Listen there’s no argument of “rape/abuse fantasies, even if they’re exclusively fantasies, are disgusting and you are disgusting for having them” that doesn’t turn directly in radfem rhetoric.
The idea that it’s your responsibility as a feminist to police all your thoughts and private sexual expression (which I would strongly argue appropriately tagged and archived fiction/art is) in order to avoid harming feminism and Be A Good Woman is radfem. There is no way around it.
If your taste in fiction/fantasies necessarily correlates to your personal politics and morals, then it makes sense to ensure that yours and others fantasies line up with your politics and morals. It becomes a form of protecting yourself, a subset of activism in its own right. And all of a sudden we’ve looped straight back around to policing women’s sexual thoughts for The Good Of Society.
The moment you start shaming and forbidding fantasies on the basis of morality, you’re about ¾ of the way to radfem.
So radfem is respectability politics?
hmmm. Not especially ‘radical’.
tw: misgendering, transphobia.
When radfems use the word “radical” they are not using it in the general political sense of having an extremely different point of view, they are using it from the sense of believing that the root of all the world’s troubles is sexism/misogyny. (”radical” as derived from “radix”, meaning root) and that therefore if you eradicate all vestiges of sexism and misogyny (including from your own heart and mind) the world will therefore be Perfect and so will you. In this ideology (evolved among academic upper-class white women in the 70s and 80s, and largely unchanged since then) there is no room for intersectionalism, for the oppressions of racism, classism, ableism, or queerphobia (other than lesbophobia). (lesbianism, being by, for, and about women, is ideologically congruent with their beliefs, and hatred of lesbians can be boiled down to “people hating women and hating that they don’t depend on men,” but other forms of hatred of LGBTQ+ people can’t really be acknowledged because first you would have to acknowledge that isms other than sexism exist, and that it is possible for men to be oppressed.)
Radfems did some wonderful theoretical work in the 70s and 80s. They really did provide the theoretical foundation for a lot of our understandings of sex, gender, and oppression. However, they proved more interested in putting themselves at the top of the hierarchy than in dismantling it, because they chose not to acknowledge other oppressions than the one they themselves faced, and so did not listen to their sisters of color and of lower class, or who were in any way different than themselves, and so they didn’t and do not accept responsibility for the ways in which they contribute to the oppression of others. And they are willing to join with ultra-conservative Evangelical groups to enact and enforce laws that fit their ideology. Radfems believe that they are the ultimate arbiters of feminism, and that therefore any woman who does not agree with them is either deluded about the patriarchy or consciously participating in her own oppression. Therefore, they have the right and the duty to tell other women what they can and should think and do.
For example: they did some really EXCELLENT theoretical work on the exploitation of women inherent in the sex industry, both pornography and prostitution. About the ways in which our culture devalues women’s bodies and uses them as articles of consumption for men. Well and good. But when women who work in the sex industry, both porn stars and prostitutes, point out their limited economic choices and why they and women like them don’t always have better options, radfems do not listen. To a radfem, a woman in the sex industry is either a blameless victim, or an oppressor who betrays your own people. Because of this, not only have radfems endorsed laws created by the Religious Right (blech), they have doxxed sex workers and former sex workers who publicly disagree with them. Including at least one case where a radfem sent a woman’s current location to her former pimp. This is why radfems are sometimes called SWERFs, Sex-Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminists.
Also, radfems got the ball rolling in the 70s and 80s talking about gender and how we should abolish gender roles. But they also believe that men/males are the root of all evil. Therefore, any transman is betraying their sisters by joining the oppressive patriarchy, and any transwoman is a “man” who is trying to infiltrate women’s spaces. Thus radfems have doxxed transpeople, signed on to bathroom bills, consistently deadname and misgender them, and done a variety of other transphobic things. This is why radfems are sometimes called TERFs, Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists.
But yes, a whole heaping helping of respectability politics, just with THEM as the ultimate arbiters of what “respectable” (or rather, “a good feminist”) looks like.
This is a great summary of radical feminism and how it turns into anti-kink, SWERFs, TERFs, and exclusionism in general.
lesbians and bi/pan women are so drawn to the cottagecore/naturecore/grandmacore aesthetic because in a society where women are expected to perform for men constantly and make themselves available to men, the fantasy of living with another woman in a home away from the patriarchal expectations and demands of normal society and a long break from the eyes of men who they’ve felt as slaves to their entire lives. in this essay i will
in Alabama, Amendment 2 would restrict abortion rights, completely banning it if Roe v. Wade is overturned, which is now likely.
in Arkansas, Issue 2 would disenfranchise voters by requiring photo ID.
in Florida, Amendment 5 would make it much harder to raise taxes.
in Louisiana, Amendment 1 would ban people with felony records who’ve served their time from running for office for 5 years, even if their offense was just e.g. marijuana possession.
in Oregon, Measure 105 would repeal its sanctuary state law protecting immigrants, and Measure 106 would restrict abortion rights by banning public funds from being spent on abortions.
in West Virginia, Amendment 1 would completely ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned, which is now likely.
in Arkansas, Issue 5 would raise the minimum wage to $11.
in California, Prop 2 would fund housing for the homeless, and Prop 10 would allow local rent control.
in Colorado, Amendment A would fucking ban slavery as punishment for a crime. (yes, that’s a real thing.) Amendments Y and Z would hopefully limit gerrymandering. Amendment 73 would tax the rich to pay for education. Proposition 111 would crack down on predatory payday loans.
in Florida, Amendment 4 would restore voting rights to people with felony records who’ve served their time, and Amendment 9 would ban offshore drilling (and also vaping in the workplace, because Florida is weird).
in Idaho, Proposition 2 would expand Medicaid eligibility.
in Maine, Question 1 would fund a universal home-care program for disabled people and older adults.
in Maryland, Question 2 would allow election-day voter registration.
in Massachusetts, Question 3 would protect the state’s transgender anti-discrimination law which is under attack. (it’s not good that this question is on the ballot, but you do need to vote YES on it.)
in Michigan, Proposal 1 would legalize recreational marijuana, and Proposal 3 would strengthen voting rights by instituting automatic voter registration, expanding absentee voting, pushing back deadlines, and more.
in Missouri, Amendment 2, Amendment 3, and Proposition C would all legalize medical marijuana (but they’d tax it different amounts and use the taxes for different things — you be the judge). Amendment 1 would make reforms to lobbying, campaign finance, and redistricting, and Proposition B would raise the minimum wage to $12.
in Montana, I-185 would expand Medicaid eligibility.
in Nebraska, Initiative 427 would expand Medicaid eligibility.
in Nevada, Question 5 would allow automatic voter registration, and Question 6 would require renewable energy.
in North Dakota, Measure 3 would legalize recreational marijuana and expunge existing marijuana convictions.
in Ohio, Issue 1 would downgrade drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors and provide for some criminal justice reforms.
in Utah, Proposition 2 would legalize medical marijuana, and Proposition 3 would expand Medicaid eligibility.
in Washington, Initiative 940 would train cops not to murder people, and Initiative 1631 would charge polluters a fee on carbon emissions and fund environmental programs.
the outcomes of these and other important initiatives will be determined at the ballot box. you can make a direct impact on these issues in your state by doing your research and voting.
can’t vote? search for an organization supporting (or opposing) the initiative you care about, and consider donating your time or money to help them out. even just letting your friends and family know about it can help.
(please note that i’m not an expert on all of these initiatives. you may conclude for example that one of them sounds good, but isn’t implemented well so you can’t support it. that’s fine! but now you know what’s going on in your state and can have your say, and that’s a good thing.)
ugh 