Nov
28
Leadup to “What is Radical Feminism?”
Filed Under Feminism
All right… so about a year ago I found that strangely enough, I was bored on the internet. Riffling through my mind as to where I might go that would be new and interesting, I recalled and settled on the site Alternet, an alternative news service. There on the front page was a row of columnists, one of whom was Mad Melancholic Feminista, providing a blog post on the Greek System and its detrimental effects on women. Not only did I really enjoy her post, but her blog served as a gateway to the feminist world of blogging. I’ve been reading and “traveling” through it, mostly as an incredibly shy lurker ever since. To this day I muse how that line of thought and those few clicks has set me on an incredible path.
As I’ve said before, I’ve always considered myself a feminist. My interests are constantly waxing and waning and I am sad to say that consistency is not my strong point. Before stumbling into the feminist blogosphere, I had gravitated towards being one of those people who says “I’m not a feminist, I’m a humanist.” Though I never articulated it in this manner, I had come to believe that focusing on feminism was such a narrow thing to do when there are so many other ills in the world. As you can see, I am in the waxing stage and I’ve realized that I was being rather foolish in that line of thought.
And though I did a ton of reading in high school on feminism, it really only scratched the surface. Hell, at the time I never even knew there were different schools of feminist thought. And despite reading Twisty’s and many other feminist blogs for the past year and loving every word of it, (growling in rage not mutally exclusive) I only actually became more than dimly aware of the schools of thought a few months ago. Someone ought to give me an award for fine tuned perception.
The breakdown was in my sociology textbook and I seemed to fall into the category of radical feminist. Except the sociology text’s definition seemed rather simplistic, which led me to ask “Is this really what radical feminism is about?” and “Am I a radical feminist?” I also found myself identifying heavily with Marxist feminism, but didn’t see why the two couldn’t be integrated. The explanation on Multicultural/Black feminism and its argument that radical feminism doesn’t have answers to the problems of women of color really piqued my curiosity. I’d like to think that radical feminism does answer them, and my instinct is to say that it does. Of course, that’s probably incredibly presumptuous and ignorant on my part and I’m probably another one of those white feminists that women of color rightfully take issue with. (I hope to rectify that and deepen my understanding further.)
So really…. in the end, I’m very much a novice on the deeper issues of feminism, as well as racism and homophobia. And I suppose that’s in part what this blog is about. Trying to weather the awkward phase (or am I fooling myself to think we ever get past this..?) by creating an out loud dialog with myself while yeah, BIG MOTIVE IN ALL MY BLOGS – polishing my writing skillz, as they make me horribly insecure. (Which means that consequently I rarely make an effort to connect with the communities that discuss these issues.)
And I use a lot of parentheses.
It annoys me.
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11 Responses to “Leadup to “What is Radical Feminism?””
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Just found my way back to this site.
I’m glad you’re posting again. Not that I’m doing much publicly on the web, but I’m glad to have a way to keep in touch with you.
As for the blog:
Novice-schmovice. You should really congratulate yourself on your open mind. If you ask me, you’re more radical than many “more radical” than yourself simply because you question yourself. Nothing is more conservative than someone who thinks they know everything, especially one who uses their ‘knowledge’ to judge someone.
Awkward phases: I’ll let you know if I’m ever over mine.
Heya,
Don’t know if you ever got my response emails to you. I got some error back the first time I responded to your response.
Oh well… I still feel like a total novice. I’m trying to be more aware of racism, but some of this stuff I read from people of color just completely confuses me. Sometimes I feel like a dog chasing its tail.
I don’t have much confidence in my opinions any more and I find that I can’t pick out the subtleties and the wrongs in counter arguments made to me. They just confuse me. I used to feel a lot sharper, but maybe that was when I thought I knew everything.
In the end, the things I write just embarass me. Uplifting enough yet?
Thanks a ton for the comment.
The Parenthetical Movement would be sad to hear you’re annoyed by the use of its members.
But I’m happy to have found you again. I missed you! I think about you every foggy morning on my way into work. The blue lights that line the airstrip barely break the dark and fog; a soft and eerie light just hovers above the ground. When it looks like that, I wish someone could take a picture, which makes me think of you. I’m not quite sure why, but it was very important inside my head to let you know that.
I agree with red. Questioning yourself, what you learn, how you learn it, and why it matters, is difficult and deserves recognition. There aren’t many people in the world who do that. At the risk of sounding like a bad fortune cookie, time has tempered my need to know the answers, but not my need to ask the questions.
To start with your last point, you shouldn’t be insecure about your writing. Your prose and vocabulary far outpace that of your peer group. Your use of parenthesis are abundant yet appropriate as you interject personal notes amongst a more formal dialog.
As far as feminism, I really haven’t looked much into the topic. Hence, your allusions to specific ideas are lost on me because of my lack of background. However, many of the arguments I’ve heard for feminism appear to be the search for a skapegoat on which to cast the blame for problems. I can understand and sometimes agree with arguments I’ve heard, but this isn’t a one directional issue. In fact, it’s surprising that there isn’t a loud masculanist movement considering many of the unfair expectations and biases against men. I myself wouldn’t subscribe to any such group, but it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to consider its existance. Consider education.
Before feminist movements, males had the large share of educational attention, and had higher scores on average than women. The feminist movement has swung the pendulum in the complete opposite direction, where women are outpacing their male components in academia (at least in early education through high school).
Don’t misunderstand the purpose of the statement; the fact that women are performing better in school is an excellent and laudable fact. I’m simply pointing out that there is always injustice and there are always biases, and you must be very careful about which fights you pick.
As you said in your entry, there are so many things wrong with the world, feminism does seem like a narrow focused issue. It’s a real issue (as is, perhaps to a lesser extent, “masculanism”), but is it as bold as the pursuit of more impactful issues such as the World Bank and its impositions on 3rd world countries? Or modern colonialism? Environmental impact and sustainability? Poverty and starvation? Worldwide disease?
Anyway, just some thoughts. A rebuttal is welcome!
Hey Tiv!!! Thank you for the comment, I really appreciate it. How did you find me?? And thank you for thinking about me….. I think about you too. I hope everything is well.
Will you and Nunny be playing WoW again with any regularity or did he re-up his account for only a bit? Have you been playing/enjoying LOTRO?
Perhaps the parentheses are fine…. I just get nervous that people will get annoyed with them interrupting the flow of what I’m saying. Self conscious about my writing as usual.
Jason -
I think you meant well with what you said… as such, I think for now I’ll hold on to the (so far) 2 page rebuttal I’ve written until I’ve cooled off for a bit. But until then, I just wanted to say….
A big problem is the idea that women are “special interest.” We’re not. We’re roughly half the world’s population. This is part of patriarchal ideology – that issues that effect men are important issues, while issues that effect women are peripheral, “special” and generally ignored. This springs from the pervasive idea that man is default and woman is “other” and part of the reason a person can honestly ponder the idea that standing up for women’s rights is not “bold” enough, not “impactful” enough, or that it’s “too narrow.” What makes standing up for a woman, a human being, and the issues she faces in particular, any damn less urgent than standing up for the environment or poverty? Apologies if I seem combative here, but that idea just really frustrates me. As well, as a side note, if we’re speaking of poverty I can probably make a very good case that it’s women who bear the brunt of the negative effects of poverty worldwide.
P.S. I appreciate your compliments on my writing.
I don’t get to edit many “human” stories at work. So when a piece on forced hysterectomies in Uzbekistan was in front of me, I called the author and asked all kinds of questions (it was near to my heart, not very long after I returned to work). He was surprised (and a little flattered) at my interest, and startled when I asked, “Wouldn’t you want to know more about a country that cut the balls off its men as a form of birth control?” (That’s related to the women-as-a-special-interest comment. Give me warning if you’re going to venture to women in the Middle East, Central/South Asia, and NE Africa, though, so I can prepare my arsenal of information.)
Whether we’ll play or not–we aren’t sure. He’s got 3 co-workers on Area 52, so we may try it there a while. People complain about how crowded it is, but…I can run through Ironforge, during prime time, AND click on auctioneers without negotiating a crowd piled on top of them. And the co-workers are set up in a big ol’ guild with PvP teams, raiding groups, and people who sit and gossip all day. It seems okay right now. LOTRO is fun. But I paid for a lifetime membership, so it doesn’t feel terribly urgent to play, if that makes sense.
How I found you? I’ve had it bookmarked. I’m smurt lahk that. And really, check my company’s website. Send me an e-mail if you need the website or more info. They do more than war and defense stuff!
Heya. This is Choyrt from CoF. Honestly, feminism was a footnote for me in college and after school I went into the ARMY. I would hardly consider myself a viable source. However I’ve seen a thing or two and have a bunch of questions myself.
First off, relax about your writing. Mine is clearly worse. Me posting here makes your writing shine all the more.
Secondly, what is radical Feminism to you. What are your goals as an individual and as a woman in regards to sexual strife? How should the world change? Describe how this is ‘radical?’ Is it radical in regards to common reason or in regards to accepted social norms?
I don’t mean to sound like the old patronizer that I am, but I was once very passionate about homophobia and racism. I used to publicly speak in support of the gay community and the very biological foundation of homosexuality. And with the racism bit, I used to attend white rallies in South Florida. With my mustache, everyone thought I was KKK.
I guess something occured to me though. These people I fought against were merely retarded. They really were, and they effected the world in smaller ways than you’d expect. The more press I gave the KKK, the more empowered they were. The more I argued with the homophobe, the more they felt like they were onto something. Some people have just got to be dicks for some reason, despite the hard facts otherwise.
But that is all different to feminism I suspect. In fact, if sexism isn’t conflicted against I suspect it would strength.
So, again, what are your goals? What should change in the world? You recognize the wrong. Many do. So what happens now?
Wow, sorry about the bold there. I suck at HTML. C-
Tiv – I guess I’m just surprised that with the lack of activity on the site for what must be at least 2 years, anyone who knows me would find their way back here. I have a draft email to you saved, I just got done with finals week so it should find it’s way out of my outbox soon!
The story you mentioned on Uzbekistan sounds rather horrific… What is interesting is I recently read about the idea that feminists define reproductive rights too narrowly – not taking into account things like forced sterilizations as in the article, and considering the right to reproduce just as important as the right to have a choice.
If you go to Area 52 do you plan on transferring characters or leveling up new characters there?
Choyrt –
Well, I think that’s what the post I write in connection to this one will answer. I want to try to define radical feminism, but also in doing so I want to identify where I stand in terms of it. And the “radical” in radical feminism pretty much means “to get to the root.”
I find this a really interesting observation, and I agree with you. BUT I think my agreement comes from the idea that people are becoming more aware of racism the world over as opposed to issues concerning women’s rights. My perception says (and sometimes positively shrieks) that this statement is true. People of color say that this is completely false. As well, people derisively call this kind of thing “oppression olympics.” I’m trying to work through this belief of mine, but so far it has been pretty difficult.
While I think anyone would agree with you that people of KKK and Phelps ilk are positively deluded and have a few screws loose, I think that it can obscure the way that racism has taken on much subtler forms. (On the other hand, homophobia seems to be everywhere.) I know that I personally need to work on this. While I see things everyday that scream SEXISM!!! to me, I think that the subtler things about race skitter across my consciousness and never really sink in. Doesn’t mean it’s not out there in both cultural and institutional forms. =/
PS: I fixed your bolding.
I checked back once in a while to see what was going on. When I saw the new posts and stuff, I thought I’d drop you a line.
A little story for you to file away…I’m still trying to figure out what it means for me, and my views on what’s acceptable and what isn’t.
After surgery, when the doctor said I was okay for sex again, it was uncomfortable. And I bled a bit afterwards. I called the nurse’s line at the doctors’ office (24/7, someone on staff to answer a patient’s most personal questions!). The nice nurse told me that after a hysterectomy, some scarring was normal. And basically, that sex would just be uncomfortable for…ever.
I think in my mind, I accepted that as “punishment” for…I don’t know what. Heriditary cancer? Taking a month off work to tend to myself? Putting everyone around me through the task of caring for me?
When I went for my one-year checkup (there have been many, many in between), she said I was, finally, fully healed. And now she could take care of the scar tissue. Wha huh? Take care of it? But the nurse said that was normal….
I’ve never seen my doctor so angry. She asked if there had been problems, and I explained…her reply had something to do with a man who had discomfort during and bleeding after sex and the entire world stopping to prevent that from EVER happening again, and WOMEN were gynecologists now, and there was no need, EVER, for ANYTHING other than pleasureable sex.
(As a note, it’s hard to argue when you’re laying down and your feet are in stirrups…)
And so, after a few months, I won’t have scar tissue any more.
It made me ask myself some pretty uncomfortable questions, though, like why I never told Nunny it wasn’t enjoyable. Or why I accepted that for the rest of my life, not-fun sex was okay. Or why I’d really think there was NOTHING that could be done about scar tissue. I felt betrayed by the medical field, by myself, and by my upbringing. Why did I accept that as a tolerable result?
You seem to have forgotten that sex is for making babies – the enjoyment aspect is reserved for men! Ok, sorry, that was the sarcastic comment aimed at certain segments of society that crept into my head on reading this. BTW, can I have your doctor’s number??
Your post brought to mind the way sex seems to be defined from a het perspective – as PIV, which last I read 75% of women can not orgasm from. As well, the ending of sex is when the man has come. Not to say that individual couples maintain these definitions, but I think that’s the general message we receive.
But then, I’m looking at this having come from a born again Christian upbringing, where sex didn’t exist unless in the context of marriage. And forget about being educated about it or making smart decisions. My mother freaked when she found birth control in my bathroom cabinet last year… I can definitely relate to having to ask many uncomfortable questions of myself along the same lines. Trying to work through it has not been pretty.
I’m really glad that you have an awesome doctor who’s aware of these issues and is taking the time to make sure you’ll be able to have pleasurable sex again. And really, why shouldn’t you? But I understand how easy that question is to ask until you run into all the things going on inside your head. (In my own experience.)