance between the sexes. It’s about teaching boys & men to value violence & aggression as a tool of dominance and control. Femininity on the other hand is the complimentary teaching of submissiveness to girls & women. It is mean to hurt us so we are valued for our appearances. We are expected to perform emotional labour, accepting your role as a caretaker and emotional dumping ground- those are strenuous, taxing tasks. We are expected to give up our careers- our independence- to raise families, to have children, to raise these children, as if it is our responsibility, our jobs. We were not born to be mothers, to be care takers. We can take the world for ourselves, and we should not be held down by the expectations of men and our mothers. We are more, we can be more.
The number one defining characteristic of masculinity is hating women.
As long as a dude hates women, it doesn’t matter whether he’s rich, poor, religious, atheist, gay, straight, bisexual, a drag queen, gender queer, or anything else. He’s still gender-conforming, because he hates women, and that’s all it takes.
Since y’all are so focused on sex based oppression, that means we can’t talk about gender based oppressions right? We can’t talk about rape culture, since it has nothing to do with biology but rather has to do with the way women are viewed as weak sex objects for the male gaze. We can’t talk about the wage gap, since that has to do with women being viewed as less valuable and intelligent, which is also not rooted in our biology. What about sexual slavery and sex work as a last resort? Catcalling? Sexual harassment at work? Domestic violence? Hate crimes?
None of these oppressions are based on what biologically happens to women but rather how women are perceived based on our gender role. ALL of these things also affect trans women, often to a greater percentage per population than cis women.
I’ll wait. ☕️
Hi there!
Radical feminist philosophy does not acknowledge a distinction between gender and sex; sex is a biological reality whereas gender/gender roles are the social expectations people are subjected to based on their sex. The use of gender roles as a social and political tool for subjugating women is well-documented in radical feminist literature.
Rape culture is not, as you say, “the way women are viewed as weak sex objects for the male gaze”; the male gaze and the act of viewing women as sex objects is discussed as a part of rape culture, but the concept of rape culture as a whole relates back to the use of women’s bodies for their reproductive capacity.
Similarly, the wage gap has nothing “to do with women being viewed as less valuable and intelligent”; the assumption that women’s contributions to the workforce are less valuable than men’s may be a piece of the puzzle but the existence of the wage gap is part of a larger social trend designed to keep women economically dependent on men. This, too, relates back to the use of women’s reproductive capacity as a resource.
If you’re interested in learning more I would recommend starting with Adrienne Rich’s essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” as it’s one of the more popular/easily accessible pieces. You can read a PDF here. I would recommend the whole thing, of course, but what you’re specifically talking about is covered starting in Section II; it’s going to be page 12 of the PDF but labeled as 641 in the book.
Specifically, Rich talks about the oppression of women as being rooted in using our reproductive capacity as a social/economic resource (sex-based oppression) and the correlations between this and sexual violence (rape culture), economic oppression (wage gap), intersections of sex and class (sexual violence in the workplace; survival sex work) etc. I would also recommend reading all of the material she references but that may be more work than you’re willing to do here if all you’re looking for is a basic explanation.
TL;DR: Radical feminist philosophy posits that “gender-based oppression” is a tool used to reinforce the use of women (as a class) by men (as a class) as a means of labor production due to women’s biology. This is sex-based oppression.
As for the experiences of trans women, my understanding of the philosophy is that the experience of this oppression is either rooted in erroneously reading trans women as female-sexed, or in sociopolitical backlash for being GNC and therefore threatening the hierarchy. Someone else could probably address that better than me, though.
For real, OP??
~ “Feminism: A Beginner’s Guide”, by Sally Scholz.
Why do these asshole think they are smart when they are really dumb and think males are more oppressed than women?
“can you explain why radical feminism doesn’t includes males in all of these issues that it addresses in terms of female oppression?” lmao
I know they list all the things that happens as a result of sex based oppression. They think that sex based oppression ends a reproductive issues.
They don’t have a clue that sex based oppression is the starting point.
If they considered why discrimination against women is referred to as sexism or misogyny they might figure it out by themself.
Ps. man/males who want to to wear feminine clothes or call themselves women or take on the roles assigned to women are not more oppressed than women. You can fuck right off with that assertion.
men CHOOSE to perform femininity. females are coerced into it because we are female. this seems to be the major point of misunderstanding for most of these “gender based oppression exists and sex based doesn’t!!!” assholes
Men/males get a choice as to whether the adopt a feminine persona or not.
Women are punished no matter what we do and we can’t opt in or out.
When a mass shooting occurs, we talk about gun control and mental health issues, but we never talk about toxic masculinity or male violence. Women have access to guns. Women suffer from mental health issues. So what’s the difference? Why can’t we talk about it in those terms?
seeing a lot of transmisogyny and violence against trans ladys on my dash tonight. everybody best stop hurting my friends or I will take some direct action to you,first by educating you with my words,then if that doesn’t work,I have other means
You are aware that threatening with a weapon is considered a crime, and premeditation, correct?
Thank you for your confession that you intend to commit violence via assault weapon. I’ve screen-capped this post, so if you do decide to pull an Elliot Roger, you’ll be in for a lifetime of soap on a rope, and you know the Silvia Riviera Law Project won’t do a damn thing to help you out, weirdo.
You’re just another silly white boy who likes to act tough because he doesn’t like when girls say no to him, but your whole schtick might be more convincing if you didn’t look like you were trying to keep from shitting yourself in church.
White boys are fucking weird.
“she has a gun and opposes my hateful beloefs so she’s a white nationalist, oh also let me misgender her” lmao
That’s a white dude with a gun, just like every other white dude with a gun (the UCSB shooter, the Aurora Shooter, the other white men with guns who murder people, the Columbine shooters). He acts like a dude, talks like a dude, waves his dick-compensation around like a dude, threatens women like a dude—- if it looks, walks, eats, shits and quacks like a duck, it’s probably not a fucking moose.
“She” has a gun and threatened to murder women for disagreeing with him and has written about their white supremacist views on their blog, and you expect me to respect his pronouns?
Oh boy, you must be on something strong.
HE’S A WHITE DUDE !!!
Who looks like muppet.
This guy again?
Nice motorcycle poster bruh
I think he deleted his blog but the evidence is still be reblogged. This big tough man who threatens women online also likes to wear school girl’s uniform. (he should grow up women don’t wear that shit).
I don’t know why but he looks like the kind of guy whose name is Ernie. What do you think?
ps. I love you new banner it suits you.
Nope still here. also my name never has been or will be ernie. still out here for the defense of women from violence so I don’t know what your talking about. Also my school girl uniform was for FUN! good god no one is allowed to have fun! i have plenty of other normal everyday wear that is atypically female. Assuming things only makes you look silly
Thank you for giving yourself away Ernie.
“still out here for the defense of women from violence”
What violence? women aren’t the ones who are the threat that would be men/males like you.
“Also my school girl uniform was for FUN!”
Yeah I bet
“i have plenty of other normal everyday wear that is atypically female.”
Ok then, thanks for confirming you live in ‘boy mode‘ most of the time. I could already tell that was the case.
yes actually defending against male violence,there is a ton of it out there if you hadn’t noticed. oh and about being in the closet sorry that I don’t have the privilege to live as I would like because my parents are Mormon and I live under their dominion because I was kicked out of my college for being bisexual among other things.
Still doesn’t explain why you were threatening women for being radfems (terfs). Your male socialisation is obvious and you still have male privilege even if you can’t wear your school girl’s uniform outside.
“yes actually defending against male violence”
You aren’t helping. The ‘good guy with a gun‘ hero complex does not help the situation. It is male egotism.
“there is a ton of it out there if you hadn’t noticed.”
*side eyes you* no shit
Posting these photos online and threatening women online is not keeping it secret.
I never threatened anyone for being a terf. I threatened those who commit physical violence against transwomen. And how do you suggest we solve the problem of male proprieted violence then? Also when did I ever claim to not have male privilege, i am totally aware of this.
You originally tagged this with with ‘terf‘ so yes you did.
“I threatened those who commit physical violence against transwomen”
How’s that been working out for you?
“And how do you suggest we solve the problem of male proprieted violence then?”
Less male bravado, less weapons in male hands and much more respect for women would be nice. So the macho man act is not helping even if you wear kawaii things.
We would like for women to talk about this among ourselves without male interference.
“Also when did I ever claim to not have male privilege, i am totally aware of this.”
I don’t think you do. Going on about how unfair it is you can’t wear feminine clothes outside, posing with guns online to threaten women online and calling feminine clothes ‘female‘ clothes gave away how clueless you are.
Celtyradfem 